On a weekend, just over a week before the festival, Madam Felicia Tey and her four children huddled in a corner of the temple, busily packing joss sticks that would be used for prayers at the temple.
Her husband Johnny Kor, 62, a taxi driver, has been volunteering at Leong Nam Temple since he was a child, in line with his family tradition.
To uphold this family practice, Madam Tey takes her children – Alyssa, 14, Aloysius, 12, Aaliya, 10, and even two-year-old Alexius – to the temple to help whenever they are free.
“Seeing their father so committed to the temple and the festival, my children have become more eager than me to participate,” the 45-year-old operations manager exclaimed proudly.
More than 20 temples in Singapore celebrate the Nine Emperor Gods Festival.
ALL DECKED OUT
Leong Nam Temple, founded in 1954 in Geylang Serai, is known for putting together one of the grandest celebrations.
Planning began as early as July, and almost 400 volunteers were assigned different tasks. The number of volunteers has grown steadily over the years.
Leading the volunteers was Mr Vincent Meng, a 55-year-old taxi driver who has been involved in the festival preparations for the past 18 years.
From Sept 23, once the tentage beside the temple was up, Mr Meng guided a small group of 10 volunteers to arrange tables, hang decorations and position the statues of the deities that would be honoured during the festival.
During the same period that week, other groups of volunteers were busy with different tasks around Singapore.
One such task is maintaining the nine sedan chairs, carrying an urn representing each of the nine deities, during the processions.
These sedan chairs, festooned with LED lights, are used only once a year.
Any damage to the chairs is repaired before the start of the festival.
The circuit boards are checked, and both ends of each sedan chair that volunteers will be holding are secured.
A few days before the festival begins, some volunteers embark on a unique task – cutting bamboo stems to hold nine kerosene lamps.
Bamboo is a symbol of virtue and honour in Taoism, while the lamps represent the presence of the Nine Emperor Gods.
Every year, a team of volunteers sets out to a location they keep under wraps on a mission that is physically demanding and logistically complex. The team is led by 62-year-old Jason Ng, a security officer.
Mr Ng would have already scouted various, often secluded, locations and arranged for a lorry to ferry the bamboo stems that he and his team have cut back to the temple.
“We require two bamboo stems each year, and need to navigate through various obstacles in order to extract them from a clump of bamboo,” he said.
LIMITED SUPPLY
Finding suitable bamboo is a challenge in itself. Since it takes more than 10 years for bamboo to grow to the desired height and thickness, the volunteers must be careful not to deplete the limited supply.
“We always aim to pick out the tallest and straightest green bamboo,” added volunteer Kenji Ooi, a 41-year-old contractor.
On Sept 30, close to 500 volunteers and Taoist devotees gathered at the shoreline near East Coast Park Carpark F3, in keeping with annual tradition.
The date – the 28th day of the eighth lunar month – is an auspicious date earmarked by Leong Nam Temple for one of the most anticipated rituals ahead of the actual festival.
At dusk, amid the sound of lapping waves and the glow of candlelit offerings, volunteers collected seawater using a gourd in an act symbolising the arrival of the Nine Emperor Gods, who are believed to descend from the heavens by sea.
The seawater is poured into an urn in each of the nine sedan chairs, which are lit up to signify the presence of the gods within.
With incense burning and the rhythmic sounds of gongs, the deities are then escorted to Leong Nam Temple in a grand procession that marks the start of the celebration at the temple.
Taoists worship the Nine Emperor Gods for blessings of health and wealth.
During the festival, volunteers transport the sedan chairs to other temples across Singapore that are also hosting the Nine Emperor Gods, to pay homage to the deities.
“It is a way for us to maintain relationships with the other temples as we are a community,” Ms Ferlicia Chin, 59, the Leong Nam Temple clerk, explained.
The final day of the festival on Oct 11 will entail a grand send-off of the deities in another spectacular ceremony that marks their return to the heavens.
In a breathtaking display that draws many photographers each year, fireworks will light up the night sky at the temple, casting a glow over the gathered devotees.
The festival draws to a dramatic close with the burning of 10 intricately crafted incense paper ships at East Coast Park, symbolising the deities’ safe passage back to the celestial realm.
In addition to the usual nine ships, the temple added an incense paper ship due to demand from devotees. The devotees paste their names or family members’ names on the incense paper ships, symbolising the removal of bad fortune when the ships are burned at sea.
Not only is this moment the culmination of weeks of hard work and dedication, it also reflects the communal spirit of the volunteers.
Beyond its spiritual significance, the Nine Emperor Gods Festival represents the unity of volunteers, brought together through their collective labour.
“Not everyone in the team is religious,” said carpenter Wang Yi Fu, 47. “But they will make an effort to help out because it is a time of gathering.”