Wednesday 21 August 2013

Labu Batu 8 New Village Hungry Ghosts Festival with MP of Rasah

I Went to a Phor Thor (Hungry Ghost festival) function with MP of Rasah last night in Batu 8 Labu. In Seremban, there are about 50 over Phor Thor functions and most of it are by invitation only.

YB Teo Kok Seong was invited to give out chiffon cakes and other food items sponsored by the locals there. 


From left to right 
: Wong Thim Choy, Elvin Lee, Nicole Tan, village leader, YB Teo Kok Seong, Lee, villager, villager and Ah Poh (our Labu comrade)
 
The Hungry Ghost Festival (Phor Thor in Malaysia) is a traditional Chinese festival celebrated by Chinese in many countries.

In Chinese tradition, the 15th day of the 7th month in the lunar calendar (Ghost Month) is called Ghost Day, in which ghosts and spirits, including those of the deceased ancestors, come out from the lower realm to visit the living !! This is quite different from both the Qingming Festival (in spring) and Chung Yeung Festival (in autumn) in which living descendants pay respects to their deceased ancestors.

On the 15th day, the gate between realms of Heaven and Hell and the realm of the living are open. Both Taoists and Buddhists would perform rituals to absolve the sufferings of the deceased (presumably, the ones in Heaven, oops sorry, I mean Hell). I am reminded about the joke of which one guy said he when he dies, he prefers to go to Hell as all his friends are there.

The religious festivities includes ancestor worship, like preparing ritualistic food offerings, burning incense, and burning joss paper, a papier-mâché form of material items or effigies such as clothes, gold and other fine goods for the visiting spirits of the ancestors. For the Hungry Ghosts festival, even the younger generation are being worshipped as distinguished from Qingming.

Elaborate meals (often vegetarian meals) would be served with empty seats for each of the deceased in the family treating the deceased as if they are still living.

Other festivities include, releasing miniature paper boats and lanterns on water, which signifies giving directions to the lost ghosts and spirits of the ancestors and other deities.

In Malaysia today, live concert-like performances are held and everyone is invited to attend. The first row of seats are always left empty for the ghosts to sit. The shows are always in the  night and at high volumes as the sound is believed to attract and please the ghosts.

Those live burlesque shows are popularly known as 'Koh-tai' by Hokkien-speaking people for "Merry-making". I remember once, a medium spoke on behalf of Hades (God of Hell) that he doesn’t like watching all these burlesque shows. The show went ahead as the organisers said that if  Hades doesn’t like it then the worshippers can still enjoy ! This is a far cry from those days of  which Chinese Opera was performed.






Then : Chinese Opera for Hungry Ghosts 


Sexy Dancers for Hungry Ghosts

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