A different Qing Ming: Malaysians simplify prayer rituals amid movement control order
04 April, 2020
This will be the first time in Mr Tuen Kong Fook’s life that he'll not be honouring his family’s ancestors at their final resting place during Qing Ming Festival.
For given that he can remember, the 78-year-old has been dutifully paying respects to his deceased loved kinds upon this day.
“Since I was eight or nine years old, I followed my dad to Ipoh for Qing Ming, and after he passed on in 1967, we commenced to provide Qing Ming prayers in Kwong Tong Cemetery in Kuala Lumpur,” he told CNA.
“For us that is a significant cultural tradition. We've never missed it. Even during May 13, we managed to do our prayers and it had been never disrupted,” he said, referring to the 1969 racial riot.
As the Qing Ming Festival falls on Saturday (Apr 4), the season usually begins about fourteen days prior and lasts until fourteen days later.
This is a busy affair, with Chinese cemeteries throughout Malaysia crowded with families paying their respects with their ancestors.
However, the cemeteries are quiet this season, as Malaysia observes the next phase of the movement control order (MCO) until April 14, that was enforced to slow the spread of COVID-19 in the united states. Final number of confirmed cases have reached 3,333 on Friday, with 53 fatalities.
Cemeteries and memorial parks have informed the groups of those interred in their grounds that the gates will remain closed this Qing Ming, while shops that sell prayer paraphernalia are also shut through the MCO.
Mr Tuen will need to adapt to observing Qing Ming in the home this year.
Luckily, his family had made copies of the ancestral tablet and distributed someone to each sibling. They can pray with their ancestors separately.
“I’ll still leave tomorrow early, buy roast chicken and roast pork so we may offer them to the ancestors,” Mr Tuen said.
“But I believe for the paper items and sending hell money (via burning), which will have to wait,” he added.
Earlier, the government as well as religious and grassroots associations have urged the Chinese community to refrain from observing Qing Ming at cemeteries and memorial parks.
Transport Minister Wee Ka Siong advised families to pay homage with their ancestors at home according with their religious beliefs.
Among the associations, the Malaysian Buddhist Association, appealed to the city to offer “a straightforward prayer or chanting of transference of merits to ancestors”, instead of visiting the ancestral tombs.
SIMPLIFYING QING MING PRAYERS AND DEFERRING OBLIGATIONS
Mdm Wong Yuet Kheen, 57, said usually, Qing Ming is another reunion chance for her family.
“We drive down every year to Seremban and meet the other family members.
“The younger generation exists too. After cleaning the tomb and offerings, we could have a sizable dinner together,” she said.
The original MCO from Mar 18 till 31 had not bothered them, she said, because they could observe Qing Ming 10 days before and following the festival.
However, the extension of the MCO threw them for a loop, with Mdm Wong explaining that it had been not proper to go to their ancestors’ graves anytime beyond your Qing Ming period.
She will need to make do with praying to the ancestral tablet in the home and presenting other offerings.
“Those without these tablets will have to pray to the sky,” Mdm Wong added.
Source: www.channelnewsasia.com
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