Dou Mu and The Ninth Day of the Nine Emperor Gods Festival

The ninth day of the Nine Emperor Gods Festival, which is the last day of the festival, is also the birthday (or more correctly the manifestation anniversary) of Dou Mu (斗姆元君), the Mother Goddess of the Nine Emperor Gods.

Prayers specifically to Dou Mu on this day to ask for her blessings are believed to be very efficacious, and temples would usually conduct this prayer today, besides holding the usual events for Nine Emperor Gods Festival such as fire walking or bridge crossing.

Unfortunately this year's festival had been dampened by the Covid-19 pandemic and is very much a non-event in many parts of Malaysia. And as we bid this year's not so happening Nine Emperor Gods Festival goodbye, we can only hope that next year we get to enjoy all the festivities as usual again.

Nine Emperor Gods Festival 2020 Day 6 - A Different Feeding the Armies (犒军) Ceremony at Ampang

The Feeding of the Heavenly Armies Ceremony (Ko Kun - 犒军) during Nine Emperor Gods Festival at Ampang Nine Emperor Gods Temple is usually a very crowded and vibrant event, with devotees and onlookers jostling to get a glimpse of what is happening.

However, this year with the Covid-19 pandemic and the government imposed movement control order, it has resulted in a very different and strangely quiet ceremony, carried out only by the temple committee members sans the priest, large amount of food, mediums and thronging devotees  in white.

 

A Smoky but Silent Nine Emperor Gods Festival 2020 at Ampang

Today is the eve of the Nine Emperor Gods Festival 2020, and I decided to pass by Ampang Nine Emperor Gods temple at 5pm to see how things were going. The gates were locked and as you can see from the pictures, it was a silent affair due to the lock-down imposed by the government recently.

 

Despite being quiet and very unbecoming of the festival we know of, it was still smoky, as the temple caretakers had already lit the large joss sticks that had been ordered by devotees prior to the lock-down.

A truly different take on the festival this year, smoky.... but silent!

No Go for Nine Emperor Gods Festival 2020 in Ampang and KL

Despite not planning to hold the usual festivities associated with Nine Emperor God Festival this year at Ampang Nine Emperor Gods temple (安邦南天宫九皇爷庙) due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, they were all set up and ready for the coming festival to be celebrated in a simple manner, with areas for devotees to queue and orderly enter and exit the temple already drawn up according to the government required SOP. Even the huge dragon joss-sticks for the festival were ready and on display at the temple grounds since last weekend.

Alas, it looks like all Nine Emperor Gods temples in the whole Klang Valley area will fall silent this year, and devotees would not be able to celebrate the coming festival due to the recently announced CMCO (Conditional Movement Control Order) for Klang Valley starting October 14th by the government, which prohibits religious centers from operating at all and thus making the festival a no-go.

The decision on the CMCO for Klang Valley came quite suddenly, and temples in Klang Valley were caught off guard; for whilst most were not planning to hold large scale celebrations, nevertheless the majority of them were in the midst of prepping up their temples for low key prayers (like in Ampang) for devotees that still want to come in and pray during this festival. At Ampang Nan Tian Gong temple today, it was pretty heartbreaking to have witnessed the temple staff having to take down the colourful flags put up for the festival just days before the start of the festival.

Inside the temple, it was eerily quiet and quite obvious that the staff were not in high spirits, plus the inner hall was devoid of the usual donations of rice, cooking oil and other foodstuff that usually would have flooded the temple by this time of the year.

Perhaps this year is a good time to celebrate the festival in a calm and self-reflective mood, all thanks to the Covid-19 pandemic.

UPDATE: Apparently places of worship are now allowed to open with max 6 people inside their premises during the CMCO. However I do not foresee this changing the decision already taken by the temples to closing their doors to devotees.

The Day The Music Died... How the 'New Normal' has Affected the Ampang Nine Emperor Gods Festival 2020

Today is exactly 7 days to the eve of this year's Nine Emperor Gods Festival, and as the festival draws near, one cannot help feel a little disappointed as nothing much is actually happening due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

With the ongoing Covid-19 situation in Malaysia, the decision was made by the the Ampang Nine Emperor Gods temple management on the 16th of September to cancel this year's festivities altogether, although the temple will still be open for worshipers. For me, the once in a year 'life' of Ampang New Village has literally being 'silenced' by this decision.

And that means there will be no loud Chinese opera music from the temple this year, no clanging of temple bells and lion dance troupes bashing cymbals and drums on the eve of the festival this year, no loud announcements from the temple of people looking for their relatives etc....

Looking back at one of my post from 2019 when I said that the festival has always been Same same but Different (click to read that post in 2019), little did I know that I would be be proven so wrong this year, with the festival turning out to be very, very different. Perhaps I should have taken back what I have said about the festival being a 'repeat year in year out'.

Perhaps all we can hope (and pray) for is that in 2021, the festival will return to normal, whatever normal might be then...

So here's a list of a few other things that we will be missing this year at Ampang without the Nine Emperor Gods Festival...

• Massive traffic crawl from Jalan Ampang leading to the temple.
  
• Friendly old aunties staying in the dorm (will miss seeing them having aged one more year)
  
• The crowd formed by devotees dressed all in white during the Feeding of the Heavenly Armies (Ko Kun)
• The stalls lining the roads leading to the temple and in the temple courtyard
• Processions for the invitation of the Nine Emperor Gods and Finance Minister
• Bridge crossing and fire walking and...
  
• Cheryl Hoffmann... she has gone back to be at her daughter's wedding (Congrats!!!)... I hope she will be back to join us in 2021
  

Next post - Covid-19 and the cancellation of Nine Emperor Gods Festival in Klang Valley:

• No Go for Nine Emperor Gods Festival 2020 in Ampang and KL

Previous post in this countdown series to Nine Emperor Gods 2020 series:

• Fire and Purification - The Nine Emperor Gods Festival

Fire and Purification - The Nine Emperor Gods Festival

Just 10 more days to Nine Emperor Gods Festival 2020 - so here's a take on what happened during the festival in 2019.

Fire walking, which is associated with purification and the renewal of cosmic energy, is a common practice at Nine Emperor Gods Festival as a rite that allows devotees to be blessed and energized with the power of the divine Heaven. Seen here is a form of fire walking, called Crossing the Fire Gates (过火门), that was carried out at Jinjang Nine Emperor Gods Festival in 2019.

Next post in this countdown to Nine Emperor Gods 2020 series:

• The Day The Music Died... How the 'New Normal' has Affected the Ampang Nine Emperor Gods Festival 2020

Previous post in this countdown series to Nine Emperor Gods 2020 series:

• Nine Emperor Gods Festival: Bizarre Body Piercings When the Spirits Descend...

Nine Emperor Gods Festival: Bizarre Body Piercings When the Spirits Descend...

Counting down to Nine Emperor Gods Festival which is only 13 days away (or 12 days to the eve of the festival), let us talk about one of the more intriguing visual aspects of this celebration.

Besides the yellow flags and vegetarian stalls, one of the many iconic images associated with the upcoming Nine Emperor Gods Festival you see on the internet are those of bizarre and extreme body piercings done by Thai spirit mediums (Mah Songs). Not only are the piercings large, the items used leaves little to the imagination and are often unreligious but consist of mundane household objects... bicycle, step-ladders, stand-fan, blades, swords, etc.

A spirit medium with a big rod through his cheek connected to a small push bike during the
2019 Kuala Pilah Nine Emperor Gods Festival procession

Whilst we seldom see such bizarre practices here in Malaysia, there are a few local mediums that do it, and there are also temples whom 'employ' mediums from Southern Thailand for this festival as a means to attract devotees and visitors to flock to their temple to witness this spectacle, as in the case of Kuala Pilah Nine Emperor Gods Temple.

Medium with lucky charms hanging from his cheek piercing. whilst the rod may look short and
unimposing for now, they will connect huge flages to both ends of the rod for the procession
through the town later on.

So why do these mediums carry out such bizarre piercings? Well, some believe that by inflicting pain or mutilating themselves, the gods that possesses the spirit medium are transferring bad luck and averting misfortune from the devotees onto themselves.

Piercing the cheek of a medium in trance....

Also the blood that flows from self-inflicted wounds are believed to be 'divine' blood as it flows from a body that carries the divine spirit, and thus is used to make 'blood talismans' i.e. talisman with blood from self-mutilations smeared onto them. That is why you see in the pictures here the mediums have talismans and lucky objects hanging from their piercings as to empower them with this 'divine' power.

Having a metal bar pierced through your cheek isn't a typical
job for the faint-heated or the uninitiated.

Next post in this countdown to Nine Emperor Gods 2020 series:

• Fire and Purification - The Nine Emperor Gods Festival

Previous post in this countdown to Nine Emperor Gods 2020 series:

• Will the Show Still Go On after Covid-19?? - Countdown to Nine Emperor Gods Festival 2020

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival 2020

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival (or Mooncake Festival) to all my friends. Pictured here is a type of mooncake called Moonlight Cake(月光饼) that is not frequently seen and is associated with the Hakka people.

This cake is very simple and made of glutinous rice flour, sugar, oil/shortening plus some flavouring like fragrant screw-pine (pandan). The cake when dry is powdery and crumbly, but exposed to humidity it becomes chewy and sticky. Not the usual rich and filling Cantonese style mooncakes but more than enough to give you a sugar rush.

The poem on the left is a popular poem associated with the moon and the Mid-Autumn Festival by a popular Chinese poet... take a guess which one is that.