voices i hear.

its the lunar seventh month. practically, almost all the chinese has started to offer incense paper offerings, burning them in the containers provided by the authorities.

my dad, a strong believer in the after-life, has influenced me too, to believe in this beliefs he has. a combination of taoist and buddhist teachings, make up my family's religion. so, you can expet us to be quite superstitious at times. my dad and mum, started the rituals yesterday. i wanted t go along with him downstairs, to burn the offerings, too bad i had homework, which forbidded me to go along. one other thing that made me so interested in all these, is the spectacular performance made by the cracking flames. it never fails to amaze me with its art of moving. a fire never's the same with another. its all difference, like a human's fingerprint, never identical. amazing isn't it.

it starts. with the lighting of joss sticks, praying in the four directions, later chucking it into the ground. followed by the candles, which are red in colour. a small portion of our dinner is also offered, so with tea leaves and some crackers. my mum never allows me to have a go at them. says its not edible. ha. the offering of the papers follows. about 5 small stacks of different types of incense paper are burned. the samll amount of carbon and pollutants produced can never be compared to what the industrial world is emitting. a few minutes of these fires, may be equivalent to just a few seconds of the mountainous clouds of black smoke produced by the burning of fossil fuels and oil wells. so, don't you go telling us off about the environmental issues. i will hit your head. *smack* ita ll ends after ten minutes of heat, and most of the time, tears. can't prevent it. smoke always enters the eyes. that's the only bad thing. oh yes. and you smell of smoke too. haha.

changing over the years, what have i got in the end?- me