This month is the Chinese 7th month where the Chinese believe that the gates of hell are thrown open and the spirits are allowed to roam the earth. Many Chinese Taoist will perform rituals to absolve the spirits of their sufferings. I am not sure how they do it and what is it about. Now, I for one, is not someone who disses anyone's religions or beliefs or creed. What you believe and you do is up to, as long you don't hurt anyone or doing anything illegal. I mean if you wanna put on a goat head and dance around butt-naked while chanting "Ice Ice Baby" is really up to you. If you wanna put on a white bed sheet and a pointy hat and burn crosses, hey, whatever makes you happy but you gotta stop when it involves something immoral, illegal or just down right nasty!!
But this hungry ghost, just got me thinking. First up, why the heck would the guardian of hell, which in this case is the baddest dude ever, Satan, allow the spirits to leave hell?? I mean is it a punishment, or he just wanted a day off to kick his shoes off and watch a game on TV? He (we are assuming Satan is a "HE", though after looking at the female gender of the human race, I am inclining towards "SHE") would have one hell of time trying to get them back in, wouldn't it? All those overtimes he has to pay for his demons to round them spirits back in.
Then the Chinese folks will go ahead and put out food for these ghosts who have not been able to have a full stomach when they died. I think not having a full stomach when they died, is the least of their problems now. I mean you are in hell and EVERY religion agrees that ain't no theme park. We all agree, that there is MAJOR suffering and pain and gnashing of teeth here.
Ok, so we put food out so that they can "eat". That's another thing that gets me. How the heck are they going to eat??? They are invisible, no organs anymore, just vapours....kind of. How are they going to take up solid food, chew, digest and err....discharge? Point is they can't. So when we put the food out, isn't it like taunting them? Neh-neh-neh-neh-neh....you cannot eat it, coz you are dead!
Isn't that just cruel? Hey, maybe it's part of the punishment for being in hell!! People I have spoken to, said that after the prayers and the burning of the joss stick, the ghost "feed" by taking the smell of the food. That is even more sad then being dead. So after the smell is taken, is the food edible?
Anyway, I thought I share my massive dilemma with you as a Chindian and a Catholic. I am very into religion and I respect everyone's beliefs. I mean, people are going to ask why the heck am I kneeling in front of this gruesome torture and killing object with a bloody man hanging on it? Are we some sadist??
But I just couldn't get my head around this hungry ghost thing. I was also told that you can send the spirits, worldly things by burning papier mache type representation of the objects you wanna send. So for the modern world, you can burn cars, iPods (though I am not sure if it would help since there isn't iTunes in hell and legal music), maids, houses, DVD, TV, etc. Again, how does it get to them? Is the postal service that efficient? Things are getting more outrageous as I was told by my friend that a medium (that's right, someone who makes contact with the dead) told him his grandfather is not happy as there is no petrol in hell and his car can't move!!!!
So he "burnt" a can of petrol for "him". Isn't petrol combustible??? So do we now have to send a petrol kiosk down? I am lost!! Anyway, this is one of the colourful aspects of the multi culture of Malaysia. Just leave the food outside your gate so that "they" don't come into your house!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment