morib / 2016

31.7.2016

Photos from last July. I didn't know what was I doing that took me a year to unearth these. 

My mother's brothers decided to hold a ceremony for my late maternal grandparents who have both passed away way longer than I could remember. I was pretty surprised to first hear about this ceremony, which apparently is a tradition for the Hokkiens. The ritual is named 做功德 in Mandarin, meaning to do good deeds for the deceased. People believe performing this ritual -which includes large amounts of offerings in the form of joss paper, papier-mâché clothes, houses, cars, toiletries, electronics and servants- will give the deceased a better afterlife which may be returned in good blessings to the family. To be frank I am not a strong believer of the thought of afterlife, but I had to respect this tradition and am grateful to be given a chance to learn about it. The ceremony was held by a beautiful beach in Morib, so I took it as a short getaway and brought my camera along.