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.
