And so it begins, the start of the nine day vegetarian festival at Ampang Nan Tian Gong, with the raising of the lantern pole at midday today (8th Oct 2018). As per tradition, this temple will go out to 'invite' the Nine Emperor Gods from a nearby river later in the evening (7.30pm). Noticeably the temple grounds is filled predominantly with two very significant colours that are associate with this festival, yellow and white.
Yellow is of course the colour of royalty in the East, and hence things associated the Nine Emperor Gods or divinity during this festival would be clad in yellow. The other colour is white, being a symbol of purity (the strict vegetarian diet) or mourning (associated with certain stories of how the festival arose) and hence devout devotees/followers would wear all white including covering the head with a white scarf for the duration of the festival.
