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Mystery gives way to family

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Watching my mother burn joss sticks, spirit money and paper clothes, and lay out fruit and a suckling pig by my grandma's grave brought back floods of memories.

My grandma died when I was five years old and the earliest memory I have of visiting her grave at Chung Yeung Festival was when I was seven or eight.

The burning of paper money and my mother's mumbling - as she talked to my dead grandma - had an intimidating, mysterious effect.

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After we emigrated, the annual visit to the grave came to a stop. During those long years, I wondered what happened to my grandma's grave. My mother said she had paid someone to clean it.

On our return, the family again began paying respect to our ancestors, just like thousands of other families do at Chung Yeung Festival.

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Legend has it that it all started in the Han dynasty, when the scholar Wang Chin was warned that on the ninth day of the ninth moon, disaster would hit his family. He was told to take provisions, including chrysanthemum wine, and take his family to the mountain.

On his return, he found all his livestock dead.

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