Cousins Cleaning Cemeteries

Obviously yesterday was a pretty tiring day, which is why I could barely lift a finger to blog. With my advancing years, climbing up a steep mountain with boxes of Hell money can be surprisingly taxing. Add that to the virulent stomach bug I received sometime during lunch and it was a pretty miserable evening for me.

As usual we started the morning late, despite solemn blood-oaths the night before not to repeat the debacle last year. But I guess it can be a little difficult corralling the entire gang, taking attendance and such before making the required pilgrimage to the cemetery for our Chinese version of All Soul's Day. However filial piety never counted on 4 dozen members rushing helter-skelter to get things done while stumbling on each other - and that's all before queuing up in line for the coveted communal bathroom. At times it felt like I was back in the dorm again :)


What? Is it morning yet?
Albeit with a bunch of squabbling girls rushing to get their hair and make-up done with Lispy Lori leading the pack. Though God knows who they expect to see on the way to the cemetery.

Still we managed to finally reach the cemetery bright and early - as did twenty other families with similar expectations - which made the usually silent hill literally come alive. Imagine a night market set up at the cemetery with all the noises, the smells and - yes, even the pervading smoke from the incense.

And with my rambunctious cousins actually contributing to much of the above, what with our incessant cacophony, our overpacked picnic boxes and yes, the monstrous large candles purchased by one of my overly pious aunts - surely another ginormous man-made object seen clearly from space. Even the vaunted Twin Towers would have been put to shame. Never doubt the ingenious folks over at the paper factory - not only did we have paper money in different denominations from pseudo US dollars to the Euro, we even had medicine cabinets ( though I'm quite unsure of what they expect to do with liniment and plaster in Hell ) and dim sum baskets. Of course cigarette cartons were the norm - for although my grandfather doesn't actually smoke, he could reasonably share them with his mates over the mahjong set we burned him last year.

All in all, a job well done. Though it would have gone much better if I hadn't gotten the stomach flu.