இ WAKE

With less than only three days we would be looking forward to watch the assorted lanterns of all shapes and sizes to brighten up our streets after we bid farewell to the Hungry Ghost Month 鬼月 *Guǐ Yuè*. The most fearful 15th moon (full moon) of the 7th lunar month lunar where most Chinese believed the King of Hell opens the gates of hell allowing ghosts to visit the living world will be closed again on Sep 15, 2012.  When as a kid on the 15th moon (full moon) our old folks forbid us to roam the streets at night and we can only sing along with Creedence Clearwater Revival's Bad Moon Rising and the chorus goes like this... "Don't go out tonight, well it's bound to take your life, there's a bad moon on the rise'.

Western people have Halloween festival with similarity to the Chinese celebrating the Hungry Ghost Festival having the same purpose to honor the deceased.  The Hungry Ghost festival originated from China since the Liang Dynasty in 502 AD, it was then evolved into the present ZhongYuan Festival 中元節 *zhōng yuán jié* .  Much have been said by bloggers HappySurfer & Panda Foong about this ghostly festival, you can read them HERE and HERE and HERE. When we talked about ghost, death is closely associated and goes hand in hand. Both words are a strictly NO-NO particularly in this ghost month.  

image courtesy of www.themeapicture.com

This ghostly month Bananaz has attended two Chinese funerals, one Christian and the other Taoist and was wondering is there any correlation between death and Hungry Ghost Month?. These two funerals were before 15th moon (full moon) and hearsay if any seriously sick or dying person who can pull through the 15th moon will not likely to die soon. How true? As usual in funerals we have this traditional 'Wake' ceremony used to be held in the house of the deceased but as the years go by modern memorial parlours have mushroomed through out the country and gaining popularity among the public. According to Wikipedia 'wake' has evolved into the word "watch," and it is in this sense that people have a "wake" for someone who recently died. While the modern usage of the verb "wake" is "become or stay alert" meaning, a "wake" for the dead harks back to the antiquated "watch" or "guard" sense. This is contrary to the urban legend that people at a wake are waiting in case the deceased should "wake up". My grandma (mom's mother) woke up couple of minutes later after my mom and relatives dressed her up in those longevity dresses for the dead when she was pronounced dead by doctor. She lived for more than a decade thereafter the incident. Cannot imagine the helter-skelter if she should 'wake up' after placing her corpse into the casket. It is customary for Chinese to offer donation in a form of cash literary known as 'white gold' 白金 *bái jīn* or some may prefer giving a wreath. Colours are used to differentiate bereavement or wedding celebration thus 紅白喜事 *hóng bái xǐ shì* weddings & funerals. The red 紅 *hóng* signifies wedding and white 白 *bái* refers to funerals.