1st official day of funeral

30 June 2011, Thursday

I woke up at about 11am . My mum and bro were still asleep , and my dad was missing in action . After I went to brush up , my mum and bro woke up too and we went to eat breakfast together . As there was no mode of transport available , we have to walk to the coffee shop right at the front of the street , but when we reached there , the coffee shop was already preparing to close . This is what it is like in Malaysia , only 早起的鸟儿又虫吃 。

The lucky thing was that , we saw our relative who was driving a car and she's on the way to my aunt's house too . That saved us from walking all the way to my aunt's house under the scorching sun . By the time we reached , many of my relatives were already there and as for me , I sat down and ate sea coconut dessert . Not long after , my dad and his siblings came back . They went to take a look and chose a place for my aunt's urn to be placed . They reserved 2 places . One was for my aunt , the other is for Ah Fa's uncle . That was my aunt's last few wishes , for Ah Fa's uncle urn to be placed beside hers in the future .

After lunch , I continued burning incense paper for quite awhile until my cousin came back from school . My bro and I have this agreement: to bluff my cousins and told them we started burning since 8 am so that they won't have any excuse to push the job back to us . Oh well , in the end my sis spoiled it .

At 3 pm , we have to change to a plain white tee to prepared for the ritual and at about 5 pm , the ritual started . At first , I was wearing a pants which covers up to my knees when I'm standing , my after the 1 part of the ritual , I went to borrow a 3 quarter pants from my cousin and wore it instead . The pants I was wearing initially didn't cover up my knees when I kneed down , and it hurts a lot . The ritual was divided into many small parts , and after each part , we could take a rest before the next one started .

The 2nd part of the ritual was after we ate our dinner . The priests read/sang out the names of who took part in the ritual in Hakka . There were a lot of names to read/sang and I couldn't understand up to 99% of it . We were supposed to sit down and wait till the priests finished reading/singing the names . It was boring at first , until the priests stopped suddenly , TRYING TO FIGURE OUT HOW TO READ ONE OF THE NAMES . The situation at that time was quite a joke . Those who took part in the ritual were relatives and siblings with status equal to or younger than lue lue aunt . Those whom status were older or greater than lue lue aunt could not take part , for example: lue lue aunt's elder brother and sisters .

After the 2nd part , I couldn't really remember some of the parts . I could only remember the significant ones .

There was one part when we were supposed to tie a red and white ribbons around our waists . They called it “戴孝” When we were in the process of tying those ribbons , the priest said called ah fa uncle to tie it on the dogs too . After ah fa uncle went off to tie the ribbons on the dogs , my 表哥 posed a funny question "那些鸡需不需要绑？" .

I heard from my cousins that one of the priest even called the chicken to "shut up" because the chicken kept on making a lot of noise when he was chanting .

For one of the parts , one of the priests wore an old man mask and acted like an old man . The role he was acting is called the "哭宝" That part was also one of the longest part . The 哭宝 was walking in front of the priest and the priest was chanting , but halfway through the priest stopped to cough and the rest of the priests actually helped to cover by continuing his lines for him . However , the fact was that the priest wasn't really coughing . He coughed to cover up his laughter . My cousin actually saw the priest kicking the 哭宝's backside and was laughing after that . Most of us couldn't see what was happening as they were behind a huge table .

Next, we have to run after a priest and the 哭宝 . I heard from my mum that they would run very fast and we would chase until we start panting . However , as they were too many people taking in the ritual , and quite a few aunties uncles blocking the way , it seemed like the priest and the 哭宝 were chasing after me instead . They were right behind me in a circle . I heard that the purpose of chasing was to chase after my aunt's soul .

I forgot to mention that my aunt was only 46 years old , and one of her last wishes were for her funeral to be treated as if she had married to Ah Fa uncle . So at the corridor , there were this 2 big signs which put “蘆门李氏” . "蘆" is Ah Fa uncle's surname and 李 was my aunt's surname .

After chasing , it was the "哭宝" turn to show off his ability . He was supposed to chant in a way that it seemed like he was crying . For that part , my aunts and some other people cried because they were able to understand what he was chanting . My cousins , siblings and I didn't really understand what he was chanting , so we were feeling very normal . I knew this part was going to happen also because my 婶婶 told me . My mum told me that we might find it funny . Initially , I only found it weird , but not funny . Suddenly , my bro tapped me on my shoulder and asked me to look at my 婶婶 . She was laughing . After I saw her laughing , I felt like laughing too , but I tried to suppress it .
We went to find out the meaning the next day from another older cousin of mine .

It meant something like
你为什么那么早就走了，你应该还有20多年的。你的姐姐很想你。

That was all I could remember .

Before the 哭宝 part ended , each of us was to collect one cup of rice with 20sen inside it . We were supposed to keep the 20sen and bring the rice back home to mix it with the rest of the rice we have at home , and eat it .

Another very memorable part was "招魂" . We were supposed to call lue lue aunt to come home , then the priest would throw a bunch of coins on to the floor to see if she came back or not . This part almost made me cried . It was the first time I was calling lue lue aunt's name after her death . As I was supposed to call , and tried to hold back my tears at the same time , I ended up breaking a sentence into many parts . This was how I call, "luelue 姑姑，" paused for quite a while , "回家咯" and kept on repeating .. Cuiling aunt was spamming "Luelue 回家咯" beside me . We've called many times but she still refused to come home , even the priests were shaking their heads . On the 3rd time , they got my grandmother to sit beside . I didn't dare to look at her cos I knew that she was crying . It was the fourth time when we succeeded in calling her back .

During the breaks , my cousins , siblings and I would sit around one table . The waiter & waitress would serve us food such as bao and siew mai . After eating bao and siew mai , we would start munching on peanuts and throughout the whole ritual , we have finished munching on many packets of peanuts . Even the waitress commented that we really munched on a lot of peanuts . Sitting together means chatting would take place , however we were chatting about serious stuff , but dirty stuff . ALL BECAUSE OF MY COUSIN . It seemed like for every thing we talked abt , she would be able to link it to those dirty topics , but it was super funny . For a moment , I thought that we were having a gathering instead of attending funeral .

Burning of the incense papers , paper bungalow , mercedes benz , maids and chauffeur was the last 2nd part of the ritual . We brought all those stuff to the main road and burned there . I carried 2 bags of folded incense paper , while the rest carried the bungalow , mercedes benz , maids , chauffeur , horse and rider and many many bags of folded incense paper . The mercedez benz was the last to reach and it was kinda funny when the priest said that to park the car at the backyard . The backyard referred to the back of the bungalow . (There were car plate number and unit number on the car and bungalow , and of cos , almost all of the adults bet on it)

We poured all the folded incense paper around the bungalow , car and etc so that it would burn easily . After we were done setting up , all of us hold hands and formed a very big circle . The priest said that that was to prevent other ghosts from stealing . Before they started burning the whole thing , the priest had to "开光" for the Mohammed Ali . "Mohammed Ali" refers to the paper chauffeur . I have no idea why they called chauffeur "Mohammed Ali".

This was what he chanted when he "开光" for the Mohammed Ali
"你要听听话话，听你主人婆的话。叫你去东，你不要去西，叫你去南你不要去北。青灯过，红灯不要过。是要过，中summon 自己还。不然打包回家吃自己"
*Direct translation from Hakka*

We were laughing when we heard this . What an interesting way to "开光" . After the priest 开光, they started burning . We walked quite a far distance away from the big fire as the heat was unbearable . After burning , we went back to the house , and continued the last part of the ritual . It was about 2 am at that time .

For the last part of the ritual , one of the priest will chant a chunk of words and up to a point , we must shout "有钱!" and threw a coin into a big container with water in it . I've asked my dad what was the purpose of it and he said it was to help my aunt "开路" . Sort of bribe the "officials" in hell to ensure a smooth journey for her . We were supposed to repeat the whole procedure 12 times . That means , the priest chanted the same thing for 12 consecutive times .