the 2nd day- rituals and rites

the funeral is already over and the things in the house are back to normal already. thank you to kind relatives (mom's brother, sister, sister-in-law) who helped us to clean the house and to arrange all the things back. aunt's maid was also here to accompany grandfather when we sent ah ma away.

the tears and the grief were already gone and it was all about the rites and rituals to perform. will share photos i took yesterday now. photos taken today will be shared only tomorrow as i need to select them. the photographer for today was shirley, our neighbour who kindly took out her camera as mine ran out of batttery and she volunteered to take all photos then.

some tables and chairs in the house and you can see the canopy already set up outside the house. everything was included in the package offered by the undertaker so we did not have to do much.

the money box and the guest book....and unlimited supply of water. we drank non-stop as it was really a hot hot day.

the first guests to arrive were kl aunt's siblings. since it is the chinese new year period, we did not really expect many ppl to come. so it was not surprising that one of the first to come were christians who had no taboo. many of uncle's estate multi-racial came too.

ah ma's coffin covered with an umbrella. we asked the undertaker why an umbrella was put there. she said in the olden days, animals like cats or dogs jumped over the coffin and it hence an umbrella was put there.

tokens of appreciation for guests who came to pay their respect.

our dinner yesterday, catered and delivered to our house. yesterday's lunch was seafood porridge.

mom could not cook because once we dressed in our mourning attire (white tee shirt and black pants, provided by the undertaker), she could not hold sharp things. so preparing food in the kitchen is a no-no.
wreath from uncle's church. many of his church members came all the way from kl too. really 'yau sam' of them. we were told to say 'yau sam' to those who came instead of 'thank you'.

the wreath from the memorial park where grandma's urn will be put.

more wreaths- all from uncle's colleagues and bosses.

we were all dressed in our mourning attire by 5p.m. because the buddhist monk would come later to read the chants and perform prayers and we were to follow.
blue cloth pinned on grandchildren of the deceased.

this was on children of the deceased.

this was on my cousin as she is my aunt's. dunno how to say it in english. called 'ngoi suin' in chinese.

this was on my aunt as she is the daughter of the deceased and already married.

oh, no i need to introduce him? we had to tie beanie at the back of the house, but no matter where we tied him, he kept barking non-stop. he is such a social dog, he just wanted us to be near him. he was also not used to the back of the house. he only calmed down when all guests had left and we tied him back to the front.

the following photos are of the banners of associations tied around the canopy.








the chants and prayers only started at around 8p.m.


first page of the prayer book. it was quite difficult to follow all the fast chants and at times i was so lost. there were chinese pronunciations translated in english at the bottom of the words so i just chanted whatever sounds were there. we did 3 rounds of chants and the first round was the funniest. my cousin and i even chuckled when we did mistakes. ok. i know it was not appropriate at all, but we just could not help it. after the 2nd round, i still could not follow and then i told myself that i had to get it correct for grandma. and i did manage to follow all the 3rd time although my brother and uncle's family (australia) came back from the airport in the midst of it.
that was us sitting in a row trying our best to follow the chants.

the brightly lit canopy. it was quite a good turn out yesterday night for cny period. it was not solemn at all and everyone was catching up with one another.

both uncles and their families went to slim river for the night except atticus who gladly stayed with us and stayed up till wee hour of the morning in the wake.

we had kfc at midnight for supper. everyone was hungry. i went out with atticus to kfc drive-through to order takeaway. there was no way i was getting out of the car to order the combo meal in my mourning attire.

before reaching kfc, we made a stop in town to drop grandma's nieces. the whole town was empty and there was not even a car on the road. that was when i decided to tell atticus to do something crazy to break the monotony of the day.

;) doing a taekwondo kick in the middle of the road and snapping a photo as a proof. see, i told you the mood was better on the 2nd day.

well, i am off now. time to call it a day and get my rest for kampar and rawang tomorrow.

thanks to everyone who sent their condolences.