Explainer | Chung Yeung Festival in Hong Kong – rules about food offerings to ancestors, tomb sweeping and what not to do
- The festival falls on the ninth day of the ninth lunar month, and is a time for visiting ancestors’ graves to maintain them and pay respects to the departed
- There are important rules, like how many incense sticks to offer and in what order, and which foods are acceptable as offerings. We outline the dos and don’ts
Chung Yeung Festival, or Double Ninth Festival, takes place on the ninth day of the ninth lunar month, and is believed to be a day with excess yang – the bright, active energy that counterbalances yin in the Chinese theory of yin and yang.
Hong Kong people traditionally try to get rid of this potentially disruptive surplus by – among other things – sweeping the tombs of their loved ones.
The practice of tomb sweeping – visiting the graves of ancestors to tidy them and make offerings – has its roots in the Confucianist tenet of filial piety, with how one treats one’s ancestors’ final resting places viewed as a reflection of one’s virtue in Chinese culture.
That is why wealthy Hong Kong people spend astronomical sums on auspicious plots of land on which to lay their relatives to rest.
It is downright shameful for a relative’s gravesite to be unkempt or dirty, so a festival and attached public holiday comes as an opportunity for tomb maintenance and paying respects to ancestors.
As with many Chinese traditions – especially those related to the deceased – there are important rules and taboos to observe, so in the spirit of the upcoming festival we’ve outlined a few of the most important ones.
1. Incense or joss sticks are only offered in ones and threes
Incense and joss stick offerings are a common way to revere ancestors in Chinese culture.
It is important to place these sticks in the censers in either ones or threes, as these are prime numbers that cannot be divided – and therefore add a sense of wholeness to the offering.
2. Pay respects to heaven and earth first
It’s important to always offer the first incense stick to the heavens – or their representative Tin Hau. After the heavens, an incense offering should be made to Tu Di Gong, or the Earth God, the altar for which is usually at foot height.
It is only after making offerings to the heavens and the earth that you should pay respects to your own ancestors.
3. Laying out a meaty feast
Food is a huge part of Chinese culture, and this extends to making offerings to the deceased. Since it is your relatives you are paying respects to, classic banquet fare such as chicken, suckling pig, and – to a lesser extent – duck, goose and fish are presented.
The offerings don’t stop with roast meats, though. From chocolate to Iberico ham, relatives will commonly put out a selection of the deceased’s favourite foods, too.
It is taboo to offer game meat to the gods and ancestors; meat that is wild and untamed is considered disrespectful to the deities.
Whichever meat is chosen as an offering, it must be cooked – for easy transport and avoiding flies – and include the head and feet or tail. As with incense stick offerings and prime numbers, this symbolises wholeness and entirety – that things have a beginning and end.
The arrangement of the offerings also holds significance. The most prized item should be placed in the middle, with the second most prized item to the left and the third to the right. For example, if offering a suckling pig, a whole chicken and a fish, the pig would go in the middle, the chicken to the left and fish to the right.
4. Laying out the fruit
Not all fruits are considered equal when it comes to offerings, as many of their names and characteristics are steeped in symbolism. Pears should absolutely not be offered because their name is a homophone for “split up” or “divided”. Other taboo fruits include pineapple, guava, sugar apples and Java apples.
On the other hand, apples symbolise peace, oranges and mandarins symbolise fortune, peaches symbolise longevity, and longan are the auspicious fruit of the dragon.
5. Wine
It’s not truly a feast unless there’s booze, and it is customary to lay out three small cups to offer to your ancestors. These should be poured out onto the ground or grave one by one.
Again, the first one is to be offered to the heavens, the second to the earth, and the third to your ancestors.
As with food, what the deceased enjoyed before their death is taken into consideration here, so if grandma was partial to brandy, feel free to offer this. Alternatively, Chinese rice wine is commonly used as a generic offering.
6. Rice and chopsticks
Some people like to include in their offerings a bowl of rice for every ancestor residing at the particular columbarium or temple, but this is a matter of personal choice.
When offering rice, however, it is important to include chopsticks planted vertically upright in the rice – ethereal beings can’t be expected to eat the grains with their hands, after all.
This is where the taboo in Chinese culture, of resting chopsticks vertically in rice during normal meals, comes from. To do so is considered extremely bad luck, and children who fail to heed their parents’ stern warnings are commonly reprimanded for this offence.
7. Leftover incense
If you have leftover incense after making offerings to your ancestors, it is good manners to offer them to neighbouring graves or commemorative plaques.
Think of it as like handing out extra birthday cake to the neighbours after your party. It is just a nice thing to do.
8. Tuck in!
After presenting the feast to the deities and ancestors, and distributing the incense, the dishes are considered blessed and so are free to eat should you want to. One thing that is strictly taboo, though, is eating food that others have left for their ancestors.
To deny the departed their feast is tantamount to robbing the elderly, and it is said that all sorts of misfortune will befall those who fail to observe this taboo. Some people are even haunted by those they steal from. You have been warned!
