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