Today, without us really realizing is already the 100th day since my dad passed away. According to Chinese tradition, prayers will usually be done on the 7th and 100th day after the death. So since we don't really pray at home, mum and I went to the temple to do so this evening.
Bought some flowers to be 'given'.You know, superstition is a funny thing. We Chinese believe that the dead will come talk to us in our dreams if they want to send a message. And usually it will happen on more important days. For instance, I did dream about my dad on the 7th day after his death. We believe that it was him telling us that he is already gone. Today, mum told me that she dreamed of him last night. I believe that he was telling her to remember his 100th day today. :)
I never knew how to really prayed. You see, my generation now days are not really exposed to all these joss stick burning stuff, unless if you yourself insist to learn. Is there a proper way to hald the joss sticks? How many times to bow? How many sticks? I have no clue. I remembered asking mum when I was young, if I prayed (as in do a monologue in my heart as if I'm 'talking') in English, will he/she/it understand? Mum's reply was 'yes' because they are all a 'higher-power'. Till today, I'm still not really convinced.
Anyhow, because I'm a illiterate to all these, I just followed and imitated what mum did. I let her do all the 'talking' and I just stood beside. And finally after placing the last joss stick and burning the 'money', we thought, why try the 'fortune-telling-shake-bamboo-sticks-thingy' (sorry, I have no clue how to describe this in English and too bad no photography was allowed in the prayer foyer). Again, mum did all the 'talking' and I did the shaking. She asked about if dad was alright in the other world and has he moved on. Finally the bamboo stick which fell out from the cylinder stated no.17 and this was what no.17 paper said (points below).
I never knew how to really prayed. You see, my generation now days are not really exposed to all these joss stick burning stuff, unless if you yourself insist to learn. Is there a proper way to hald the joss sticks? How many times to bow? How many sticks? I have no clue. I remembered asking mum when I was young, if I prayed (as in do a monologue in my heart as if I'm 'talking') in English, will he/she/it understand? Mum's reply was 'yes' because they are all a 'higher-power'. Till today, I'm still not really convinced.
Anyhow, because I'm a illiterate to all these, I just followed and imitated what mum did. I let her do all the 'talking' and I just stood beside. And finally after placing the last joss stick and burning the 'money', we thought, why try the 'fortune-telling-shake-bamboo-sticks-thingy' (sorry, I have no clue how to describe this in English and too bad no photography was allowed in the prayer foyer). Again, mum did all the 'talking' and I did the shaking. She asked about if dad was alright in the other world and has he moved on. Finally the bamboo stick which fell out from the cylinder stated no.17 and this was what no.17 paper said (points below).
My mandarin is not that good but roughly it all says good.Mum's happy and so am I. We hope that dad knows where he went wrong in this life and will and have moved on to be a better person in his next. :)
No comments:
Post a Comment