Wednesday, February 4, 2009

On Praying to the Jade Emperor... 天公诞

The 9th day of lunar new year is an important date for the hokkien ethnic... In order to explain in more detail to readers that don't know what is this day about ... I wikipedia and found this


The ninth day of the New Year is a day for Chinese to offer prayers to the Jade Emperor of Heaven (天公) in the Taoist Pantheon. The ninth day is traditionally the birthday of the Jade Emperor.
This day is especially important to Hokkiens and Teochews (Min Nan speakers). Come midnight of the eighth day of the new year, Hokkiens will offer thanks giving prayers to the Emperor of Heaven. Offerings will include sugarcane as it was the sugarcane that had protected the Hokkiens from certain extermination generations ago. Tea is served as a customary protocol for paying respect to an honored person.


I went to my grand uncle's house to celebrate the important day together with my parents, sis and brother in law... we reached uncle place at about 10 something. We greet each other and proceed to help out my grand aunty on preparing to lay all the necessary offering items on the table ... :) As KhengSiong was asking "No sugarcane? How about "angku kuih" etc?" hey dude, here you go the Sugarcane and Angku Cake... 

Offering table 

Completed setting up the offering table, we proceed to settle the paper money / gold that would burn to offer the Jade Emperor in his bank of heaven in return of health and prosperity to the whole family members in 2009.

Preparing in progress... did you see the any gold?

Zoom in version of the paper money / gold :p

Since we had completed all the preparation in ahead of time, we were waiting for the clock to strike 12am... As the time struck 12am, the prayer started... Grand uncle and uncle was lighting up the joss stick... uncle has the biggest joss stick and grand uncle was lighting up the smaller version compare to uncle's. I like the smaller joss stick since it has the nice dragon... 

Lighting up the joss stick

Joss Stick from our prayer / offering

After completed the prayer, it's time to burn and deposit all the paper money / gold to the bank of heaven ... kakaka :p


Once everything ceremony and prayer were completed, it's our time to attack the food served on the table :p Yummy! ... I know I know... it's very fattening to eat after midnight... kakaka... just only one year once, so can't be bother ... Blek!


Left my grand uncle place at about 2am... 

13 comments:

Jonzz said...

Nice photos, especially the smoke from the incense.

Anonymous said...

A lot of fireworks in PJ during the 9th day. Hahah. But I heard there are many "rules" or pantang thing to follow if you wanna have the ceremony. Not sure though. My grandmother and uncles do have this ceremony even though we're Hok Chew, not Hokkien. :P

vincent said...

哇老!这样多食物~
你两点才回啊~
我12点就睡了。。。
累累累~~~

SS Quah said...

What....didn't let off any firecrackers or fireworks? Must be a rather quiet affair in KL. Come back to Penang to celebrate next year, then can play play all the firecrackers you want.

Medie007 said...

nice photos. very natural. :P

TZ said...

Jonzz: Thanks Thanks :) I like that shots too.

Alvin: My grand aunt is more modern... not much rules to follow ... kakaka :p

Vincent : 很多很好吃的食物。。。我三点才睡,第二天好累。。。:)

Quah, Seng-Sun: I saw the news from the paper that the Chew Jetty celebration was so great.. maybe i should go over to Penang one year :) BTW, we did not let off any fireworks...

Medie007: thanks thanks :)

Anonymous said...

Awesome photos, i like that joss stick with smoke. it really cool.

Anonymous said...

You made my dad sound so old, grand uncle... LOL

William said...

Love the light and smoke effect on the joss sticks!

KY said...

Looks interesting. I never had this kind of prayers as I'm not hokkien. And great shots. :)

TZ said...

Darren: Thanks thanks :) I like that joss stick with smoke one too...

Yee-Bien: BTW, I was upgraded to Grand Uncle too ... in another works your dad is upgraded to another level... kakaka :p

William: Thanks thanks ... I like this too ... :p

K|E|E|N|Y|E|E: Thanks ... we had the simplify version.. you can see this kind of prayer if you go to Klang or Penang ... they are more grand :)

imblogger@sh ™ said...

nice pics taken .... bravo

Twilight Man said...

The altar was so colourful and really nice! Was the altar really nice or TZ's photography is nice? Eeerrr I am confused now... LOL