It's the time of the year again. Singapore, a modern city state, has transformed itself into yet an island with the decades-old tradition of 'public concerts on a budget', and flying ashes around the tightly spaced high-rise apartments in the heartlands. A walk around the neighbourhood and you'll notice food offerings placed along the sidewalks, red candles and smouldering joss sticks standing upright in a line at the border between the concrete pavement and the grass patch, drums filled with ashes, some with an inferno of burning joss papers. It's the hungry ghost festival, or otherwise known as zhong yuan jie. The traditional taoist believers say that it is during this period of time where the gates of hell open and the spirits are free to roam. However, that point differs from one believer to another.
It is perhaps "Asian" or rather "Chinese" to be performing these religious rites at this time of the year. The reasons are simple. They want to appease the spirits so that their families will be kept safe, and hope that these spirits can bring them a windfall by giving them the numbers for the next lottery jackpot. These are greatly practical things to hope for and pray for. Your family kept out of harm's way, and you get lots of money to satisfy all your material wants. How far can these "blessings" go? What are they worth? The answer, conversely, is simple. Your lifetime. That's all. And according to the taoist belief again, you go to hell when you pass on, and require another believer who is still alive to bring you out of it. If you love data and statistics, there are bound to be some who will not make it. Those whose families have no money to hire a priest to perform more rites for your spirit. The more you pay, the better your chances. Your entry to heaven is never guaranteed and is based on how much money you can pay the priest to chant for you.
Take a look around and you'll find groups of Singaporean Chinese not performing these rituals. They are either agnostic, they don't care, or they are of other religious faiths with vastly different set of beliefs. I am a Christian, and I do not practice these rituals even though my family does. It is by God's grace and mercy and love that I have been adopted as one of his own. My promise of salvation has been sealed by the Holy Spirit, God himself. Jesus died for me so I can be free from sin and have eternal life. And I have a relationship with God the Father, whom I can now intimately call Abba. I have a guarantee of being in heaven with God.
What have I done? I did not burn joss papers or lay out food offerings along the sidewalks. All I did was to repent from my sins and believe in God. If you are so concerned about money, is it worth it to be spending so much on something without guarantee? Why not turn to God, for this salvation he is giving is free for all, and all that he asks is for you to recognise your sins, repent from them, and believe in him, the one everlasting loving God.
