PRAYERS FOR MY MUM ON THE FIFTH WEEK AFTER HER PASSING

I attended a special prayer ceremony for my mother at the Paradise Memorial Park this morning.  This is where her cremated remains are kept in an urn alongside that of my dad's.  It has been exactly five weeks to the day that my mum passed away. Traditionally the females of the family would bear the cost for this ceremony. The boys of the family are the ones who perform the ceremony on the first week. As my mum did not give birth to a son, we did not have a ceremony on the third week which the sons of the family are supposed to perform.

After the funeral and burial, the Taoists and Buddhist carry out ceremonies that last at least for 49 days. According to Taoist beliefs, death is not the ending of life but the beginning of the spiritual stage. Taoists believe that the Yang component a person comprises three Wan souls and the Yin component comprises seven Pak souls. The three Wan souls form the skeleton and the seven Pak souls make up the flesh. At the death of a Taoist, a ritual is carried out to let the deceased's three Wan souls be transported to the netherworld. However, the seven Pak souls are said to linger after death and a ceremony is performed every seven days to send one of these seven Pak souls to the other world. It is only at the end of 49 days that the deceased is fully at rest in the other world and be able to bless the descendants still living on earth.The first 7 days are believed to be the most important. Prayers are said every 7 days for 49 days. It is during this period that the prayers of the mourners are believed to help the deceased during the post-death transformation and awaken their spirit to the true nature of death.

However, not every family carry out the prayers for all of the 7 weeks. For my mum, we did it for the first week and then the fifth week. Then we will do it on the seventh week which is the enlightenment ceremony on the 49th day. It is believed that this ceremony will help to free the soul from suffering and pain. The final ceremony will be on the 100th day.

The Buddist nun, Sifu Sui was the one who performed the ceremony. She had helped to buy the apples, oranges, Fatt Koe and vegetarian food. I brought along dragon fruit, cup cakes, flowers and lotus candles.