For the past few days, it had been rather cold. It rained almost everyday, the whole day even and it was like a winter day overseas; in New Zealand, even Damascus, Syria; only that the temperature there had been lower but the sky was as dark and gloomy. As far as I remember, the rain came usually during the festival of the Nine Emperor's God in October but these days, the rain lasted longer than usual, like the weather had been meddled with. The Nine Emperor Gods Festival, a nine-day Taoist celebration began on the eve of the 9th lunar month of the Chinese calendar The Chinese in South East Asia - Myanmar, Malaysia and Thailand especially, celebrate it with much zeal. There will be a carnival-like atmosphere; stalls selling praying paraphernalia and vegetarian dishes will be set up; there will be a fire walking ceremony, processions featuring devotees in trance performing ritualized mutilation on themselves which reminds of Hindus devotees carrying kavadis during Thaipusam; only more gory here perhaps considering some practices in Thailand where the devotees slipped iron chairs, fans, bicycles even, through their cheeks. During the recent festival, some colleagues and I went over to the temple of the Nine Emperor's God and had a meal of vegetarian laksa and deep fried food. The devotees of the Nine Emperor's God, by the way, are required to abstain from meat.
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