26/12/2004, Sunday, Boxing Day, 3rd day of Funeral



Got an off today, no need book in... Reached Punggol around 3pm, continued to fold incense per. It's like never ending... 6pm, we had some dinner there together (cook at the funeral by some caterers), the dishes are good... we left in my father's friend pick up at around 10pm plus...



27/12/2004, Monday, 4th day of Funeral



reach punggol around 11am. today, there will be 2 ceremony (打斋) at 4pm and 7pm. After lunch (frfied kway teow). we started to fold some towels, it's good that there isn't much... the towels are gifts to the friends and relatives tomolo (it's part of the custom), A ceremony started around 4pm, but that only involve my uncle's children and daughter-in-law... Then around 5pm , the paper-made 3-storey bungalow, car, mini-hifi, TV and karaoke set came. And my father they all started to jot down the 4D numbers. The ceremony ended around 6pm. Then, we had dinner there (cooked by the caterers also), and waited for another ceremony to start. While waiting, 2 of my cousins and me went to refill the kerosene lamp at the main road. I almost forgot how to operate the lamp!



After much waiting, the ceremony started around 8pm. The whole family (except 3 members) are in white T-shirts, with head dress and belts in 4 different colours, matt, black, cream and blue. Matt dress are for immediate family members (i.e. his children and daughter-in-law). Black colour are for siblings and siblings' spouse (i.e. my father, mother, uncles and aunties). cream colour are for nephews and nieces on the on the father side, blue are for the mother side. I wear the cream colur.



The ceremony involve a lot of chanting, walking around a lot of times, and crossing a metal bridge. It ended past 11am, with a 15 minutes break in the middle. And there's even police who came to give us warning. After the ceremony, we brought all the "house", "car", "hi-fi", "chest", bags of incense paper to the carpark to burn (wonder if police will summon us or not?) Then we form a circle and kneel down and start hitting the ground with bamboo sticks until the whole burning finish. It's very late when everything ended, so most of us stay over that night...



The Crementation

28/12/2004, Tuesday, 5th day of Funeral



woke up around 8am. Had some breakfast. Then put on the same costume as yesterday. 11am, a band arrived with lots of gongs (20 over) and drums. They started to play for some time, then the relatives and friends pay respect, and loaded the coffin to the car. We started to walk the "last journey" with him. The route is from the funeral venue to the main road, about 150 metres (we walk with socks on only). After which, we boarded a bus to send us to the crementorium.



We reach the Mandai Crementorium and Columborium in no time. It's a new crementation facility, everything is new. He's crementated at 12.45pm, everyone cried. After which, we wear back our shoes and board the bus and head towards another columborium at sengkang where his ashes will be placed. After paying respect, the funeral organiser helped us remove the 孝



After that, we change back to our original clothes and boarded the bus back to the funeral. We had our lunch there and left around 3pm...