Hungry Ghosts Festival And Other Spooks
Since I'm getting you on with ghostly encounters, I might as well not let up. It is not hungry go where but hungry ghosts eat what. In the old days when dialects were commonly spoken, the description of people who eat a lot is simply "yau kwee" or hungry ghost in Hokkien. The Hungry Ghosts Festival or Zhong Yuan Jie has begun. The Gates of Hell has been opened.....watch out!
Ancestor Worship
Frequently, foreign visitors or non-Singaporean friends would ask me why they see people burning during the 7th Lunar month because they have never seen these things but actually they do not even do these things in China even though the Chinese practised ancestor worship. So this is a Singaporean invention?
I have seen us practising burning hell notes for the longest time and if Singapore is 47 years old, we could be doing this for more than 50 years? No wonder economists and experts are saying that it is an Asian era. As the Western world does not do this, all the money would then be controlled by Asians in the Underworld, I mean the Nether world. It is Nether world, please do not say Netherlands!
During my primary and secondary school days, they would also burn giant joss sticks that burned for days and I think they are banned now. People today not only burn big paper houses and paper Mercedes Benz, I think we need to add on a paper COE. The latest will probably include iPhones, iPads and well Brompton bicycles besides hell notes.
I have seen us practising burning hell notes for the longest time and if Singapore is 47 years old, we could be doing this for more than 50 years? No wonder economists and experts are saying that it is an Asian era. As the Western world does not do this, all the money would then be controlled by Asians in the Underworld, I mean the Nether world. It is Nether world, please do not say Netherlands!
During my primary and secondary school days, they would also burn giant joss sticks that burned for days and I think they are banned now. People today not only burn big paper houses and paper Mercedes Benz, I think we need to add on a paper COE. The latest will probably include iPhones, iPads and well Brompton bicycles besides hell notes.
Honour Thy Parents And Filial Piety
I have seen and heard of people who burned the best of everything for their demised parents but when their parents were alive they did not even honour them which led me to wonder if filial piety is for the afterlife. Or do people do all these in the hope that their parents will come back from the other side to bless and prosper them? That would be selfish! They have done enough for you in one life time!
Should we humans not honour our parents when they are still alive? "Honour thy parents" is one of the great commands. Do it and you shall live a long and prosperous life. To honour is to love, to protect, to serve, to care, to listen to, to provide - food, shelter, money, health and everything else including finding time for them. Do everything for them and with them now. Honour thy parents now in this life!
Should we humans not honour our parents when they are still alive? "Honour thy parents" is one of the great commands. Do it and you shall live a long and prosperous life. To honour is to love, to protect, to serve, to care, to listen to, to provide - food, shelter, money, health and everything else including finding time for them. Do everything for them and with them now. Honour thy parents now in this life!
Wayang and Getai
When Wayang and Getai are set up, please do not go and get seated in the front row as they are reserved for the "ho hia tee" or good brothers which literally translated are the hungry ghosts for if you get seated there, you may cause confusion as organisers may think they saw something others don't. We used to have push cart hawkers who would come following the Wayang and Getai peddling all kinds of food and one that has vanished was the "bird's nest drink" which are of course some kind of agar agar made to look and taste like bird's nest and we used to rent from stall holders who charged you for using their table to play a game which is half carrom and half billiards. As for me, I only do the food and the games as I could not understand a single thing the Wayang performers were singing but my mum still loves the Getai today.
The Fall
Young fellows during my childhood days will share with you that we were a frustrated lot as parents would curtail your activities outside especially at night for fear of the unknown and activities like swimming and late nights were banned. I used to follow my parents in doing some of these observations when I was young. I remembered on one such occasion, something happened to me and it left me to ponder and wonder. We were at the playground behind our block that night and while they were busy preparing I was well, boys being boys, jumped up and clung on with my hands on the top end of a concrete arc built as a shelter with four concrete seats below on both sides of the arc when suddenly for no reason I fell.
I came down with a thud hitting one of the concrete seats face on. I felt numb when I got up and to my horror and even greater horrors to both my sister and my parents. Meanwhile, my sisters in particular, my elder sister got a good scolding as my parents thought that she was responsible as prior to the incident we were playing. I was bleeding quite badly. I didn't realised how bad it was until I got home and I looked into the mirror. My mouth was swollen and I looked like a pig as when I fell I was hit on the lips and the impact broke half a tooth and the cut on the upper lip caused a big swell.
Later, I asked my sister why she pushed me when I was clung to the arc and she was shocked and vehemently and seriously told me that she was not even near me when I fell. After some years, she said the same thing which I believed to be true. However, I thought I really felt someone shoved me down as in that position, it is easy just to land on on feet right down below if I had slipped but I fell with a certain force and went down side ways. Whatever it was, it was an eerie experience. This was an encounter of the weird stuffs.
The Playground
This playground behind my block of flats was one the the newest, biggest that was built in the vicinity and it attracted a lot of children from other neighbourhoods too. What the younger generation could never imagine is that those days the playground was largely concrete or metal. No soft touches. So, every now and then we have witnessed some horrifying accidents to children a few of them may have even died as they fell from a height or something similar.
Now I know a bit of these things but it was years back so when I was in primary school age I was at the playground one evening with my sisters on the rare occasion (because we don't really find the playground interesting). My elder sister was pushing me while I was on the swing. There was no one else there. I continued and swung as high as the swing could possibly take me. Basking in the fun I didn't realised my sisters have both left. They probably pulled off their trick on me leaving me there alone. Let me tell you this - I felt something was amiss and I tried to stop the swing as quickly as I could and when it did, I quietly walked away slowly and when I reached the stairs I raced home panting without even breathing.
I spoke to my sisters and realised they have left me some 10-15 minutes earlier and yes they were just playing the fool with me. I didn't share with them what had happened. In those 10-15 minutes they were gone, I can tell you that someone or something was pushing my swing from behind. That was the reason I stopped, walked away quietly and then raced home with all my might when I realised that my sisters were no longer there. Another encounter which I believed to be weird.
The Neighbour
There is a saying among old folks that you should not leave a house empty for too long, even if it is a new home. There was once several blocks of HUDC flats that were left vacant for a very long time and stories abound as to what actually happened. There were reports of people seeing things or experiencing strange encounters there or could it be just a matter of pricing that left it in abundant status? Even when converted into private housing later, I knew of people who reported unusual occurrences at home. They saw other "people" in their homes.
Is this true? When left vacant too long, spirits may occupy it? But there was also a home where child murderer, self-styled medium Adrian Lim committed murder rituals of children. A man and his family bought the house and has been living there without encountering anything unusual.
At the time, when I was in lower secondary school, we have businessman neighbour whose family owned a shop house nearby and he later sold it or let out to a couple with a young son about my younger sister's age. After some years, they too relocated but somehow the house was left vacant for some years. One day, my home-maker mum commented over dinner that the next door neighbour was still coming back, clearing lots of rubbish and doing things at home making a lot of noise or a new neighbour was shifting in.
We didn't pay much attention as it was a casual comment. In the weeks that followed, mum was complaining more and more as she reported that loads of rubbish were being dumped throughout the day as she could hear it loud and clear from the rubbish chute and also there were banging on the wall constantly. One day, when we met the ex neighbours we were shocked to hear from them that the house has been left vacant and they have never gone back! Now don't get me wrong for I'm have always been a cynical person when it comes to certain things. I'm largely optimistic and positive but scornfully cynical in just "certain things".
One day when I was home with mum, I heard it when she pointed out to me, the rubbish sound from the chute came continuously, throughout the day and the banging on the wall. I told her that the rubbish sound was from all over not just next door, it just sounded near and the banging of the wall was not necessary next door as sound can travel through walls. When mum was not around and I was alone, I started my investigation. I sat next to the rubbish chute and waited. Sure enough it came, lots of rubbish being dumped but when I opened it I saw nothing but it continued throughout the day. Next, I sat next to the wall in the living room in anticipation of the relentless banging by gluing my ear to it.
What happened next, made me jumped! Somebody or something next door took a pole, well it sounded like a scaffolding type of pole and aimed it directly on the wall my ear was glued to! Wham!! And it continued. Stop for a little while and it continued. Mum was right! It wasn't her imagination. It was not sound travelling from elsewhere, the constant rubbish dumping sound from the chute and the loud wall banging was from right next door!! Nothing can be more real than the frightening experience. This was where it happened. The playground is now a modern fitness corner with a badminton court cum garden.
Part of places like Bishan was once a cemetery and initially nobody wanted the houses there but now the price has sky rocketed. Singapore is so brightly lit and changing so rapidly that ghosts have no place to haunt. Even the ghosts are pressured.I spoke to my sisters and realised they have left me some 10-15 minutes earlier and yes they were just playing the fool with me. I didn't share with them what had happened. In those 10-15 minutes they were gone, I can tell you that someone or something was pushing my swing from behind. That was the reason I stopped, walked away quietly and then raced home with all my might when I realised that my sisters were no longer there. Another encounter which I believed to be weird.
The Neighbour
There is a saying among old folks that you should not leave a house empty for too long, even if it is a new home. There was once several blocks of HUDC flats that were left vacant for a very long time and stories abound as to what actually happened. There were reports of people seeing things or experiencing strange encounters there or could it be just a matter of pricing that left it in abundant status? Even when converted into private housing later, I knew of people who reported unusual occurrences at home. They saw other "people" in their homes.
Is this true? When left vacant too long, spirits may occupy it? But there was also a home where child murderer, self-styled medium Adrian Lim committed murder rituals of children. A man and his family bought the house and has been living there without encountering anything unusual.
At the time, when I was in lower secondary school, we have businessman neighbour whose family owned a shop house nearby and he later sold it or let out to a couple with a young son about my younger sister's age. After some years, they too relocated but somehow the house was left vacant for some years. One day, my home-maker mum commented over dinner that the next door neighbour was still coming back, clearing lots of rubbish and doing things at home making a lot of noise or a new neighbour was shifting in.
We didn't pay much attention as it was a casual comment. In the weeks that followed, mum was complaining more and more as she reported that loads of rubbish were being dumped throughout the day as she could hear it loud and clear from the rubbish chute and also there were banging on the wall constantly. One day, when we met the ex neighbours we were shocked to hear from them that the house has been left vacant and they have never gone back! Now don't get me wrong for I'm have always been a cynical person when it comes to certain things. I'm largely optimistic and positive but scornfully cynical in just "certain things".
One day when I was home with mum, I heard it when she pointed out to me, the rubbish sound from the chute came continuously, throughout the day and the banging on the wall. I told her that the rubbish sound was from all over not just next door, it just sounded near and the banging of the wall was not necessary next door as sound can travel through walls. When mum was not around and I was alone, I started my investigation. I sat next to the rubbish chute and waited. Sure enough it came, lots of rubbish being dumped but when I opened it I saw nothing but it continued throughout the day. Next, I sat next to the wall in the living room in anticipation of the relentless banging by gluing my ear to it.
What happened next, made me jumped! Somebody or something next door took a pole, well it sounded like a scaffolding type of pole and aimed it directly on the wall my ear was glued to! Wham!! And it continued. Stop for a little while and it continued. Mum was right! It wasn't her imagination. It was not sound travelling from elsewhere, the constant rubbish dumping sound from the chute and the loud wall banging was from right next door!! Nothing can be more real than the frightening experience. This was where it happened. The playground is now a modern fitness corner with a badminton court cum garden.
I have shared with you previously about a real life experience:
http://gforce-guru.blogspot.sg/2012/08/first-encounter-of-ghostly-kind.html
Don't go away and watch this space as there are more to come and you have to find my conclusion on these experiences. What I made of them and I will share with you the truth for the Truth will set you free!
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