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happy birthday, yeye
Jan. 15th, 2018 20:40![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
elydesiaThe fire wouldn't start. The rain pelted us at an angle as if it knew what we were doing. It was my late grandfather's birthday and we were at his grave, lighting up fake gold and silver bars made of paper. Food was arranged around his grave marker, placed on the plastic plates we had taken from my mom's cabinet after she died. Take from one dead person to help serve another. I found some kind of humor in it.
Fed up with our futile firestarting, my dad lifted the cauldron. "I'm throwing it out," he said. He took two steps toward the public water hose and the embers crackled into a flame. It was as if it knew its very existence would be denied, thrown into the garbage, if it did not prove itself.
We burned the folded paper bars and some fake money that was supposed to be the currency of the underworld. Each of us did our three bows and prayers--once again, my mind was empty as I did mine--and then cleaned up the gravesite.
Everyone was in a bad mood because of my grandmother's complaints and orders, except me. I was glad I couldn't understand her language, our mother tongue. My uncle and his wife left first, leaving behind one of their umbrellas. They didn't really help clean up. I could tell she was the one who wanted to go. Our world was different from hers.
Our miniature and meaningless family service complete, we said goodbye to my grandpa before piling into my other uncle's car and driving away.
author's note: my paternal grandfather passed away some years back. It was his birthday on the 7th. As per usual, we visited the cemetary and did some ceremony things at the behest of my grandmother.
Fed up with our futile firestarting, my dad lifted the cauldron. "I'm throwing it out," he said. He took two steps toward the public water hose and the embers crackled into a flame. It was as if it knew its very existence would be denied, thrown into the garbage, if it did not prove itself.
We burned the folded paper bars and some fake money that was supposed to be the currency of the underworld. Each of us did our three bows and prayers--once again, my mind was empty as I did mine--and then cleaned up the gravesite.
Everyone was in a bad mood because of my grandmother's complaints and orders, except me. I was glad I couldn't understand her language, our mother tongue. My uncle and his wife left first, leaving behind one of their umbrellas. They didn't really help clean up. I could tell she was the one who wanted to go. Our world was different from hers.
Our miniature and meaningless family service complete, we said goodbye to my grandpa before piling into my other uncle's car and driving away.
author's note: my paternal grandfather passed away some years back. It was his birthday on the 7th. As per usual, we visited the cemetary and did some ceremony things at the behest of my grandmother.
