Double jeopardy

Filial daughter that I am, I sent a parcel to my dear ol' dad as a gesture of love this Ching Ming. Of course, the shop assistant who packed the stuff for me duly filled up the columns in the yellow strip of paper with the name of the recipient and of course the sender, that's me, before sticking it with glue over the cover of the colourful gift box to seal it.

I didn't get to sign it though, otherwise, I could sing "signed, sealed and delivered" while the whole thing burned, eh?

Laugh lah! Such ceremonies don't have to be so solemn and cheerless. Everyone has got to go some day and the dearly departed has all the more reason to rejoice when their loved ones continue to remember them each year and make the effort to perform certain ceremonies in honour of them.

As I watched it all go up in flames after the prayers have been concluded, I merely looked on blankly. Doesn't matter what I believe or don't believe, the whole exercise just satisfies my desire to express my feelings to my dad on this day.

Anyway, this morning as I flipped open the NST and came across on page 11 an article on The dos and don'ts of Qing Ming, lo and behold Taoist Master Go Bai Lin said that "Offering a lot of dishes and paper gifts is a way of telling the ancestors that you are prosperous and want to lavish money on them. They would be happy to know their descendants are leading a blessed life ..."

??

And further down, he cautioned that "It is also unwise to fill one's name in the sender's column of the 'postal form' attached to the box of paper gifts and 'hell' notes."

*Gulp*

Am I a "marked" person now ?

And even further down, Go also gave a grave reminder that, "Descendants should not visit and pray at the grave separately as it can bring disastrous consequences to those who come later. The first to pray will be blessed, but the others will suffer ill fortune for at least three years. In extreme cases, people have been plagued with problems for 15 years."

*Gulp* *Gulp*

This year, one of my brothers had to perform the ceremony earlier because he will be away from the country for the whole 10 days leading up to Qing Ming.

Am I now in "double jeopardy" according to the gospel of Go??

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Incidentally, today's April the 1st, right?