CHENG BENG 2013 [ANCESTORS'S GRAVES]

Every year, a large group of relatives will gather at my grandparents' grave for Cheng Beng, then the group will dwindle to a smaller group.  Most of them are either busy or they are afraid to continue to visit the other ancestors' graves cos' there are about another 10 more to visit.  Of course, these ancestors were hardly known to us cos' some of them had passed away even before we are born.

Those remaining in the group that continued to complete the tasks are my siblings, nephews and nieces [occasionally one of my cousin brother will follow us whenever he has the time].   Sometimes, I wonder why some people can plan for annual holidays but can't plan for annual Cheng Beng which is only a day, after all everyone knows when is Cheng Beng.  Is it because of 'out of sight out of mind?' or some other better reasons [scared of visiting the cemeteries?].  Anyway, I have no answers, only those we don't go Cheng Beng can provide us with the answers.

Here are some of our ancestors' graves that we have visited during this year's Cheng Beng [forgot to take photos of others, will do next year]. These graves were located at United Hokkien Cemetery, Mount Erskine, Penang.  They are about a century old and we [4th and 5th generations]are still visiting them annually cos' we managed to locate them eventhough the cemetery is not well looked after.   Most of the graves here were left abandoned [not visited] by their relatives.   Luckily, we didn't abandon our beloved ancestors.  Probably because of upbringing.  My late father used to bring us and tells us about our ancestors during Cheng Beng.

  

The following were graves of our great grand aunties and great grand uncles  whom their children had gone back to China during the Emergency era.

The following grave belonged to a so called god grandma [my father's god mum] who according to my late Papa, had passed away at a very young age.

We also visited Ang Hock Si Siamese Temple, Perak Road, Penang where we offered Cheng Beng prayers to one of our late Papa's employee [Loo Ah Kang].  He was a bachelor and had passed away at a good old age.  We have been visiting this temple annually where his urn was interned as a mark of respect to him being our late Papa's loyal staff.  

This year I had missed out taking photos of my grandparents and several other ancestors buried at Paya Terubong and Batu Gantong, Penang cemeteries.  Must remember to take the pictures next year.