Asian All Souls Day (Chin Ming)

Chin Ming - helpful wikipedia link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qingming_Festival

Roman Catholic version (All Souls Day) - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Day_of_the_Dead

Janet went on a guided tour with the American Association of Malaysia.  A number of my team took time off work to pay their respects.  They came back, glad to be at work - too much work paying observances.  Several friends in Poland say they pay their respects a week early to avoid the overwhelming crowds at the cemetaries.  Chinese are more practical - the holiday observance is over several weeks.

Chinese Cemeteries are open to all, regardless of religion, provided you observe the burial conventions (individual graves) so practically are open to all but Muslim.  There are two Chinese cemeteries in KL (Old and new). 

There are a mix of burial plots and Urn ashes storage (I'm sure there is a official name)

 The traditional Chinese can be much more colorful (so would say Magpie like - everything possible bright and shiny) than Christian graves

There is the average person's burial site

and then Millionaire's row.

There is much about the ceremony Janet didn't capture but what she did was
Lighting candles and incense to your ancestors

Buying paper replica's of everything the dead would need in the next life (cars, houses, iPads, etc).  In fact there were some newspaper stories that the paper iPhones and iPads had become so popular that they had run out.  Ancestors have been dead for awhile, but I guess the appeal of Apple products transcends physical presence.

 You have a meal and show the ancestors your gifts until you get a sign that they are tired of your visit and then you go to the burn pit. 

Burn everything and the ashes go to the ancestors so they can use the gifts in the next life

 

Then you go home and vow to shop earlier next year so you can get the best paper imitation products before then run out