Tuesday, November 03, 2009

Love You, Grandma... :'(


Grandma's funeral. Taoist ritual. My first experience. I got into cultural, spiritual and mental shock. I've never seen all those rituals. Every morning when we reached, we have to greet grandma by burning a joss stick and put it in the ... seriously there are many things that I do not know how to describe..
Saturday was Grandma's lunar birthday. Celebrated with a cake and some food....
The paper-made bungalow arrived on Saturday evening.
It was complete with maids, a trishaw and a Mercedes Benz. Very nice handy work indeed.
Hell notes were burnt around the clock... those who came had to help fold the notes for Sunday nite... many people were busy folding tonnes and tonnes of hell notes...
The paper lady in black was a replica of grandma and the other two were the maid-servant and man-servant. That was the last ritual on Monday morning.
That's what we had to do since the first nite. Kneel down and followed the nuns chanting in front. A lot of walking around the coffin. I don't feel like describing the ritual... there were perfomances, dancing around the tables and then one of my cousins had to chase after the fast-running nun after that.There were 3 roasted pigs as offering... and another 2 the next morning...
The paper house was burnt together with the folded hell notes around midnite on Sunday. We had to hold hands and make a large circle and started moving in circles. The circle should not be broken but I broke the circle. I left a huge gap there enough for two elephants. I'm sorry. I just couldn't follow everything to the dot.
In less than 5 minutes...
Last time seeing grandma... it was a heart-wrenching moment.
The last rite... according to hierachy in the family...
That's not StarWalk...
At the cemetery... instead of 6 feet deep, grandma's was 12 feet deep. I asked why and why and why but nobody answered me.

PS. When I die, I want to be cremated and my ashes thrown into the sea. I want a white coffin.

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