0 Cheng Beng - The Tomb Sweeping Festival

It's that time of year again where Chinese families gather to clean the graves and, offer food and prayers to their ancestors. Besides hell money, paper crafted into mobile phones, cars, clothes and whatever your mind can conjure, are burned up to the dearly departed.

The actual date of Cheng Beng falls on 5th April this year, but we fulfilled our obligations early. We arrived Penang by bus, on a very wet Saturday. The rain refused to relent and lasted throughout the day. I prayed for blue skies the next morning.

God answered with grey clouds and a couple of hours to get the job done. A blessing no less.

Arrived at 6am - Praying at the temple is no.1 on the list of to-dos

Eerie..the sun's not up yet!



After tidying up the grave, food is prepared for the ancestors

 

Placing paper and planting colourful flags on the grave

The end result - pretty, isn't it?

Another grave..look at the mud up ahead

Cash, clothes, car...wait, is that a passport??

Up it goes..enjoy, Grandpa

For RM25, he'll clean the grave for you

More people arriving

The sun's up and it started to drizzle, but we're already done.
Bye people.



Sorry Mr. Frog..they'll be clearing this tomb soon.
You'd best move on.