I was tasked to drive my parents to a temple. We arrived, they entered, I followed. Almost immediately, I noticed the atmosphere around the centre of gathering ground was quite different.
A 20+ year old lady medium was obviously possessed by a child spirit. We can tell from the way she behaved. The lady medium then was behaving in a very childish manner (she was given – or pacified with – pacifier, milk bottle, lolly pop and marbles), but she didn’t forget that she was in a temple. She grabbed some joss sticks and was running and hopping from one altar to another in order to pay respects to all the deities in the relatively big temple. She was running and hopping around quite fast but with eyes almost fully closed, and there were a few assistants trailing her, just to make sure she didn’t go too wild and of course to clear way for her.
Just as I was observing her, more interesting stuff were happening almost at the same time at different parts of the gathering ground. I also don’t know where to concentrate specifically.
One by one, male and female of varying age group, wearing the same uniform of the temple, about 10 in total, became almost rather sickly. Many of those were observed to have severe vomiting spell, coughing pretty loudly. Assistants around them knew what was coming, they called for the big red chair (meant for medium) to be served to those people feeling sick. In a few more minutes, they were all possessed with the child spirit too.
It was rather chaotic, with so many child-like-behaving adults running and hopping around with eyes almost fully closed. But all the assistants remained very calm. They just trailed those possessed mediums along and served them with pacifier, milk bottle, lolly pop and marbles, wipe their perspiration, and so on..
Believe you me, some of those mediums literally brushed pass me during their running and hopping from so many directions. Of course I got to give way to them. I wouldn’t want to offend them unnecessarily.
If this is not interesting enough, erm… okay, then I shall add a bit more details.
One by one, after paying their respects to all the deities in the temple, gathered in the middle of the gathering grounds. Just imagine, about 10 childish-behaving, eye-almost-fully-closed adults gathered and played.
They played marbles. Or rather they were given marbles to play. They rolled marbles to each other and later some even used marbles to knock at each others’ head. That was naughty! Of course, the assistants told them not to and they seemed to obey. They were all either sucking one pacifier, two pacifiers at the same time, lolly pop or milk bottle. They were also snatching milk bottles from one another as there weren’t enough milk bottles to go around.
Some funnier scenes :
- One was seen to use some marbles to knock the head of another. The other tried to retaliate by attempting to open the milk bottle to spray back. It was stopped in time, if not the lady medium and the assistants around might be drenched in milk. Haha..
- One was contented of what he had grabbed, ran to hide behind a big red chair (meant for medium), happily sucking the lolly pop and held tight to a milk bottle. He was also peeping at the playgroup from behind the chair. I was looking at this particular one more closely as he was just about 2 metres away from me. He is so young, so fair, around my height and I don’t think he passed 20 year-old. He reminds me of someone. Anyway, before he got possessed, I already noticed him. He walked past me like a normal guy but with red-shot eyes. As I said, I noticed him because he reminds me of someone, someone quite close some years back. And then minutes later, I saw him in such a childish state. I really felt like laughing.
- One grabbed a newly-filled milk bottle and quickly sucked from it. He was spitting out almost immediately, letting his tongue out to cool off. The milk was newly prepared and was too hot for him obviously. He was complaining, “wa.. so hot ah”, but was easily pacified with more pacifiers and lolly pops. Haha..
Many aunties and uncles were around. To them, those mediums were possessed by that well-known child spirit. They believe the child spirit will bring them luck and they were happy to receive the sweets shared directly by those mediums.
Slightly later, one of the mediums was guided to be seated on a red chair beside a relatively big statue of 大伯公, but the other mediums remained to play amongst themselves. The uncles and aunties were asked to queue up in a line. They were then guided to approach the (lady) medium and receive a token of blessing from her. It was mentioned so many times, that the token of blessing was for prosperity (财) . In return, the believers were highly encouraged to donate any among of money into a donation tank placed just beside that (lady) medium and right in front of the statue of 大伯公. The queue was so long. I was not in the queue. I was merely observing. The system is so transparent. Or rather the money tank was transparent. I could see the money-level raising by the seconds. Heh..
I also paid my respect in a simple, dignify manner to all the deities in the temple. Before I left, I stole another glance at the familiar-looking-still-possessed medium. I left. We left.
I am now merely recording what I saw. I don’t think I want to write down how I interpret all these, for the entry is getting a little too long. Good Night. =)
