Hungry Ghost Festival

Hungry Ghost Festival is commonly celebrated by most chineses in singapore & malaysia. It a period during lunar 7th month, usually celebrated for a month. Most of the events to take place will be dinner cum auction, ge tai, chinese opera show etc.....

My company also celebrates 7th month by having a dinner cum auction & ge tai. Ours is on every 3rd sunday during 7th month. But b4 tis special day, lots of preparations r to be done.

We arranged for the tentage to be up by thurs, decorations for offerings to be up by friday, even though the event is on sun.

Tis is 1 of the god~Dai Shi Ya.

Our auction stage.

Our area is quite big ya, its bout half of a huge carpark.

3 sets of 6 feet high joss sticks, 1 is purchase by of "zhong yuan hui" while the other 2 r "xi jin" by a member & "lor zhu"

They r normally being lited on the actual day.

The day finally arrives....we reported as early as 7am as the priest will be there for the 1st round of prayers at bout 8am. But b4 tt, we gotto prepare stuffs like cooking white rice, fruits, wine & canned food.
These r some of the worshippers waiting for the 2nd round of prayers.

Wow.....so much items for offereings, includes goodie boxes, cartons of soft drinks for dinner in the nite.

Hmmm....lots of goodies. Other than rice, oil, sauces, biscuits, beverages, sugar etc....the common things used for cooking, we oso had "bak kwa" sugar cane, fruits & huat kueh. I ordered those stuff & each box costs about $100. These r being distributed to the members later on.

Finally the priest is here, getting ready to start.

Praying................

Kneeling........

Following the priest walking round & round while he chants.

The priest will throw saome of the offereings while the worshippers picks them up. These items includes biscuits, sweets, nuts & coins.

Everyone is scanning the ground juz in case they missed any good stuff. I joined in & found a candy & a 10cent coin. haha....

Last part of the ceremony is the buring process of the incense paper, dai shi ya paper status & paper money.

These r the list of "lor zhu" & towkays for the year.

Mr & Mrs Yeo are admiring the items on stage. Hmm...more like targeting wat to bid during dinner at nite ba. haha.... They are our supporters & alway bid liquors.

At about 4-6pm, restaurants pple are here to set up dinner arrangements.

Juz b4 the ge tai starts.................

Erm...btw, wat's my job?!?! Well, i dun get to sit down to enjoy dinner ya, i'm stationed at the admin table where during auction, take note of the pricing, collect money & issue receipts. BZ ya??? No dinner for mi! :-( Well, not to worry, our "zhong yuan hui" arranged the restaurant chef to cook some food for us juz b4 our event of the nite starts.

Main course~Fried Bee Hoon.

Braised Tofu with Chap Cai.

Stir fry Cauliflower.

Curry Chicken~tis is fantastic & yummy. Even my runners & Adam love it.

Mushrooms & Brocooli.

Fried Seaweed Chicken & Crabmeat Stick.

My favourite~Deep Fried Ngo Hiang

Oh, my lovely dinner to last mi throughout the nite. The dinner cum auction starts at 8.30pm, lasted till 11.35pm. By time we finished clearing all the stuff, can u imagine leaving my office at 12.20am. Gosh...wat a tiring day & i still gotto report to work the next day at 9am. sob......

Well, since its a once a year event, take it as a learning experience for mi where i get to learn more bout our local festival.