So, this is probably really odd that after not writing for almost a year, the first post I write is about death.
I'm not dying.
Not yet, anyway.
But I was reading this book and it suddenly dawned on me, why Chinese parents (in the olden days) married off their daughters even if they loved them dearly. Ofcourse, there were those who wanted to get rid of another mouth to feed but let us assume that half of the population loved their daughters.
In Chinese traditions, male descendants were entrusted to worship and care for the dead, who were believed to reside in the spirit tablet. Have you seen the Mulan? Remember the ancestor hall? Yun pala yun.
If heaven forbid, an unmarried woman was dying, she was not allowed to die in her family compound. My gulay. Hassle. Mamatay ka na lang lilipat ka pa!
Then her spirit table was not permitted to be enshrined in her family's ancestor hall.
That is why daughters need to be married, so that her husband or her descendants can put a red dot on her spirit tablet. Only then could she journey to join the band of ancestors, destined to watch over the clan. Assuming she wasn't a shitty person on earth. If she was, then she's end up in one of the many hells of the Chinese afterlife.
If an unmarried dies, with no spirit tablet to live in and no descendants to do offerings, she would end up as hungry ghost.
The Chinese believe that even in death, people experience human emotions: hunger, anger, jealousy etc. So the ghost, tom jones na tom jones na sila. And their clothes also experience wear and tear, that's why paper money need to be burned so that they can shop in the afterlife.
This also explains the practice known as the Ghost Wedding. May movie dyan, starring Kim Chiu. Perhaps, this will be another post.
Quite Freaked Out,
L
