Mother's anniversary

It's been 29 years since the death of my mother in 1985. We still hold prayers on the anniversary of her death. It's a very simple affair, nothing elaborate. Just three types of fruits. Oranges, grapes and her favourite, mangoes.

We remembered how it was like at the beginning of this year when we held the end-of-the-year prayers for my parents and grandparents. We forgot to inform the Door Spirits of the prayers and for quite a while, we couldn't get confirmation that my ancestors had "arrived". Read about it here.

This morning, my wife reminded me of it and said that the Door Spirits should be informed first thing. So I did just that. And you know what? The very first time that I threw the pair of coins, they came up head-tail. So my mother and her entourage had arrived after all and had been let into the house.  :-)

After about an hour's wait, I wanted to know whether they had finished. And so I threw the coins again. And again, they came up head-tail on the first attempt. So whether you wanted to believe it or not, it really didn't cost me anything to follow a few time-honoured traditions. Especially if you wanted to get the job done.