Rituals of Cheng Beng

Thursday, May 17 2012

Monday, 06 April 2009 10:52

CHENG BENG is the day the Chinese who practise ancestral worship go to the graves or places of remembrance of their departed to clean up and perform rites of respect and offering. Wiki here. In Penang, there are differences in the practices among families, however, essentially, they involve the following:

Preparation: This includes the preparation and compilation of food and beverages (an elaborate one would include rice, a set of sam phuay or dishes, koay or local cakes, boiled meat like whole chicken and pork, boiled eggs, fruit, tea, rice wine and things that the departed used to like -- his favourite cigar, for example), and other essentials like kim chua and gin chua (paper gold and silver folded in the shape of bullions) and prayer material like candles and joss sticks.
Cleaning up: Ridding the graves of weeds on or before Cheng Beng day is usually done by the relatives or contracted out, for an annual fee, to people who work in the cemetery. These caretakers could also top up the soil to retain the traditional hump of the Chinese grave, even tek chua (see below).
Tek chua: At the start of the ritual, while the food and prayer material are being laid out below the tombstone and at the tay choo kong (“spiritual guardian of the land”) mini altar, relatives would put yellow and plain rice paper, weighed down by pebbles, on the graves or plant colourful flags. Tek chua is literally to “place paper securely under a weight”.
Puak puay, communication and other rituals: Two coins are used to communicate with the departed. After everything has been laid out, one of the elder relatives would invite the departed to come over. To know if they have arrived, the relatives would toss and read two coins before the gravestone (head and tail means “yes”, head-head and tail-tail mean “no”). Once their presence has been signaled, joss sticks would be lit. The descendants, two hands clasped over the joss sticks before the gravestone, would communicate whatever they like with their ancestors. After that, they would plant the joss sticks into sand-filled containers. A while later, usually when the joss sticks are half burnt, the ancestors would be asked on their progress of the meal -- also using the coins (head and tail means “yes, we are done with the meal”, head-head means “no” and tail-tail means “we are happy”. This happiness or joy would be attributed by the descendants to some recent event or the presence of some people at the ritual. This use of coins to communicate with the departed is called puak puay.
After the meal is over, the kim chua and gin chua would be set on fire and sent to the heavens for the ancestors. The pineapple, symbolising luck (in Hokkien, the pineapple is called ong lai – “ong” means luck, “lai” means come), is then cut into three pieces. The “head” is placed on the tombstone. The “stump” is placed at the other end of the grave. Finally, the skin is shaved off over the grave. The remaining juicy flesh is taken home to be eaten by the family.