Sunday, June 20

A Different Temple Procession 

Attended a Temple procession today but the difference today was that I was in the procession instead of the usual watching. And instead of the usual mix of Heavenly and Nether Gods, all the Gods invited for this procession are from The Nether World and there wasn't any Sedan Chair as well.

Went to fetch Ah Biah and Audrey from Audrey's place in Hougang and had lunch together. Adjourned to Xian Dan Gong at Old Tampines Road as Ah Biah need to pay respect to the Deities for his trance later. Stop by at Tampines to pick Xiao Di up before making our way to Fa Shen Dian at Circuit Road.

There doesn't seems to be much activities going on and we wondered if we were too early but Ah Biah was quickly dragged away for make up once the People -in-charge knows that he is the medium for San Ye Bo. More people started arriving and suddenly the place was bustling with activities.

At two o'clock sharp, the first medium went into trance and Ah Biah was asked to go into trance as well instead of the usual practice of waiting for the Da Ye Ye Bo's mediums. When San Ye Bo possessed him, the crying and wailing was much more chilling than usual and could see that some of the aunties watching were with red eyes.

It took an entire hour for all the fifteen mediums to go into trance. As all were Nether Gods, there wasn't the usual drums and cymbals but bamboo drums and cymbals were sounded instead - just like the ancient way of telling people the time.

The Gods in the procession included:

Hei Mian Tai Zi
Shi San Tai Bao
Fu De Zhen Shen
Qi Xing Da Di
Nai He Tong Zi

Ri Xun
Ye Xun
Ying Yan Shi
Cheng Huang Gong

Wen Pan Guang
Wu Pan Guang
Bao Gong Da Ren

San Ye Bo
Er Ya Bo
Da Ye Bo

There was also Nui Tou, Ma Mian and seven generals represented by people not in trance. The procession was a spectacular sight with all the brightly colored ropes and such.

We left Circuit Road at about three plus and visited many places to pay respect. Only arrived back to Circuit Road at ten plus and took another half hour to walk back to the tentage. Since there were 15 mediums in all and each took some time to de-trance, it was almost 11 when Ah Biah came out of his trance.

Fun filled day but tired out as I was serving as San Ye Bo assistant. Actually its more like directing the other few friends on what to do as they were very green in looking after mediums in trance.

It has been a long time since I done something like that and its a really happy day.

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andi at 23:59