Birthday Prayers

Today, 8th August is the eve of Kuan Yin's second birthday of the year which falls on the 19th day of the 6th moon of the Chinese lunar calendar. It is our usual practice to offer prayers at Kuan Yin Teng (The Temple of the Goddess of Mercy) in Pitt Street a day ahead of her birthday so that we can avoid the crowds expected on the day of the festival itself.

When we arrived at the temple at around 10.30 a.m., it was full of devotees who shared the same thought. We purchased our joss sticks, kueh, mee koo and flowers from a street stall and made our way inside the temple. We could hardly breathe as we jostled with the throng of joss stick-bearing devotees. Thick clouds of smoke filled the air which was alive with the hum of devotees' prayers and the ringing of temple bells. We made our way to a table in front of the main altar to place our offerings. It was already covered with dozens of offerings but we managed to squeeze ours in a corner.

After lighting our joss sticks, we struggled our way from one altar to the next. We found that all the joss stick urns were full to the brim with lighted joss sticks and we had to be careful not to get burnt. A man wearing goggles cleared them at frequent intervals; once or twice our joss sticks got cleared away the moment we placed them in the urn!

The back part of the temple was less crowded and more airy due to the presence of an airwell. Frankly, I wanted to finish as soon as possible in order to get away from the polluted air. After offering a bottle of oil, I went to get our mee koo and kueh. They had disappeared! This came as no surprise as offerings often go "missing" during festival days as they all get mixed up! We left it at that and stepped out of the temple into the street. What a relief to get away from the smoke-filled air.

On the way home, I had a sudden thought which sent a cold shiver down my spine. What if somebody at the temple had H1N1? What better way for the virus to spread than in a crowded place!

I prayed to Kuan Yin for her infinite mercy and compassion.