OUR JOURNEY: Qing Ming!

"WARNING, some pictures taken for this write up might not be suitable for some CPS ( Chinese Pantang Society) hardcore believers but hey, they are my ancestors and I think they have better sense of humor than you know, the OTHERS so chill the F out, enjoy the pix yah!"

Buying some of dads favourite food, Char Kuey Teow, Chicken Rice, Loh Mai Kai and Char Siew Pau

Qing Ming - The Day we express Filial Piety..

Taken from the web:

Dads Favourite Mc Donalds Fillet-O-Fish

An Introduction to Qing MIng Festival

One of the most important festival in the Chinese calendar is the Qing Ming or Tomb Sweeping Day.

The concept of filial piety or obedience to one's elderly or ancestors is a very important concept in the Chinese culture. Traditionally, the Chinese believed that the spirits of deceased ancestors will look after the family even when they are gone.

Hence. offering of food and spirit money could keep them happy in the spiritual world, and in turn, the living family will continue to prosper through good harvests and more children from the ancestor's blessing.

Till today, this is still a very important cultural concept for the Chinese.The ancestor's altar or photo is commonly found in the family home and offerings and incence is always provided.

Once a year, during Qing Ming, the Chinese visit their family graves to tend to any underbrush and weeds that has grown out of hand around the grave. Weeds are pulled, dirt swept away and joss sticks, food and paper money is offered to the departed.

This year's Qing Ming or Tomb Sweeping day falls on April 6. Generally, a week before and two weeks after Qing Ming is acceptable to honor the ancestors at the temples, grave site or crematoriums. This is also a practical measure as these places will be utterly packed during Qing Ming and to spread the prayer days out makes a lot of practical sense.

Some nice hand welded Indian Flowers

Qing Ming is also known to the Kwai Lo's as "ALL SOULS DAY". Traditionally we used to celebrate this day with the whole family. We're talking about Grandpa's 10 children plus their children and some of their children's children. Its a whole big family affair. To be exact, it occurs 104 days after Winter Solstice (which incidentally tends to fall around Dec 22nd or at least it has been doing that for the past few years).

And off we go!

Driving into Chin Foot Sze temple has always been kinda eerie!

In those days, there was much to prepare and granpa would always want to go on the exact date. On this day, everyone takes off work and all kids no need to go for classes. We chinese people belief that worshipping and taking care of the ancestors ensures a safe and smooth passage for the future of our generations.

These are the REAL graves, the hardcore ones, the ones where we forgot where all the ancesters were located.....if only we had GPS systems when we were 12.

It was pretty fun jungle trekking when we were young

The preparations used to be an all out family affair. The night before, everyone will gather in the Damansara Utama house to fold golden nuggets to be burnt the next day. In the morning, each adult will be given the task to buy some of the favorite food of the ancestors and the all time favorite, the sugar cane! We loved this sugar cane thingy, using our teeth only, we ripped apart the outer layer of the sugar cane and to chew on the juicy inside part. We will chew on the sugar cane and spit out the remains onto the graves of our ancestors.

If my memory serves me correct, our great grand father is somewhere around here....i think

Because even the land for the dead is getting more expensive, they came up with Apartment block kinda arrangements

Only grandpa remembered where all the graves were at. After Grandpa passed away, the tradition was lost, the family just fell apart, each brother went on their separate ways to live life with their immediate family's only. Only a handful of the BIG family still meets up regularly for dinner but it sure wasn't as fun as it used to be.

Everyone buys something to offer the ancestors..

It was a FULL HOUSE on that day

Now the Qing Ming celebration is organized by Ginny, one of Daddy's cousin. She makes the effort to gather the family every year without fail for this occasion. She will organize the treasure chest to be burnt for the ancestors with pre-folded golden nugget in it and an assortment of items like clothing, money, handphone and stuff like that. No more family gatherings the night before to pre-pack the golden nuggets, no more taking special days off to ensure we pray to the ancestors on the exact Qing Ming day and no more SUGAR CANE chewing coz we dont know where the tombs of our ancestors are!

The Gated community that Dad and grandpa is in is kinda NOICE

There we go, Offerings to the Ancestors..

The food on the table is crazy!

Now, my father, your grand-father, my grandfather, your great grandfather and great grand mother have been moved into what we call now a gated community in Chin Foot Sze temple. The ashes of our ancestors are kept in an urn and placed in a much cleaner environment, and free from contamination of weeds, the sun, rain and vandalism. The outdoor graves are prone to these kinda things, now we have gated community akkakakak.

Some of grandfathers favourite fruits

And there he is, my handsome father, your grandfather Jr

My grandma ( whom i dont remember much of coz she passed on when i was 2 ) and My very Patient Grandfather

Uncle Danny who recently passed away is on the same precint

After some adjustments to the flowers

This is what we MUST do!

When you grow up, I want you to take the lead to bring ALL your siblings and if you can gather your cousins to follow up on the whole Qing Ming thing. Recognize these urns and pictures and make sure you do the whole Qing Ming thingy. Your Grandad, my father would be so happy to see you.

Thats your cousin Brandon.....

This is uncle Zen

These are more of our relatives...

Uncle Ken and your cousin Trinny

There is the normal chinese taboo created by the Chinese Pantang Society (CPS) that one who is pregnant should not attend funerals or cemeteries but hey, Your grandfather, your great grandfather, your grandmother are all there, I dont think they will let any souls harm you laaaa....

The pre-packed boxes of gold nuggests, baju and stuff...

Thats all for Qing Ming. Keep the tradition, always remember that our ancestors are the reason we are here today, so taking a day off to pay respects to them aint such a difficult thing so make sure you remember ya.