Hello friends, today is an important day for the village where I live. Originally, I was an outsider but married to a wife who lives in this village. Every year, there is a tradition of worshipping the shrine. Since I have been here for almost thirty years, I have continuously seen this ritual. My mother-in-law and father-in-law will be the ones who organize almost everything in this traditional ceremony.
The origin of this tradition is that in the past, the elders believed that there were ancestors who had passed away in the village who would protect their descendants. Therefore, they built a shrine for their spirits to live in and be a place for their descendants to rely on when they were in trouble. They would come to ask for blessings to encourage them to escape from various problems in life. It is said that the ancestors will help. This spirit is called the Grandfather.
Every time children and grandchildren come to ask the Grandfather for help, such as with work, career, or problems from lost things, when their requests are successful, they will be rewarded with firecrackers and the things that were mentioned.
In the first few years of my stay here, there was a spirit possession ceremony. In this case, the spirit of the Grandfather was invited to enter the body of the person who offered to let the Grandfather enter the body. When the spirit entered, the children and grandchildren would ask about various things. To help solve the problems of the descendants, but since then for decades, no spirit has entered the body again. But there is still a merit-making event for the grandfather every year. Some years, there will be a shadow puppet show or outdoor movie for the descendants to watch if any descendants are successful in what they asked the grandfather for.
The descendants in the village will come to offer food to the grandfather every Chinese New Year. And in May of every year, there will be a big merit-making event once. And this year is another one. So I have to wake up early to help my parents clean the shrine. To wait for the descendants in the village to bring food to offer to the monks in the morning to make merit together. After the ceremony is finished and receive blessings from the monks, they will exchange the food offered to the monks and eat together before going their separate ways to work as usual.
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