Nine Emperor Gods Festival (九皇爺) is held over the first 9 days of the 9th lunar month to celebrate the return from heaven to earth of the Nine Emperor spirits.
I remember I used to follow my mom or grandma to the temple for prayer when I was small and was still staying in Kuantan. I always came back home with a yellow colour strap on our wrist and a red stamp on our T-shirt. I have not done this for a long long time.
After I came to KL, I have been to the Nan Thien Kwang in Ampang with friends during the festival twice. I was just there to look around but didn't pray. The most suffering things to go to the temple during this festival period especially at night are the crowd, the parking and the smoke of joss-stick.
During the Raya holiday I went back to Kuantan with parents and happened to go to Tow Boo Keong again after so many years. We went in the morning, so there was plenty of parking, not so crowded and joss-stick smoke was endurable. Not a devotee myself, I don't really know how to pray. But I did perfom some prayer there with my mom's instructions.
I went back with a yellow colour strap on my wrist.
10 comments:
haha I see mother in one of your photo.. :)
I was a loyal visitor too for the past 20 yrs in the Ampang temple until a very tragic incident happened last year. My grandma passed away there.
Jason,
I think I heard about that also...
I've never heard about about this Nine Emperor Gods Festival until a few days ago when I read in someone's blog.. Very interesting..
Maybe someday I should visit the temple that you mentioned during the festival.. yeah.. someday... a trip again to Malaysia :)
Btw, what kind of tragic incident happened last year in Ampang temple?
Jason's grandma passed away there...
yup.. I read it in jason's comment that his grandma passed away there.. but I meant.. what's the detail story, how could it happened? suddenly? or... ?
err...I also don't know the details...
She was resting on the bed after the daily prayer. Then her bed neighbour tries to wake her up but to no avail already.
Though tragic, some people say it was a good thing to pass away in a temple. Not everyone has such priviledge, if you know what i mean.
jason: sorry about your grandma.
Yes, I think it's not priveledge to pass away in the temple but also I believe when people die without any sickness (die peacefully while they were sleeping), they were good people during their lives.
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