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.