Qing Ming Festival (清明）

On the 8th of April, we went to the temple to pray to my great-grandfather. He has already passed away and his spirit lies in the temple in Upper East Coast road. My grandmother came along too, bringing hell notes and paper models with her. She bundled them up in three bags and brought them to the temple to 'give' them to her father.

When we got there, it was nearly going to rain. We parked our car and headed to the 2nd floor where the holy tablets were placed. We offered him fruits, drinks, as well as tea leaves. We then went in front of his tablet and prayed to him. We then went down to burn the offerings. At first, dad lit up three matchsticks at a time and put them near the first bag. The bag started to crackle and crumple. Then he lit the other two bags by using four matchsticks each and throwing them into the bag. When you observe closely, you can see grey smoke steaming out of the bags. Then, it turned to a wild inferno. The flames were burning every paper offering in its way.

After a few minutes, the bags reduced to burnt and black ashes. The whole furnace turned black due to the extreme heat. When the process was taking place, my father devoured some wild fruits from a plant near the furnace. I was wondering," You Don't Know What It Is And You Are Eating It?!" My grandma said that the spirit of great-grandpa had by now 'enjoyed' the food and we can go back and collect it back.

We went to the temple to pray to the holy gods of Heaven. But when we got there, there was no one around to sell the coils! So we prayed bare-handed and put some money for donations to the temple. There was a container of sweets. We helped ourselves to some sweets for blessings.

I would like to go to the temple again to pray to him.




清明时节雨纷纷， 路上行人欲断魂。
借问酒家何处有？ 牧童遥指杏花村。

--（塘）杜牧