Night-time Cemetery Rituals, Singapore (2) -kidnapped souls trapped in bamboo sealed with a talisman

The Hell deity tradition in Singapore is intimately linked to the post-mortal journey of the soul, and to objects and places associated with the afterlife. Graveyards thus play a significant role as they provide a tangible link between the realms of the living and of the dead. During Ghost Month in 2019 I visited the 3.18 square kilometer Choa Chu Kang Cemetery to observe night-time graveyard rituals in a cemetery plot dedicated to aborted fetuses' and dead babies. The lunar Seventh Month (Chinese Ghost Month) precedes the autumn equinox, a time associated with the harvest and subsequent waning of light and physical decay. Annually, on the first day of the lunar Seventh Month, the gates o...View all