Cuisine & Culture the Chinese Family Way
Do you believe in spirit babies? In Chinese, we call them 婴灵 (Yīng Líng). They are the souls of babies who were aborted, miscarried, stillborn or died shortly after birth. Most of the time, they were not properly buried (especially aborted in hospital, their remains would be thrown into biohazard bags along with other bodily fluids for burning) or have a name/tablet for themselves.
Today, we are going to take a look at Chinese Funeral mourning clothing from the past, which is dangerously disappearing fast. These photos were shared with me by my uncle, which took place in 1989 during my grandfather’s funeral.
In my previous post, I mentioned about exhuming my grandfather and the contractors would then take his cleaned remains to the crematorium to get cremated. Do you know what usually happens next? This is solely based on my uncle and friend’s experiences. This is part of their Chinese ritual after cremation. It is solely for your reference. This procedure of bone picking does not apply to everyone around the world or for any other religions. Furthermore, each religion and country has their own rituals after cremation.
This year Qing Ming Festival/Tomb Sweeping fell on the 4th April 2024. It saddens me that yet again, I have not been able to pay my respects to my dad and my grandparents on this festival. There are a couple of reasons for this: my family are in Singapore so it takes some preparation to plan a long haul trip from Britain. Also, it is not easy to fly over due to school term and travel costs.
Bongeunsa Buddhist temple was founded in 794 during the United Shilla Dynasty, with a 23-metre tall Maitreya Buddha statue. We came across this temple while visiting Starfield COEX mall.
Jogyesa Temple is the main temple of the Jogye Order and a symbol of Korean Buddhism, and it is located in the heart of Seoul. It was founded in 1910 and is a place to practice Buddhism as well as a centre for education, culture and social services. This is a very impressive and colourful temple. The Main Dharma Hall/Daeungjeon is open 24 hours a day to the public.
