Cheng Meng -Not Just A Tradition Or Legalise Open Air Burning

I recall 20 years ago, the period in time whereby we were still kiddos, dad used to forced us out of our beds and made sure we get dressed in time with gears to hike up the hills of Jelutong cemetery and pay respects to our ancestors. At that point of time, i never took these visits seriously because they were just like any other hundreds of rituals we as the chinese keep within our heritage.

As i grow older, i begin to understand the importance of paying respects to our ancestors every year on the same month and the same day. Chinese traditions contain a lot of superstitions such as food offerings for our ancestors after the incense burned off or after flipping coins. This is to determine whether our ancestors have eaten or not? if they have consumed the offerings spiritually in the spiritual realm, the "hard copies" of these food will be distributed among relatives to feast on them.

Another famous superstition is to burn paper dolls, cars, houses and arranging coloured papers on the tombs. These rituals were performed in ensuring our ancestors receive mansions, latest car editions and have nippon paint for their houses in the heavenly realms. I mean, get real judging by the numbers of houses and cars we have burned for them for the past 20 or 30 years , heaven must be filled with heavy traffic and packed with skycrapers and buildings!

Nowdays, they even have Astro satelite disc for the dead! businessmen making money out of fillial piety attitude of others.I personally do not believe in such superstitions. I believe if we are to treasure our older generation, we should pamper them with worldly comfort during their lifetime, not after they have passed on.Yet, i shall continue the tradition of visiting the graves of my ancestors and my older generations for i believe in paying respects and taking care of them even after they are no longer around.

I do not believe that burning incense will transmit our messages to the underworld, but i still burn them to continue this tradition, this is my way, the chinese way to remember that without the older generation, we wouldn't be here. I strongly support this idea of visiting the cemetery every year for such an activity keeps family members united and create a self awareness within us. Paying respects to tombs is a way to remind us that we as the next generation bears the family's name and therefore we should always do good and avoid criminal activities for we aren't just living for ourselves but we are continuing our family's saga.

I woke up at 6 today and went with my dad to pay our respects. My dad's a row model when it comes to fillial piety. My dad always make sure that we do not forget our roots and always continue respecting the elders.My sisters, just like a lot of youngsters nowdays,no longer motivated to attend such rituals .My grand uncle said to me " Boy, you need to continue our tradition, never forget your elders" " A lot of those from the younger generation do not have the time for such an activity" he said. I totally agreed with him.

The youth nowdays have a thousand and one excuses for not attending to this ritual, be it the weather, workload or simply taboo. My grand aunty was even funnier for she said " Even if you believe in Jesus, you must not forget our ancestry" and i just smiled. A lot of the older folks are worried that upon their departure,we as the younger generation will not continue this tradition, they will rot within their coffins and we would just be too busy to care.

I do not believe that those from the after world can receive our offerings but i will still pay my respects every year to show appreciation and in honoring my ancestors and my memories of them. As a kid i was often teased by my relatives to be an ABC { american born chinese} eventhough i do not hold an american green card . It was merely because me and my sisters cannot speak a word of chinese at that time . Therefore, my grand aunties and grand uncles were worried that even if i keep up with the tradition i may not be able to identify which grave belonged to our family for all of them are in chinese characters so i joked with them and said " No worries, i shall have the tombstones engraved in english alphabets" . Oh boy, i must start learning to read chinese!