Monday, November 6, 2006

Return of The Queen

Some weeks back during the Raya holidays, some of my relatives made their way home to Taiping to commemorate 3-7 (the 21st day) of Ah Por's passing.

According to Taoist rituals, every seventh day up to the 49th day marks an important event - though most Chinese usually observe the 7th and 49th day, as these are most important. On the 7th day, the dearly departed becomes aware of her demise and returns home for a final tour before descending to hell; while on the 49th day, a permanent home is established for her in the nether world. As for all that time in between the 7th and the 49th, her spirit roams our world.

So anyway, it was the holidays and the gang decided to make a trip - partly to keep my Mom company, participate in the rituals and also to help unearth whatever treasures that Grandma had stashed away.

Then came night.

At about 4am, my cousin's wife awoke to answer to nature's call. She was returning to bed when she glanced at the front door some 200ft away (our house is really long) and there was Ah Por! The old lady had returned.

Anyway, we decided to go home over the weekend - Mae, Roma, Jesse and my brother, Steve. I told Mae that I wanted to see Mom but Steve and I were really more curious to see Ah Por - or a ghostly apparition of her. Neither of us had ever seen a ghost before and we thought it might be quite the experience.

Anyway, Mae chickened out and we had to stay in a hotel. And Grandma decided that just Stephen alone wasn't worth her making an appearance.

So much for that idea. Luckily the food in Taiping, as always, was great.

9 comments:

  1. HOI! You know you built up the tension and I did have goosebumps crawling on my skin... and you ended it abruptly like that!!!!!
    Choi choi choi! How could you?! hahahahhaha

    ReplyDelete
  2. wah...got no number ah????? LOL!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Mae chickened out or was it you? :lol:

    ReplyDelete
  4. Nice touch, the flowers instead of joss sticks for Christians. I must remember that.
    You know the leg-propped-up stance your Grandma is famous for? According to my MIL, it's actually genetically hereditary. My 7 yr old daughter and 4 yr old niece do it all the time, just like their great-grdmother, and they've never seen her before (neither have I, so she couldn't have peeked from my womb..). :D But none of the boys in the family seemed to have pick that up...
    Any signs of that from Jesse??

    ReplyDelete
  5. did anyone got their crap beaten out of them be grandma?

    ReplyDelete
  6. hey there...:) a random bloghopper, i used to scan your site almost daily when jesse was a mere newborn! he's all grown up and incredibly adorable now, and your blog's as entertaining as ever :) i blame the lapse in bloghopping on damned uni internet quotas...rawr! my condolences on your recent loss...anyways, take care, love the blog as much as ever! :D

    ReplyDelete
  7. LOL!!!!! Ah Por didn't want to meet Stephen? HAHHAHAHHAHA! Terrible lah you.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Hmm... yeah, I experienced that. A few years ago, my great-grandfather passed away. I was his first great-granddaughter, and though he hardly showed it, I think he loved me.
    A week after his death, I woke up on Saturday and I found my bedroom light on (and I always lock my door) so it kinda freaked me out at first. Sleepwalking? Unlikely. I don't sleepwalk. So the only explaination is it was probably him. And even though I'm scared to death of supernatural things - this one doesn't scare me after the initial shock. :) It's kinda comforting actually.

    ReplyDelete
  9. :lol: Would you have preferred if I pulled an Emily Rose, Minishorts!?!?
    If it were really my Granny, MOTT, then she would have given the 4 digits. :)
    Bonnie. Do I look like the kind of guy who would chicken out? Ok, don't answer that.
    No such thing with Jesse, Kat. But he did inherit my sit - we do this M-shape thing with our legs. :lol:
    Hahahh! So far no, Duckie. But I'm sure that would be interesting, no?
    Welcome back Meldee. There, I just popped a champagne for your return. :)
    He pisses her off, Gina. Hehehh...
    Whoa, Luxferi. I dun want anybody without a body to mess with light switches or anything. :lol:

    ReplyDelete