po pi
Just got back from ama's house, and I'm inspired to tell you about how things work over there during family lunches. See, before we eat, we have to go over to the corner with our ancestors' pictures and pray for their blessing so that we can eat. Sort of like praying for their go-signal. In front of our ancestors' pictures are food offerings, things from the meal about to be eaten, like fish and rice, along with candy and cake. My mom says that the ancestors eat the "spirit" of the food, and that nobody's supposed to mess around with their lunch. I somehow get the idea that if you eat any of the ancestor's food, it'll taste like air. Anyway. So we pray in front of the ancestors. The praying is called "po-pi." Each of us holds two lit joss sticks (there's a particular way of holding them too) during po-pi. The fire on the sticks isn't even as big as a candle's; it's just a burning nub, but Ama (grandmother) has stopped g...