Ancestor worship: Man's dead
Dec 7, 2011 23:55:07 GMT -5
Post by amy on Dec 7, 2011 23:55:07 GMT -5
A few years ago, I told this family story to my friend and noted folklorist Steve Zeitlen. He later asked if he could include my telling in a book he was putting together on the many hidden sites, secret histories, and multi-layered culture of New York City . Of course I said, "yes". I wanted to share this with other forum members here and hope you get a chuckle from it.
Excerpt from the book Hidden New York: A Guide to Places That Matter by Marci Reaven and Steve Zeitlen
It’s a Chinese folk tradition to go to the cemetery every year and present offerings to your ancestors. In the folk religion that we followed when we were kids, when you die there’s no heaven or hell – it’s all hell. And in the afterworld, you are dependent on your descendants to feed you, to give you clothing, to provide for you. So in some Chinatown stores you’ll find these things – I guess they’re called joss papers, and, sometimes they say ‘hell bank notes’ on them. So once a year you go to the cemetery, you go to the grave of an ancestor, and you burn the paper money and you give offerings of food.
When my father died, we buried him in a cemetery in Canarsie. And we would go there every year and burn stuff for him, and also for my uncles who are also buried there. I have one uncle who was a heavy smoker, and he died in the 1950’s. And every year when we would go to the cemetery we would – in addition to the food and the wine and the money – we would burn packs of cigarettes for him. One year we went to the cemetery, and we brought all the offerings, and I’m watching my mother go through the ritual, and I realized she forgot the cigarettes. She didn’t bring cigarettes for my uncle. So I said, "You forgot the cigarettes!"
And she said, "Smoking’s not good for you. He has to cut back!"
Excerpt from the book Hidden New York: A Guide to Places That Matter by Marci Reaven and Steve Zeitlen
It’s a Chinese folk tradition to go to the cemetery every year and present offerings to your ancestors. In the folk religion that we followed when we were kids, when you die there’s no heaven or hell – it’s all hell. And in the afterworld, you are dependent on your descendants to feed you, to give you clothing, to provide for you. So in some Chinatown stores you’ll find these things – I guess they’re called joss papers, and, sometimes they say ‘hell bank notes’ on them. So once a year you go to the cemetery, you go to the grave of an ancestor, and you burn the paper money and you give offerings of food.
When my father died, we buried him in a cemetery in Canarsie. And we would go there every year and burn stuff for him, and also for my uncles who are also buried there. I have one uncle who was a heavy smoker, and he died in the 1950’s. And every year when we would go to the cemetery we would – in addition to the food and the wine and the money – we would burn packs of cigarettes for him. One year we went to the cemetery, and we brought all the offerings, and I’m watching my mother go through the ritual, and I realized she forgot the cigarettes. She didn’t bring cigarettes for my uncle. So I said, "You forgot the cigarettes!"
And she said, "Smoking’s not good for you. He has to cut back!"
