living life: rewind. part 1 of 2

ok, so i finally got the photos!

this was taken at an ipoh cave attraction, whose name i can't recall (cny 2008)

great-grandfather's grave. it's on a hilly ground. rather interesting (having not witnessed, much less attempted before), the offering of things to those who passed away. first, must pray at the cemetery hall. involves thin and thick joss sticks. 3 thin ones for every joss stick urn you see. plus, there's red wax candles on wooden sticks which also have to be offered.

next, there's the offering of food, such as fruits, to the deities. must be arranged neatly on a plate used specially for offerings. for your ancestor's grave, there's a lot of things to do as well. let's say the tomb is rather large, like a 2 x 2 metres altar complete with walls by the side. there's this drainage from the side where you can pour water into and it flows into the ground of the tomb. it's meant to wash the place. basically, just clean up the area.

get the candles and large joss sticks out and offer. the smaller, normal-sized versions need to be in the ground surrounding the coffin, in pairs. take out the food as well. after you offer the beverage of choice to your ancestor (in a cup), you need to pour a portion of it over the breadth of the grass area where the ancestor is buried in, 3 times.

for burning of hell notes or other luxury items, there's the metal barrels meant to burn the paper in. after all that, you need to throw the - what do you call that - the pair of wooden slices which look like potato wedges and hope for a favourable response from the above, a sign that he or she has received the offering and is content. need to have one landing on its side and one on its bottom. may use coins as substitutes (1 head 1 tail).