Centuries-old custom highlight of temple’s Hungry Ghost Festival
SIBU: Er Par Wang Temple at Deshon Road here celebrated the Hungry Ghost Festival on Saturday night by burning the largest paper boat in town for the dead.
Temple chairman Ting Chuo Won said the boat had a length of 43 feet, width of nine feet and height of 33 feet.
He said the practice originated from a custom handed down since the Song Dynasty in AD960.
“This ( burning of paper boat) is a centuries- old custom. When the early settlers arrived here, they brought the practice over to hand it down to the younger generation,” he told The Borneo Post, adding he has been part of the practice since childhood.
According to him, the burning of the paper boat is to symbolically send the early settlers ‘ home’ because after they left China in their youthful days, they had not had the chance to return again.
Despite the rain on Saturday night, the spirit of carrying out the traditional ritual was not dampened.
The temple also laid out food offerings for the spirits and also burned paper money and joss sticks.
The Chinese believe that during the Hungry Ghost Festival, the gates of hell are opened to let the spirits roam free in the human world, which is why food is laid out on the streets and offerings burnt for them. After the burning of the boat, worshippers brought home the food offering for consumption.
Consuming the offered food is believed to bring blessings, luck and fortune to the worshippers and their family.