Monday 26 January 2009
Insane CNY Eve
After spending half a day at my grandma's house eating snacks and catching up with cousins, I finally manage to reach home for a good rest...Yesterday night while I was still dota-ing with the usual swiss gang, my parents asked me whether I wanted to make a trip to the temple at pandan road with them and my uncle and aunt. Though it was already quite late, I decided to follow them as I was hoping for that tinge of festive atmosphere where everybody counts down together in the temple to celebrate CNY, but I was so damn wrong.
After a 15 minutes car ride, we finally reached our destination at about 11.30p.m. Very little people were there at that time so we brought the incense without queuing, unlike chinatown trip 2 years ago. A while later, more people streamed into the place, followed by the lion/dragon dance troupe. We saw a pair of kids leading the troupe in front, quite cute and funny.
At around 11.45p.m., there was this priest carrying out the rituals (hokkien: key dang) with a lot of people praying behind him and there was also an indian guy in the crowd, even though he looked like he was clueless about the situation.
Some time right before midnight, people started to stick their incense into the large urn outside the temple door, so we joined in too, since we arrived early and were lucky to be standing beside the urn. Weird thing is, we had to HOLD onto our incense (extra big ones), even though its already sticking in the urn while waiting for the clock to strike twelve.
I felt semi-conscious during that time as the smoke was very thick and I couldn't even open my eyes because once I did, my eyes would start tearing. But we still held on to our incense while waiting for midnight, everyone was freaking despo.
Suddenly, the priest behind shouted 'HUAT AH' and people around him also shouted the same thing, then the door to the temple opened, and there was a mad rush into the temple. People in the front line literally SPRINTED in to get their incense into the urn so that they can be first.
Graphic representation:
Taken in Waterloo Street, and my situation was as bad as theirs
Can't find any video of people running into temples to place their incense into the urns, even though I saw it in channel 8 news...
Anyways, before we entered the temple my parents gave me a set of instructions:
1. Must place 3 small incense into each urn (total of ~10 small urns)
2. Must pray for good health and studies before putting the incense in
3. Remember to burn the incense paper after all that
And so, we entered the urn. The smoke was even thicker inside since it was enclosed, and there were even some idi*ts holding their candles right infront instead of above them, and I could feel hot wax dripping on my arms, painful like crap. Since it was so smoky, I quickly walked to each urn, and placed the incense inside, all done with eyes closed.
Finally, I threw the stack of incense paper into the furnace and waited for everyone else outside the temple.
Another weird thing was that, all those who had worshipped had to bring 1 extra large incense home. So while we were in the car, my mum and aunt had to stick the incense outside the windows, and you can also get to see many cars with incense sticking out in the expressway.
Lastly, I hope everyone will have a fun CNY this year, and here's a video to start the festive season.
Spring Festival Greetings 2009 by Made-in-China.com
The people look like they are forced to do this, especially the guys, quite funny.
by WEIMING at 20:08 |
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