Unsafe polluted water makes a homecoming

My brother's home is affected too by the Sungai Gong pollution.

Water is a basic need of a human being. The human right to water and sanitation is recognized as a human right by the United Nations General Assembly on 28 July 2020.

The human right to water entitles everyone to sufficient, safe and acceptable, physically accessible and affordable water for personal and domestic uses.

Being deprived of a safe supply of water many consumers has to take an alternative way out. Some ways turn out to be tougher and some nicer.

My younger brother has come back to his hometown with his wife and daughter and of course, their unwashed clothing.

It was a busy but merry Saturday for me.

From 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. I was engaged with my dentist and then I rushed back to prepare fish porridge for them as lunch.

An hour after they ringed the gate bell, my wife returned from work and my grandson came for his weekly visit.

It was a party for us. By tea time on middle afternoon, we celebrated my son's birthday with an Opera Cafe made by Olive & Butter.

Domino's pizzas, Fabulous Four, Cheesy Cheddar Stix, Chessy Mozzarela Stix, Stuffed Cheddar Bites and KFC is our dinner menu.

Quickly I bites some, and drove out early to a Por Tor Hungry Ghost Offerings. I did a live facebook. Watch 

Being a staple food, some of the top rice consuming countries are China, India, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Philippines, Thailand, Burma, Japan, Brazil and of course, Malaysia. Rice is also a staple food, to ghosts, spirits and wondering souls.

A pot of cooked rice for ghosts, spirits and
wondering souls to add. Why the pot
of cooked rice is pierced with joss sticks?

Try to look carefully, on a row of rice in bowls, a row of tea in cups, a row of chopsticks and a row of spoons. What do you find?

I find out:

1 joss sticks are pierced on evey bowls of rice.

2 some spoons are moved or caused to move to a sloping position.

3 some tea cups have been displaced.

Look carefully at the joss sticks, spoons
and tea cups. Why bowls of cooked rice
are pierced with joss sticks?

Below this row of rice bowls, I see these!

Look at the hats, shirts, paper money in
different denomination, bath soap,
poker cards, talcum powder, oil lamp,
toothpaste, face towel, and water tub.
Why are these items being place below
the table?

What we have been paying attention is only the edge of this table and we have not understand the customary of other tables joined to a length about 100 feet.

On the other edge of a table near the 100th feet area, I would like to share with you this photograph.

Can you see the paper triangular flag?
What are they for?

The SaiKong you see during a wake would accompany the hearse to the burial ground or the cremation site. SaiKong chant and makes gestures incomprehensible to you and me.

The SaiKong is needed to deliver the chant and gestures so that the Por Tor is safely managed.

When the Por Tor has just begun, rain drops made scattered marks over the courtyard on 195 Jalan Parameswara, Melaka. It reminds me of water and the dead.

Since 1971, the folklore about the dead on the 7th day is mind blogging. Accordingly, the dead only realized they have died on the 7th day when he is brought to wash his hands. 

Skin and flesh of his hands melt with the water, and he wonder why. He then looks into the mirror and he realized he has died. A bowl of water for him to drink is given to forget about his living past.

You may have heard that the dead would return to visit their loved ones on the 7th day of his death. Old folks explained how could they let go of them if they don't drink the forgetting-water.

The other magical power of water is used in rain specially during the dark or before sunrise.

It is belief that some ghost, spirits and wondering souls break the rules set out by the Yanluo, the King of Hell during the Ghost Month.

Ghost Month is a month for the ghost to return to the living world but each morning they must leave the daylight world and goes back to their underworld. But some are tenacious and refused to go back to their underworld even when the sun is about to break darkness.

Noting predawn rain during the ghost month each year makes me conscious of the Bullhead and Hourseface and their teams enforcing the rules. Here again, old folks emphasized the ghost, spirits and wondering souls seemed to be afraid of water.

They don't like daylight other than water and if some would to escape the rules, they would hide themselves under the umbrella. If you have heard before, someone would have told you, ' Don't bring umbrella into your home '

The influence of water is briefly described and there is a more comprehensive and thorough knowledge someone out there could add.

The King of Hell is on the left side of this photograph.

Hungry Ghost Month is a rush rush
for some ghost, spirit and wondering souls
who have not being taken by
their living loved ones.

There are many do's and don'ts you know but perhaps you may have not heard of the sighting of their paranormal activities. Old folks have told me that putting a cockerel head above the head and squatting under a table enable one to see them in actions during the food offering prayers. Be careful ...



Notes: If you want to understand Wangkang and Wondering Souls - Listen