Little wonder why one of my dear pal's fav festival is Qing(1) Ming(2).
Today, went to pay respects to grandparents & ma. The car queue snaked for more than 500m from the entrance of Pek San Theng & Bright Hill Temple. Hundreds of ppl, young & old, carrying colorful bulky bags of paper money and heavy baskets of braised chicken and roast meats shuffled along, under the sweltering heat. Trudging across the muddy fields and then the cemented walkways, some groups were jovial while others were grim-faced. But once inside the compounds, everyone intently lit joss-sticks and spontaneously filled the whole hall with smoky incense. Sweaty faces and stinging eyes, the beads of perspiration mixed with rolling drops of salty tears. *blink blink*, *wipe wipe*, joss sticks raised high up in the air, heat-emitting bodies navigated within the crowd that snaked between rows of tables overflowing with rice, wine, candles, fruits and food offerings... it's one chaotic, humbling, family-bonding experience that I hope, many generations of descendents on, it'd still be faithfully practiced.
According to dad, already now (just one generation away), many things had changed. Last time, big extended families of easily 20 pax used to load onto lorries before dawn, lugging whole roast pigs plus other offerings, and make their way up hills to burial grounds. The youngest ones would always have the 'honour' of lugging the whole roast pig up the hill. which would then be shared between all after prayers were done with. It was always one big, noisy family affair - to teach the young to remember their ancestors, to "yin(2) shui(3) si(1) yuan(1)"...
Today, there were no pigs to share. Instead, our group of 9 pax went to Peach Garden @ Thomson. A great place for nice dim sum and zi(2) cha(4). A tad expensive. But worth it.
Till next year for the stinging eyes and smoky air again.
2 comments:
upon reading the line "pay respects to grandparents & ma" in your entry, it reminded me of my Daddy. Not sure if u feel it this way but I'm always v envious when pple my age(or older) have both Daddy & Mummy. I used to envy pple with grandparents coz i lost both sets of grandparents when I was still v young. Now, I envy pple with parents. So, when a coll who's 1 yr older than me mentioned abt her grandpa & grandma, I was like.... 2 days ago, another coll who's almost 50, said her mum & dad blah blah blah.. I was shocked. So, I asked if she's the 1st child of her parents. She's not.. That means, her older siblings are in their 50s now.. & they have both Daddy & Mummy!!!! Oh, I was overwhelmed with envious feeling...
I guess, this is the feeling kids in single parent family get when they hear of others in a complete family. Do u get it? I still dream of my Daddy now & then...I'm sure u dream of ur Mummy too...
Well, I won't use the word "envious". I'd feel some pain in my heart (guess it'd never ever go away totally), but it will end off (most of the time) with a genuine feeling of thankful-ness and grateful-ness for having had great times when she was still around, plus a silent promise to be as "guai" as she would want me to be.
Life, like it or not, moves on I guess.
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