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[**posting the memorial”] which will start at about 8 a.m., and a meal. The procession is to cover the 5 wai and 6 chyun of Kam Tin, paying respect to the gods. It will end at about 5 p.m. There will also be a ceremony to be officiated by James Hayes at 4 p.m. The procession on the next day will go all the way to Yuen Long, taking about the same amount of time. But as it can start earlier there is no need to wait until a preceding rite is over it will probably end a bit earlier... the daai-yau [“Great Offering to Ghosts"] on the last evening of the jiu will start at about 7 p.m., and end at about 3 a.m.
T
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The four rites named were the events which many of the villagers took part in, and the routes of the procession were unique to Kam Tin. It is therefore not surprising that the no. 1 ritual representative could estimate their timing with some confidence. Of the other rites performed by the priests, he did not seem to know much. He told me that to have a better idea of what the schedule would be, I had better talk with the priests.
The answer of the priest I talked to on the telephone was that he would not know until he and his colleagues got to Kam Tin, as Kam Tin had a written record prescribing its own requirements for the jiu. I had the opportunity to read the manuscript in detail. It included contracts for the priests, paang construction contractor, paper image and offerings maker, puppeteer and opera troupe, among others. It also listed the rites, giving details of the offerings and other arrangements required. A few copies of the manuscript from previous celebrations were still kept.
While the manuscripts provide much useful information, the responsible villagers do not seem to use it fully. While the contract for the paper image maker specified the figures to be included, the elders probably had no idea what there should be besides the images of the ten Kings of the Underworld. They had no idea that in the contract they required several dozen sets of paper clothing for use as offering to "heroes". The record had a diagram showing the proper arrangement of the temporary altars to be set up for the ying-sing rite, which had been in practice in the previous celebrations, but this time the layout no longer agreed with that in the record.
Part of the confusion must have been due to the fact that a few different
354
[**posting the memorial”] which will start at about 8 a.m., and a meal. The procession is to cover the 5 wai and 6 chyun of Kam Tin, paying respect to the gods. It will end at about 5 p.m. There will also be a ceremony to be officiated by James Hayes at 4 p.m. The procession on the next day will go all the way to Yuen Long, taking about the same amount of time. But as it can start earlier there is no need to wait until a preceding rite is over it will probably end a bit earlier... the daai-yau [“Great Offering to Ghosts"] on the last evening of the jiu will start at about 7 p.m., and end at about 3 a.m.
T
—
The four rites named were the events which many of the villagers took part in, and the routes of the procession were unique to Kam Tin. It is therefore not surprising that the no. 1 ritual representative could estimate their timing with some confidence. Of the other rites performed by the priests, he did not seem to know much. He told me that to have a better idea of what the schedule would be, I had better talk with the priests.
The answer of the priest I talked to on the telephone was that he would not know until he and his colleagues got to Kam Tin, as Kam Tin had a written record prescribing its own requirements for the jiu. I had the opportunity to read the manuscript in detail. It included contracts for the priests, paang construction contractor, paper image and offerings maker, puppeteer and opera troupe, among others. It also listed the rites, giving details of the offerings and other arrangements required. A few copies of the manuscript from previous celebrations were still kept.
While the manuscripts provide much useful information, the responsible villagers do not seem to use it fully. While the contract for the paper image maker specified the figures to be included, the elders probably had no idea what there should be besides the images of the ten Kings of the Underworld. They had no idea that in the contract they required several dozen sets of paper clothing for use as offering to "heroes". The record had a diagram showing the proper arrangement of the temporary altars to be set up for the ying-sing rite, which had been in practice in the previous celebrations, but this time the layout no longer agreed with that in the record.
Part of the confusion must have been due to the fact that a few different
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