Sending off the Nine Emperor Gods

Tuesday, 4 October, was the 9th day of the 9th Lunar Month - the last day of the Nine Emperor Gods Festival, a day for devotees to give the Nine Emperor Gods a grand send-off.

In modern Singapore, ancient practices like the Nine Emperor Gods Festival must adapt to urban development and redevelopment.

On the same night, I had the fortune of witnessing two send-off ceremonies near each other. Both took place on reclaimed land - Punggol Marina for the Leng San Giam Dou Mu Gong, and Pulau Punggol Timor for the Hougang Dou Mu Gong.

Around 6.30pm, devotees from the Leng San Giam Dou Mu Gong brought in their dragon boat by forklift, to the same pier as their receiving ritual nine days earlier.

Prayers were then conducted on-site.

Close to 9pm, the main body from the temple arrived. Devotees carried and rocked nine sedan chairs bearing nine urns for the Nine Emperor Gods. Selected acolytes, kneeling the whole way, reverently carried the nine urns down the pier to be loaded onto the dragon boat.

As devotees thronged the pier, kneeling and kowtowing, a tugboat gently towed the dragon boat out to sea, where it was put to flames.

Meanwhile, less than a kilometre away, Hougang Dou Mu Gong’s send-off ritual was nearing its conclusion too.

It was a 15-minute walk from Punggol Marina to Pulau Punggol Timor via Seletar North Link, and to the ceremony site next to PPT Lodge 1A, a foreign worker dormitory.

The event attendance was significantly larger, with a bigger budget - fireworks, a concert stage, and large TV screens beaming a live feed of the ritual by the sea. However, most attendees were kept a distance away from the actual ceremony and dragon boat.

Around 10.30pm, the dragon boat was brought out to sea; again, flames lit up the night sky as the boat was torched.

As devotees filed out of the site, a brisk landward wind blew ashes from the burning boat over the crowd, prompting cheers.

Dad at the museum

I finally got the chance to take my dad and brother to Haw Par Villa to see the fruits of my labour - Hell’s Museum and the Yeo Swee Huat Paper Agency legacy exhibition.

Outside the 10 Courts of Hell, my dad related how my maternal grandfather, at his deathbed, saw Ox Head and Horse Face coming for him - and told them to bugger off.

Nine Emperor Gods Festival: Leng San Giam Dou Mu Gong

On the evening of Sunday, 25 September (the 30th and last day of the 8th Lunar Month), I visited Punggol Marina to catch the arrival of the Nine Emperor Gods.

This was a Qing Shui (请水, literally “Invite Water”) ritual organised by Leng San Giam Dou Mu Gong (龙山岩斗母宮), part of the Ang Mo Kio Joint Temple based at 791 Ang Mo Kio Avenue 1.

Around 6pm, an advance party arrived at one of the piers to set up an altar in the open area. The altar included nine urns for each of the Nine Emperor Gods, and deities from the temple, such as Mazu, Fa Zhu Gong, and Jiu Huang Wu Di (the Fifth Emperor God).

As dusk gave way to night, three priests led a small group of devotees in prayer.

Nine urns were readied for each of the Nine Emperor Gods.

Close to 8pm, the main body from the temple streamed in.

It was time to invite the Nine Emperor Gods. A small group of devotees, with a medium, headed out to sea on a motorboat, while the priests waited at the edge of the pier.

The motorboat returned after 10 minutes; the medium had the Nine Emperor Gods in him. He was led up the pier, where he was greeted by lion dances and hundreds of devotees in a carnival-like atmosphere.

The nine joss sticks he clutched were transferred to the nine urns for the Nine Emperor Gods.

Devotees then carried the nine urns to nine brightly-lit sedan chairs. The sedan chairs were rocked to and fro to cheers and shouts.

Eventually, after a circuitous route, the sedan chairs were carried outside the marina and loaded onto waiting trucks bound for the temple. That will be the abode of the Nine Emperor Gods for the next nine days.

Amidst the modern, expensive yachts and motorboats of the marina, there was space for an ancient tradition going back hundreds, maybe thousands, of years.