I was greeted by some interesting sights as I walked out of EH this afternoon. (Pardon the low quality camera-fone photos)
A traditional puppet show. Very interesting art form. Simple yet complex in its own way.
A wide shot of the stage.
Standing on the opposite of this stage was a huge Taoist temple. Attracted by the crowd and noise, i stepped in and toured the place. I know it sounds weird to some, but I think i haven't stepped into a temple for ages.
Rows of boxes, with food and incense offerings placed neatly on the temple's grounds.
Nothing strange during the seventh month, but this caught my eye.
If you look carefully, the ancestor's b/w photo was on the box! There were many boxes but only one or two had their ancestor's fotos on it.
Containers stacked with loads and loads of food. I remembered that in the past they used to put these in buckets and people could bring it home. There was one year that my mum took one of these buckets home. Only to be questioned by me, then as a young kid with questions like "where did all these food come from?" "Who were they for?" "Did we had to pay.. blah blah."
I think she got freaked out cos i never saw those buckets in my home again.
As i was leaving, took this random shot of some men preparing for worship.
When i came home in the evening, the skies had darkened but the pavements were lited up by the burning josspapers and random joss-sticks that stood by the roadside. Despite the government telling people to burn their joss papers in the designated bins, the drain covers still had piles of ashes on it.
Tradition dies hard, i suppose.
Then i recalled the Channel 8 show tat starred Edmund Chen few months back. In the show, the more joss-papers your family members burn for you, the richer you will be in hell.
Which probably means you could be richer in hell if your family members burnt you bungalows and BMW cars.
Singaporeans are rather a spiritual lot. We still believe in a supreme being. And we believe that there is life after death. We know that our loved ones are still out there somewhere.
And indeed there is life after death.
Jesus said in John 5:24.
"I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life".
How can we trust what Jesus said? We can trust in what he said because he triumphed over death. He came back to life three days after He died on the cross. He showed to the world that he lived!
There can be life after death. Only if we place our trust in God, then can we enjoy truly life with him forever in Heaven.
