History of Hungry Ghosts Festival

​*History of Hungry Ghosts Festival* - Respect, Gratitude and Honour

*中元节的历史* - 尊重、感恩和荣誉

_by Dr. Punna Wong_

Many wonder why the Chinese especially of the older generation make offerings at the roadside this 7th lunar month.

To the senior generations, it is very important and many of the younger people have forgotten why, merely dismissing the practice as superstition. Our forefathers who came to malaria endemic Malaya and South East Asia clearing jungles for tin, rubber and pepper, had very difficult lives, eking out a living to survive and hoping to send some money home to their villages in China to help loved ones.

Mortality was thought to be about 50% for those  brave poor folks seeking a better life from war and famine ravished China. To anyone bidding “goodbye” from their families at the village exit, each had a more than even chance that they may never meet again.

This 7th Lunar month tells of an important lesson in our history that i would like to share.

When our forefathers came to work as tin miners, rubber tappers, coolies or indentured workers, they came in groups of men. The womenfolk stayed back in China taking care of families, elderly and children in villages now devoid of men.

The menfolk who slaved in the hot, humid tropics had extremely hard lives. Mortality was high, many dying of malaria, beri-beri or sheer poverty. Their lives were miserable, and not a few squandered their hard earned wages on the temporary relief offered in alcohol, opium or gambling.

Knowing well that many will die alone in a foreign land, the men pledged to take care of each other should they die, making offerings and burying the deceased.

Clan associations sprang up to help with this too.

Their promise to honour and make offerings was a sacred pledge that they swore, and binding even to their descendants, who will continue to offer to these "good brothers", the 'Hao Xiong Di', who are without kin and descendants.

To this day during the Chinese 7th lunar month, the Chinese descendants of those who braved the South China Sea will offer at the roadside to these nameless and unknown "Hungry ghosts" of the  "good brothers", recalling the comradeship forged by the hopes and  sufferings of the forefathers who paced the way for us.

This is a tradition we must importantly understand.

It is NOT superstition; it is Respect, Gratitude and Honour for those on whose shoulders the present generation stand in comfort.

Very often in our Prosperity today, we had forgotten about the sufferings and sacrifices of our predecessors. This “Hungry Ghost Festival” is Not only Honouring our own ancestors But to those without anyone to help, offer or share Merits. Simply poor people who braved the South China Sea with our ancestors who died nameless, unknown and unappreciated. 🙏🏽

*中元节的历史* - 尊重、感恩和荣誉

 _by Dr. Punna Wong_

 许多人想知道为什么中国人特别是老一辈的中国人在这个农历七月在路边供养。

 对老一辈来说，这很重要，很多年轻人都忘记了为什么，只是把这种做法当作迷信不屑一顾。 我们的祖先来到疟疾流行的马来亚和东南亚清理丛林以获取锡、橡胶和胡椒，他们的生活非常艰难，勉强维持生计，并希望寄一些钱回家帮助他们在中国的村庄帮助亲人。

 那些从战争和饥荒蹂躏的中国中寻求更好生活的勇敢穷人的死亡率被认为约为 50%。 对于任何在村口与家人“告别”的人来说，他们每个人都有可能永远不会再见面的机会。

 这个农历七月讲述了我们历史上的一个重要教训，我想分享。

 当我们的祖先以锡矿工、橡胶敲击工、苦力或契约工人的身份来工作时，他们成群结队地来到这里。 妇女们留在中国，照顾现在没有男人的村庄的家人、老人和孩子。

 在炎热潮湿的热带地区劳作的男人们过着极其艰苦的生活。 死亡率很高，许多人死于疟疾、脚气病或赤贫。 他们的生活很悲惨，不少人把辛苦赚来的工资花在了酒精、鸦片或赌博中提供的临时救济上。

 深知许多人将在异国他乡孤独地死去，他们承诺在他们死后互相照顾，供奉并埋葬死者。

 氏族协会也应运而生来帮助解决这个问题。

 他们兑现供养的承诺，是他们发誓的神圣誓言，甚至对他们的子孙也有约束力，他们将继续为这些没有亲人、无后裔的“好兄弟”“好兄弟”‘昊兄弟’献祭。

 直到农历七月的这一天，那些冒着南海的中国后裔，都会在路边献给这些“好兄弟”的无名无名“饿鬼”，缅怀希望和结下的同志情谊。 为我们铺路的先人的苦难。

 这是我们必须重要地理解的传统。

 这不是迷信； 这是对那些肩负着当代人舒适的人的尊重、感恩和荣誉。

 在我们今天的繁荣中，我们经常忘记前人的苦难和牺牲。 这个“中元节”不仅是在祭祀自己的祖先，也是为了那些没有人帮助、奉献或分享功德的人。 简直就是和我们的祖先一起在南海奋战的可怜人，死去的无名，不为人知，不为人知。  🙏🏽

Mindful Living

 This season of my life, with my beloved dad just passed away on 6 July 2022 early morning 12:54 am, and with more hands-on working on house chores from A to Z (as the maid is off for visiting her family in Indonesia), I have no choice but to start thinking of what if, what's next, how to for the current and next phase of my life. 

I think I am ready to admit I am entering into my final third phase of my life, half-time is no longer appropraite to describe my current journey, the moving from success to significance (although not quite achieved yet) also not quite the word to describe my life now. I have to start thinking for myself, to imagine, to picture, to craft, to direct my next phase of my life as my own boss ! Think about it, being my own boss, YES! Is this not what I really want all these while ? A kind of freedom to be able to say : 

• Yes, I will continue! 
• Yes, I will take this new challenge up! 
• No, I will choose not to continue and I have enough!
• No, I will pursure the path that I really want!

I thought I should be able to do this now ! Or so I thought. 

Its liberating to be able to think like this and take actions accordingly but its also a bit challenging to form things into shape and to start to take actions towards the new goals. So what is mindful living from now on for me ?

It is to recognise that life is shorter than we know it, it is mostly quite generous length of 75 years or 80 years, but the way we live it especially the first and second phases of our life, we spend our life as if we are immortal but the truth is, we are not immortal. We all will die one day! I figure to be able to plan for the dying and leaving should start early, some say at 65 years old, which I think its too late. I would say at the first former retirement age of 55 years, then we should know we are into the last third phase of our life and we should incorporate mindful living into our lifestyle and start to behave like one who will leave this earth one day! 

Here are a few things that came to mind as I think and plan for mindful living which I hope will keep me focus :-

1) Take more time-out to have the me-time and do self-care more, be it the face, the hair, the eye brows, the body massage, spa. Not to forget the exercises one to take up regularly. Purging, silent retreat, solo-journey, detox retreat and camp, go for it! 

2) Read the Word of God deeper, take up opportunity to teach the younger christians, the youths, the children, go fo it! It will force us to research and revise our understanding of the Word and dive deeper as we prepare to teach. 

3) Create more home-made bombastic meals experience memories, the YouTube, the internet has millions of videos on how to cook just-about-anything on planet earth! So, there is no excuse! Vegan, Vegetarian, Calories-dense meals, Keto, etc ! At this age, we should aim for wholesome food, whole food cooked from scratch and not the processed food. I have this temptations to buy processed food like ham, vegetarian meats but  really, we can make whole food at home if we plan for it!

4) Declutter and downsize the wardrobe, over the years, from pre-marraige, pre-childbearing, we would have accumulated many wonderful dresses, blouses, skirts, but we probably fall into the "rule of 80-20", we only wear 20% of what we have, the rest of 80% are just occupying space, very nice memories or wanna-be dresses but never fit! It is time to let go, if they are sentimental values, probably organise who to give away to or just sell them for charity. 

5) Do a Swedish Death Cleaning, this sounds upsettingly bad but it is trending now, very popular process, its different from Marie Kondo's decluttering method. SDC focuses on keeping and giving away things that your loved ones will want when you die. MK focuses on keeping what's spark joy in your life. This process is a mindful living as it will take years to complete but it is good to plan to begin it as soon as you are ready. For a person who does not declutter, this presents a burdensome challenge but still, it has to be done.

6) Create more memoreis with people you care about, this requires a bit of budget as often, we like to take people out for stylish, instagramable cafes and fancy restaurants ! There are people who we take for granted (if we sit down and think), that we never have time or bother to have time with but they are our relatives and friends, close ones, loved ones, but the issue is we do not have time to sit all day to have coffee and meals, besides it spoils the diet plans. Well, its the final-third of your life, I would think to have social media filled with heart-warming reunions, gatherings of friends and loved ones, the small talks, the serious talks during the gatherings are all priceless and worth the money "invested"! It does spark joy ! 

7) Find a way to organise all the digital photographs taken which never printed and only on our phones for ourselves to see and few of them were ever posted in any way! Upload to some cloud-based social media (people will thank you for it, do set some private groups so that not all of your friends see your every photos!). For the important ones, make effort to print that so that the loved ones get to see them in the future. 

8) Plan the trips, the journeys, with people you enjoy travelling with. Even work trips, make them fun, incorporate vistis to local tourism, local tamu, local cultural locations and enjoy what the area brings to us ! 

9) Take an inventory of your finances and think investments, insurances, loan and liabilities, investments and record them down, put them into a physical file and also an online folder. With more financial freedom, it is perhaps the right time to begin some investments jointly with our children to help them to plan ahead when they are still students or having low income.    

10) Think and plan out "Health is Wealth" as the tagline for living. I watched an interesting video about the aim of healthy living is to live a long healthy life and should we be very sick, to die without much suffering. This provides an idea how we should prioritise how to live our every moments.  

~ Penned by a 56 years old and subject to future editing and revisions.

The following photos nothing to do with mindful living but taken from my camera phones on the day I wrote the above. Just a reminder to be mindful of the beauty surrounding us, need us to recognise them.

Sabah's Pride - the first hanging glass buidling still looks futuristic ! 

Majesty and Tall Menara Kinabalu, the State Administrative Building. This reminds me to declare over Sabah : "Sabah Maju Jaya!" To have and build a progressive state does require mindful living on our parts as citizens, administration officers and politicians.

Night falls on the State Administrative Building after our walk to State Assembly Building. Be mindful, the night has come but it surely will pass, another new day will dawn in a few more hours! Such is hope in mindful living, ability renew everyday!

Mindfulness begins with realisation that we need to plan the exercise if we want healthy body. Today is the day I started to do gentle movements with going up the hill to State Aseembly Building, nothing fancy but just simple walk. I think I added 1500 steps to my daily steps counter! 

https://bible.knowing-jesus.com/topics/Mindfulness

https://www.calminggrace.com/bible-verses-about-mindfulness/