會臺灣的日子 . . . take 2.

I don't know where to start. So I'll just start with the night before the "big day."

Mom and Jeff hadn't arrived yet, I don't think. They were arriving that night. Admittedly, it was a pretty darn good dinner. Incredibly filling, too.

And Mr. Bigshot (aka, Frank Hsieh - the losing presidential candidate from the last run of Taiwanese elections EDIT: Thanks to SuAnn, who corrected me - this is Mr. Su, who was the vice-presidential running mate to Mr. Frank Hsieh - apparently all Asians look alike. Heh. Just kidding.) with the adults. Cool, I guess. He has a lot of pull politically (obviously), so he helped out our family with streamlining some of the funeral arrangements.

The Big Day - aka, the Funeral.

We had to get up at 5:00 a.m. to make it to the funeral site at 6:00 a.m. I don't have that many pictures from this day - most of it I spent bowing and trekking through soaring temperatures and humidity and trying not to melt under the extra layer the grieving family wears (I don't have pictures of it, but it looks sort of like a traditional black robe that's fastened on the sides with the little knot-buttons).

Before the ceremony, we took a bunch of pictures.

The family, preparing and setting up. I should photoshop Jon in here somewhere . . . Maybe where the bodhisattva is? By the way, I did so much chanting I learned the word for bodhisattva in Chinese: 菩薩 (púsà). I swear that, during the chanting, we said it at least fifty times.

Most of the cousins. Do I look bowlegged, sort of? O_o

The youngest Yangs.

Politicians send these banners to send their condolences (preprinted, with the deceased's name sort of filled in - I'm sure there's a factory of these banners somewhere. Disturbing, yes. But that's business.) Jeff looks confused.

My parental units are adorable. Especially the white shoes. Rockin' the white shoes! Haha.

I have NO idea why this was here. If anyone wants to enlighten me . . . please.

Here are all the cousins (minus the two slackers in America -- haha, just kidding! Love you guys! Missed you guys terribly, Sophia and Jon!). Me, Jeff, Abe, Cindy, William, Jimmy, and SuAnn.

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After these pictures were taken, we donned our robes and began the ceremony of honoring Grandpa 楊亭華. First all the extended family members were called up the aisle to 拜拜 and pay their respects. It was super intense. His tiny sister was there - barely able to move or bow - his nephews, nieces, cousins, etc. For the family and friends, one stick of incense was handed out per person. The first person would don a red sash, and then offer up a plate of apples (I don't know why), and then they would all bow three times, then pass the incense back up to the front to be placed in the urn in front of Grandpa's picture.


After the family members bowed, then our funeral director called up each of the politicians up one by one. Instead of a small, individual stick of incense, they were each handed the large stick to bow with. It's actually very interesting. Because politicians are very sensitive, easily-offended creatures, they get riled up if they are called out of order (example: a Senator of the Country would be offended if the local mayor was called before he was, etc.). So it's up to the funeral director to be very tactful and knowledgable about politics so as to not call the wrong order. Interesting, yah?

Once everyone was done, we walked the body over to the crematorium. We jumped over burning bamboo, washed our hands, took off our robes, and ate a peanut candy. The girls also had a little red flower pinned in our hair - we weren't allowed to pick it up if it fell off, and we had to take off before we entered the house. Don't ask me why - I don't know.

Then we went home for lunch. Or second breakfast - however you look at it.

Wasn't he adorable? さよなら, 阿公.