GEORGE TOWN: The air was thick with the smoke of incense as tens of thousands of celebrants greeted the onset of the ninth day of Chinese New Year last night, colloquially called the Hokkien New Year.
Though this demarcation of clanship had ended in everyday life in Malaysia, ethnic Chinese of Hokkien origin still hold fast to olden practices.
Last night the roads became extra jammed and hardly a single Chinese-run shop opened in Penang as celebrants paid tribute to the Jade Emperor, the arch-deity said to rule heaven.
Along the roadside of the centuries-old Chinese clan jetties in Weld Quay here, a devout atmosphere was building since late afternoon yesterday.
This place harbours the thickest concentration of old-school Hokkien communities.
At Chew Jetty (a clan of people sharing that surname), the Chao Yuan Kong temple created a surreal atmosphere to pay tribute to the Jade Emperor.
Tourists by the thousands were present too, witnessing the level of devotion and ostentatiousness that Penang Hokkiens paid to the divinities.
All hands on deck: Preparing the offering for the Jade Emperor. — LIM BENG TATT/The Star
Student Chew Kai Xin, 25, who is on a three-month semester break from her university in Melbourne said she was overjoyed to finally come home and join in.
“This is among the biggest celebration for us beside Chinese New Year,” she said.
Kai Xin who took post-graduate studies in counselling said normally, she and her siblings and cousins prepared fruits and food as offerings.
“Our prayers will be for the goodness of our people and our family,” he said.
Her uncle, Chew Eng Tong, said the ninth day of Chinese New Year was also the Jade Emperor’s birthday and that made it extra auspicious.
As a fourth generation member of the Chew clan, he said over 150 direct clan members had returned for the celebrations and he was moved to tears to meet them all.
Businessman Ooi Kok Hong, 50, although he was not a Chew, was present and celebrating in earnest.
“My sister married a Chew, and for many years I have celebrated the occasion like a fellow family member as well,” he said.
At one time, hundreds of years ago, the Hokkiens were subject to extermination in ancient China.
Struggling to exist, the Hokkiens hid in sugarcane plantations on the ninth day of Chinese New Year, each person gripping a sugarcane stalk and praying for dear life as enemy soldiers scoured the land.
It was said that everyone who held a sugarcane stalk became invisible to the soldiers and they survived. And that is why the ninth day of Chinese New Year means so much to them.
