Cheng Beng

From the same weekend of fishing, the next day, I followed KS and his family to the ancestors graves in Masjid Tanah for Cheng Beng, a day to remember the departed. We were supposed to be there by 7am, which meant a groggy drive up as I was already feeling the effects of the sun from my fishing episode.

This is the first time I joined KS family on Cheng Beng since we got married. Although I never grew up observing this part of the Chinese culture, I felt rather attuned to whatever that was going on for some strange reason. But I did bring my camera which made KS pretty uncomfortable, taking photos of graves.

But I did ask permission from my mother-in-law and she said they didn't pantang. So here are some shots I managed to sneak in while trying to look inconspicuous.


The prepared items for burning (paper gold/money)
Flowers for the graves.
Part of the view of cemetery. Note the amount of people dotted along the graves.
The cars came in droves and caused a mini traffic jam.


Here was the paper gold/money for our ancestors. See the colourful paper weighed down by pebbles on the graves? These represent cloth for the deceased to make clothes from, if I'm not mistaken.


Caught sight of a family flinging "money" into the breeze. The wind scattered them across the graveyard as they drifted downhill.


And finally, I don't know why, but there's always a bald tree in the graveyards that I've been to. Here's the Masjid Tanah one, shrouded in smoke from the burnt offerings.

With all the smoke and sun, I called in sick the next day.