The ninth day of the first lunar month marks the Jade Emperor's Birthday 天公誕. The Jade Emperor is a Chinese God. On this day, Hokkien, Chinese from south-eastern China, hold a special thanksgiving prayer 拜天公 bài Tiān Gōng for Him in memory of a past incident in ancient China when their ancestors escaped death from marauding invaders by hiding in a sugar cane plantation. Devotees burn incense and make food offerings which would have to include sugar canes at midnight; and the family would have a midnight feast after prayers. In Malaysia, the thanksgiving prayer 拜天公 is a big affair in Penang where there is a sizable number of Hokkien. A church there probably was drawn by the air of festivities. The church was decorated with sugarcane last Saturday when the Hokkien celebrated 拜天公 in their homes or in temples. When I saw a picture of the church and the sugarcane decorations, I was inadvertently reminded of a scene in a church in the hit American movie Crazy Rich Asians. In the movie, plants were used to decorate the church; so many of them that it looked like a jungle. It also led to Michelle Yeoh's character, Eleanor, commenting that the church looked more like a paddy field. Funny movie, that.
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