Devotees throng temple for Hungry Ghost ceremony

MALACCA: More than 3,000 devotees thronged the Ti Fang Fu Temple in recent days to take part in a centuries-old ritual that they believe would increase one’s luck.

The ceremony, performed during the Hungry Ghost Month, saw devotees taking part in a 1.5km procession deep in the 19th-century Jelutong Chinese Cemetery in Batu Berendam, which has more than 20,000 graves.

It is also the largest Chinese cemetery in the region.

The ritual began at 8.30pm on Tuesday and ended at 3am on Wednesday, with devotees making offerings to the temple’s three deities: Da Er, Ye Bo and San Ye Bo (Eldest, Second and Third Masters) as administrators of the underworld.

Temple chairman Tey Hock Eng, 40, said the annual ceremony had grown into a tourist attraction with Chinese devotees coming from Singapore, Indonesia, Taiwan and elsewhere to seek blessings.

According to Taoist belief, the three deities are in charge of troubled souls in the underworld.

Devotees come to seek blessings from them to “top up” their good luck while also getting rid of their bad luck through the procession, he said.

He added that the ceremony fell on an auspicious date, as it marked the deities’ installation coinciding with the eve of the height of the Hungry Ghost month.

One of the conditions for a successful blessing is that devotees must not utter a word or look back while making the procession barefooted, he said, adding that a medium would bless them with a fan prior to the procession.

Among those present was American Prof Matthew Isaac Cohen, 43, who said he came to Malacca after hearing about the ritual from a friend.

“I have seen traditional Chinese opera before, but this is the first time I am witnessing it as part of an elaborate ritual in a temple,” he said.