Funeral

It's a sad day. Grandma's funeral just ended and I'm forced to go back teaching, followed by dinner in Yuen restaurant which leaves me totally no time to write in this blog. Now I'm finally able to spare out some time after taking one day rest for Friday. Anyway, here it comes...

First day of the funeral:

Waiting for the undertaker,
what to do now?



I'll leave this part as a continue from last title (Rest in peace, grandma) which was written while the whole family was waiting the undertaker to arrive (Rest in peace, grandma). After the arrival of the undertaker, everyone gets busy. The first thing is that we'll need to cover up every single thing that have a shining surface (window, door, painting, etc) with white paper or white cotton. Though I didn't know much why there's such rule, but Chinese tradition rules are always weird and incomprehensible anyway.

The first day ends after we put grandma into the coffin, set up some basic stuff such as the tent outside the house, the place to 插香 and the candles. In the night, before they leave the place, they ask told us that the 香 and the candle must keep burning and should never be extinguish. Now the trouble arise: Who's going to do this? Everyone is so tired and needs some rest. Further more this is a job in the night. Out of sudden, everyone looked at me... Yeah yeah, I know I'm a night cat, so okay I'll take the job!

Well it sure sounds easy. All I need to do is just replace the 香 and the candles when it almost extinguishes. But could you image that in the middle of the night, walk down stair alone, with the "na mor or li thor fo (repeats until no battery)" being sing by the small radio next to the coffin, and a corpse in it... Anyway I was able to accomplish the job by just thinking that grandma would do me a favour by not disturbing me (silly eh, isn't it).

Second and third day of the funeral:
Here's where all the things really begins. Nothing much happened through the day, except that there's some people coming to *see* grandma for the last time. People starts to gather up in the night (so many people), even my aunties from my mother's side also came! One of my rich cousin (somewhat far distance) hired some monk to do a prayer. This is really the first time for me to listen to a prayer that isn't from a radio. How to say, it is hard to describe, those prayer calms your heart, makes you felt that death is something everyone had to accept. Well that's for the first prayer, the second, third, and all the prayer on the next day are from the nun that provided along the service.

One thing about the prayer is that it is so long! And 3 times for the whole night! During the prayer everyone are to hold a 香 and sit on a ground. When the prayer starts, we are to sit there and wait for the 香 to be totally extinguish (else the prayer won't stop until then). I guess it would be rude to say this is boring, but AHH! My legs are totally numb after these prayers!







On the left: The "Bak Kam" collector.
On the right: The schedule of the whole funeral, undertaker now days damn efficient!

The forth day of the funeral:
Today is the day to move the coffin to the graveyard, everyone are to wake up early in the morning, have some breakfast and prepares for all the things required (the picture on the left is the music player for the funeral, their music is much much louder than any school band). First is the prayers (again), followed by the sealing of the coffin, then prayers (more). After we are done with all the things, we are to 送 grandma for the last *road*. We walked all the way from my house to Jalan Gasing (outside Raju restaurant). Along the way everyone (neighbourhood, customer in Raju, people around, etc) was looking at us (embarrassing...)! Even all the cars along the road also siam away (suddenly felt so noble...)! My sis even tell me that: "Now even 老佛爷 also must give way!". We then change the transport from foot to bus after passing the Raju restaurant.

After we reached the graveyard, we had another round of prayers, then followed by the moving of the coffin to the grave (next to my passed grandpa). When the coffin are being moved we are asked to turn around not to look at it (the photos on the left and right). After the coffin are moved into position, we are to give our final prayer to grandma, grab some soil and toss it into the hole (represents "rest in peace in the soil"), cross over a fire pit, and wash the face with some flower water (represents "wash away the bad things"). We went home after these.

When reached home, they've already taken down all the white paper and cotton (bloody efficent)! We are asked to wear red shirts to *ong* up the place! Oh yeah, we are finally able to wash our hair! We arn't allowed to wash our hair for the pass 2 days due to some unknown reason...

And here ends the whole funeral. Here I wish my grandma may found grandpa in heaven, 保佑 her childrens and grandcildrens (cucu cicir) in heaven, and may her rest in peace in heaven!