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Friday, August 3, 2007

Day Two Part Two

Be sure to visit the gallery for more photos and videos: HERE!


After the divine spirit's carriage visits each table and casted the blessing, the villagers start to burn paper money on the ground. These "money" are just a form of offerings for both gods and ghosts, and are commonly burnt on various traditional rituals through out the year.





After the ritual, there will be a time gap before the end of the ceremony. The time will be about how long it takes for one incense stick to burn, which is about 2 hrs, so people either return to their homes or enjoy the opera at the temple. The divine spirit also sits peacefully as one of the audiences.





So here's the divine spirit siting on his carriage.




Ok Time's Up!



2 hours's up and it's time for the second round of ritual. The ritual, again, starts from a warm up before the contingent makes another tour around the village. This time, I followed them!





One of the stops during the tour is another round of paper money burning. This time, they simply gathered everyone's offerings to an outdoor incinerator for convenient purpose.





The leader than walks around the incinerator to perform a ritual as the paper burns.





The contingent then makes their way back to the temple.




The fire cracker marks the end of the ceremony, and as soon as it ends, everyone leaves with their offerings as quickly as they came, and returns to their daily routine.









At the end of the entire ceremony, the leader has to help "wake" the team members up. The team member is said to be possessed by the divine spirit during the ceremony.



The morning after.... village in peace again.

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