Ancestor Worship during Chinese New Year

For many Chinese families, the New year is not just for a celebrations of family reunions but also the occasion to pay respects to one's ancestors (拜祖先）. Our family is no different. While busy with preparations for the New Year, we are also busy getting the various things required for the ancestral worship to be conducted on New Year's Eve (除夕) and on the Second Day of the New Year (年初二).

Besides the offerings of food which includes three types of meat (三生）, tea, wine, sticky rice cake （年糕）and mandarin oranges (柑橘), there are also two types of paper offerings. Preparing them is like doing origami :-) 

One of the paper offering is for the Spirits of the Earth （土地神）

while the other type is  for the ancestors.....

There are only six pieces of the paper offerings for the Spirits of the Earth. Here is how I folded them ....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For the ancestors, one has to prepare a lot more but they are rather simple to make. We normally prepare about two large bags and here is how we folded the paper into gold and silver ingots....

 

 

 

 

 

We are all ready for the ancestral worship tomorrow (New Year's Eve).

中 元 節 / Ghost Festival

This month is the celebration for 中 元 節 (Ghost Festival) and today is 農曆七月十五日 (the 15th Day of the Seventh Lunar Month). The seventh lunar month in the Chinese Calendar is commonly known in English as the Ghost Month and 農曆七月十五日 (15th Day of the Seventh Lunar Month) is the high point of this month long festival.

The previous Sunday, my brother and I went to the tombs of our grandmother, father and uncle for the ancestor worship ceremonies. Traditionally we do not go on the 15th Day of the Seventh Lunar Month as it can get very crowded. Strangely, the tomb ceremony is not universal to the Chinese who practise ancestor worship but appears to be a Hakka tradition. In Sarawak, this event is mainly in Kuching and amongst Kuchingites who moved to other parts of the state.

Today at home, the ceremony is for all the ancestors of the family and for those whose tombs we cannot or have not visited. My grandfather, on his way to visit his family in China, died at sea off Macau at the start of WWII. His first wife also died in China. So today's ceremony at home is mainly dedicated to them.