A Celebration of the Past

CNY, Day 8 ~ 9
The Hokkien Big Celebration

I only arrived at Jon's place at 1030pm because I had to put Thea to sleep. I wasn't going to let her miss her rest since both of us had came down with flu. Because Jon & Paul's hasn't picked a guardian angel for themselves, I agreed to 'loan' my guardian angel to them, which means that hubby, Thea and I had to 'fix' ourselves during the time when guardian angel was not around. Because I had to go to Jon's house to pray anyway, I had hubby pick guardian angel up to come home to accompany our sleeping princess while hubby and I headed back to Jon's place to assist in the preparation of the CNY 9th Day prayer.

Fireworks that greeted us shortly after our arrival. :)

Preparations for the prayer

Scattering 'gold paper' a.k.a. heavenly cash in front of the porch to be lit up after prayers.

Offerings to the Gods/Heavens

Everybody lighting up the joss sticks for prayers after 12am.

This is dad's very2 old friend - uncle Lou Kam. He was tasked to light up the firecrackers.
Oh yes, please ignore the 'NO PARKING' sign. ;p

The 'gold money' being burnt as 'offerings' to the Gods/Heavens.

My family celebrates this 9th Day prayer in a very elaborated way since I was a little girl. Friends would come by our house on the 8th Day night annually to dine with us and then join us in our prayer followed by supper which would consist of freshly cut roasted pork, duck, chicken, fish and etc. Yes, it is enough to feed an entire village. To prepare for this event is no joke, because there are lots to prepare (obviously!). Since no guardian angels around to assist, I offered myself as 'ah sei' a.k.a. guardian angel for the night albeit the flu! ;p

There was soooo much food that we had to pack and give away to our guests (to be honest, this itself is a yearly ritual too). Everybody keeps saying, "aiyoooo, so much food! so much food!" and Paul was like, "you wanna take back? you wanna take back?". Both her fridges were stuffed with food even from the eve of CNY! So you can imagine!

And I had not done so much cleaning for a long time. Thankfully, some guests helped and Jon had 2 male workers from the office to assist too. Without these 2 guardian angels, I think Paul and I would have fainted. Where were the guys (as in hubby, Jon, Bee & dad)?!? Oh, they were all drinking and gambling away. :-s

To be honest, I do not understand why this celebration still exists. Long ago as I understood it, we give gratitude to the heavens for 'saving' the Hokkien clan because they were able to escape from their enermies by hiding themselves in a sugarcane plantation. I don't know how long ago this happened, but this year is already 2010. Why are we still celebrating that day? So much has evolved since then! Why not celebrate (without the josssticks, the burning, the firecrackers, the candles and extra food for prayers - seriously, some loving thoughts and actions for Mother Nature?) the gratitude and appreciation for what we already have NOW? The past has gone, the future doesn't exist and what we have, is actually just this present 'Now', yes?

I was surprised when one of dad's friend also highlighted to dad that this kind of celebration is history, he said, "Dom, it's history! Let's celebrate just for the sake of having a party and enjoy ourselves because the only thing we have now is the present!!" Apparently, he is a Maoist. First time I heard it. What he explained is also similar to what I believe - live in the present. :) Kudos Uncle Jimmy!!