Friday 10 April 2009

Festival of the DEAD

Im proud to be chinese , I love my culture and tradiditon but I don't like to be labeled as typical Ah Moi cause im definetely NOT !

Last weekend i went back to Penang , cause my great grandma ( we call her Ah Chor ) needs help for Cheng Meng Festival..My late grandpa used to help her every year..cleaning the old graves,cutting the grass and stuff like that.But now since he's no longer here , there's no one else to lend a helping hand..My great grandma has 5 children..2 sons and 3 daughters including my late Grandma..her eldest son ( my great uncle is no longer here ) Her second daughter lives KL , my grandma also no longer here..Third Daughter ( has alot of 'Pantang's So she wont get herself involved in this kinda thing ) Youngest and remaining Son is a Pure Christian...SO WHO ELSE IS LEFT TO HELP?


Its just some simple stuff basically..Ah chor asked if me and my sisters would like to help and of course its an honour to do so...I mean its our long dead ancestors graves...Jesse cant make it this year cause she's working..So its just me and Jolene..So my uncle came to pick us up that day..Ah Chor insisted to come as well..She's almost in tears again when she says it was really so nice of u to offer to help..cause it reminds her of my late grandpa...Sigh...

This is my wonderful Ah Chor....


This is the first grave that we went..It was My great great grandfather and his two wives.. Its a big one..and Ah chor told me that they imported a specially made tombstone all the way from China...So we used to be super rich back in the old days ! Not bad eh...
This is all we need to do even though i don't quite understand what its for......chinese tradition...biasa lah...

This time its My Ah Chor's father's grave..He died young in 1936..he was just 36 years old when he had a heart failure..Ah Chor told us that its because he's 'kuat berjoli' haha...He used to work for a car company..So back then during the old times,it was only the upper class who gets to ride in car..So my Ah Chor was very lucky cause her father use to bring them around in car..This is a very old grave so there's wild grass growing all around it..and since we did not bring any tools..we payed this uncle who works there to cleans it up..At first he wanted to charge us rm50 for the service but after 10 minutes of bargaining he took rm30 and thats it
Sometimes i pity these old folks who are still working so hard at their age..well,money makes the world goes round..

I love to hear stories about the old days..i really wish i could dig up all those stories because without the past there will be no present..Penang is such an old place and its such a waste when developers knock down all the old colonial buildings..I guess people just don't care anymore because all they can think of is how to make money..I used to argue with my mum about this matter..and she said if everyone is like me..there will be no development..and everyone is just living in the past..She's right but i still DISAGREE...

Last but not guess who's the photographer of the day....jeng jeng jeng
My pain in the ass sister..Jolene haha...love you !

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