Further to the earlier article on the annual Chinese festival of Ching Ming, reported in the Star (5/4/07) pertaining to Koong Tuck ( in Cantonese) and Kong Teik ( hokkien language) rituals for the dead/departed ones.
 

So what is this Koong Tuck all about?

The Chinese believed that KOONG tuck (in Cantonese) and kong teik (in Hokkien) are Buddhist terms which mean “added merit” or “transfer of merit”. 

• Some Chinese families hold koong tuck to add or transfer merits to their departed ones and to relieve them of the sufferings in the afterlife
• Koong tuck is commonly observed during Qing Ming (Chinese All Souls Day, which falls on April 5 this year) or during the Chinese seventh lunar month (the Ghost Month). The ritual can take place at one’s home or at a temple. 
• Such a ceremony is performed seven or 49 days after a person’s death or to mark the first and third death anniversary. Such rituals are commonly performed on the seventh day or 21st day after the death of a person. A bigger koong tuck is held on the 49th day, especially by the Hokkiens. After 49 days, the Buddhists believe, the soul would have departed this world.
• Although some people think that it would no longer be significant to hold such rituals after these designated days, there are some Chinese families who are more flexible about when to hold such a ritual, such as during the funeral ceremony, to avoid the hassle of having to gather the next-of-kin again on another day and to cut costs. Others perform koong tuck even after three years or 30 years which is like performing “a religious service to the dead
• The original concept of koong tuck was based on the traditional idea that there is an afterlife society.
• The Chinese believe that a person who has done good deeds will be rewarded in the afterlife. They believe he has accumulated merits to ease his sufferings there.
• Customarily, odd-numbered days (such as the third, fifth or seventh day) are picked for such “inauspicious” rituals. Culturally, the Chinese reserve even-numbered days for auspicious matters. 

What normally does this ritual/ceremony entails?

• They are normally in the form of asking monks to chant sutras for the dead as chanting sutras can help the spirit to have a better afterlife. 
• Besides this chanting, there is the offering of paper paraphernalia to the dead, that is part of this ritual (as well as a practice during Qing Ming and the Ghost Month), is a mix of religious practices, namely, Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism. Paper paraphernalia such as hell money, or paper mansions and other materialistic goods, are burned for the use of the departed in the afterlife

Buddhist’s belief:

According to the Buddhist belief, when a man dies, his spirit leaves this life and enters another realm. “The term chiu toh (in Cantonese) refers to the uplifting of the dead. The purpose of koong tuck is to achieve chiu toh (salvation of the soul.
Filial piety is one of the good ethics of the Chinese. Whether the elders are right or wrong, their descendants will remember that they brought them into this world. The patriarchs are symbols of tradition, culture and good values. Hence, when the elders pass on, the descendants show their filial piety and gratitude, and fulfill their obligations to their dearly departed. 
Some Chinese believe that they are obligated to help their departed family members to counter their problems in the afterlife society. One way of doing so is to add merits to them. “In a kong teik, the Chinese families hope that the Supreme Power, such as Amitabha in Buddhism or creator of Tao in Taoism, will come and rescue the suffering spirit. 
“The Supreme Power is invited, in the hope that he will influence the spirit of the departed and change his mentality so that he can go to a higher stage of ‘life’. Unknown spirits are also ‘rescued’ in such rituals. 
“A belief associated with such a ritual is that the departed is still indebted to the world. Hence, living relatives burn hell notes so that the departed can pay their dues.” 
In orthodox Buddhism, there is no fixed day to hold memorial services for the dearly departed. Sometimes such a service is held at a time convenient to all relatives.In the transfer of merits, we need to focus our minds on the departed ones. Sometimes the deceased can get the merits and sometimes they can’t, if they are in the process of being reborn or have been reborn.
One grand occasion of transfer merit or Kong Tuck has happened on Sept 7 last year, whereby over 1,000 Buddhist devotees and 140 monks attended a transfer of merits ceremony to commemorate the seventh day of the demise of Ven Rev K. Sri Dhammananda Nayaka Thera, the former Chief High Priest of Malaysia and Singapore. The transfer of merits ceremony coincided with a full-moon day. The next-of-kin of the late Dhammananda symbolically poured water from a teapot into a teacup to signify the transfer of merits from the living to the dead.

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To the Chinese, the Hungry Ghost Festival is consider an important annual festival to commemorate the dead/spirits

Why is Hungry Ghost Festival important to the Chinese?

In my earlier article on annual Ching Ming festival, there is the mention about the Chinese viewing the relationship between the living and the dead as a important aspect of their family life. It’s just not only about getting a burial site/grave it is also about maintaining the tomb-site of their family’s ancestors

The Ching Ming festival ensures that the relatives can “take care of their ancestors” by offering hell money/etc.

But what about those dead who have left this physical world without a proper burial or who have no relatives to care for them? The Chinese believe that those dead without relatives/descendants to take care of, will turn into spirits/ghosts who then become bitter and retaliate by creating danger in the living world. These ghosts/spirit who are “hungry” need to be taken care of.

Hence, we have then the Hungry Ghost festival which is held on the fifteenth day of the seventh lunar month. Why the seventh lunar month is because the Chinese believe that the gates of the underworld are opened during this time to allow these unfortunates to wander in the world of the living. Their anger can be soothed if they are presented with the same offerings that are given to the ancestors and gods and their anger can be further assuaged if they are entertained by several days of opera.

About the Hungry Ghost Festival:-

• The celebrations are normally arranged by the Residents’ Association
• House to house collections are made to subsidize this event
• A theatre is built at one end and altar hugh sticks of incense are constantly burnt at the other end
• Deities are carried in a sedan chairs from local temples and reside in a temporary temple behind the altar.
• In the first two weeks before the festival, families make private offerings to the ghosts in a ceremony known as shiu yi /”burning clothes”
• Those who live close to the sea sail out to pray and scatter rice on the water or launch small paper boats carrying food and paper offerings to appease the ghosts who are had been lost at sea
• On the last evening of this festival which is usually on the fifteenth day of the seventh moon, the paper “ Bank of Hell” notes, paper clothes, furniture, transport and food are “sent”/burnt to the ghosts.
• As the festival draws to its close the hugh paper statue of the deity normally Tai Si Wong is carried from one end of the bonfire to the other to the other so that he can assess the efforts that have been made and then he too is burnt so he can make his report to Heaven.

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To the Chinese, Ching Ming is a very important annual festival to commemorate the dead.

Why is Ching Ming Festival so important to the Chinese?

The Chinese view the relationship between the living and the dead as a important aspect of their family life. The relationships with the dead does not end merely by getting a proper burial site, it is the continual maintanance of the needs of the ancestors that will close the loop. With the continued care of the dead primarily out of filial peity, it is also hope that in return the spirit of the ancestors can bestow good fortune on the living.

What is this Ching Ming Festival?

Ching Ming means “ clear and bright”. This is a time associate with the resurgence of life in spring and it is traditional for women and children to wear willow catkin to protect themselves at a future time from being reborn as dogs during the transmigration of souls.

This festival normally falls in the spring usually on the 5^th or 6 th April during the end of the second, or beginning of the third months of the lunar calendar.

During this event, the focus is get all the members of the family to:

• a visit to the ancestral tombs.

• sweep away the debris/undergrowth that has gathered on and around the grave during the previous year and repaint the inscriptions to the dead.

• Incense sticks and red candles are lit before the inscription and photo of the deceased on the headstone

• Rice, wine, tea, chicken, fruit and other well meaningful food are served. Bean curd and fish head and tails are one of the many food being served. Fish implies profit and the heads and tails give the offering a sense of wholeness. The word “fu” from bean curd (tao fu) sounds similar to the word “wu” meaning protect. .

• Paper clothes and “spirit” or “ hell” money are normally burnt so that the dead are provided with fresh supplies for the afterlife. In this modern era, many more paper made objects like beautiful cars, bungalow houses, boats, are now burnt for the luxurious needs of the dead.

Ching Ming Festival & Ancestral Hall.

Ching Ming festival is also the day to visit the ancestral hall The ancestral hall is a building that contains tablets listing the names of the clan’s founding ancestors and other deceased members of the family. Many families will also have a smaller ancestral shrine in their home and similar offerings are made and prayers said before these shrines at Ching Ming.

For those bigger ancestral hall:

• the founding ancestor’s tablet is put in a position of prominence on the main altar
• those who were distinguished in life, produced large families or were wealthy have positions of prominence on smaller altars to the left and right.
• The tablets belong to the most prestigious member of the family are not removed but the tablets of those were not so highly regarded are shifted to the back of the hall to make room for tablets belonging to the newly deceased.

The well-being of the dead, the living and those yet to be born is lined through the existence of these ancestral halls. In as much as the family revolved around the founder of their clan during his lifetime so it is after his death. In the past, these ancestral halls are not only places of remembrance, but also act as places of worship, community centres and council chambers.

The rituals that are performed here are performed on behalf of the whole clan. Through the offerings and ritual the dead souls maintain their vitality, the living will be guided and protected by their ancestors and those who have yet to be born will have the blessings of their deceased relatives when their names are inscribed in the register of births kept in the ancestral hall.

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