Dinner, auctions, rituals: The ones who keep the incense burning

Food delivery rider Richard Teo (right), 41, has been organising seventh month festivities for almost 20 years.

He was in his early 20s when he started the Hup Zhong Zhong Yuan Jie committee in Toa Payoh, named after his dragon and lion dance culture troupe.

Such committees, which anecdotally have been declining in number, are volunteer organisations formed by residents of housing estates, factories or businesses to organise Hungry Ghost Festival activities. 

They collect contributions from residents, shopkeepers, stallholders or members, organise mass offerings, prayers, a dinner and an auction, and sometimes engage a getai organiser to put up a show.

When Teo first started his committee with about 10 people, membership cost $50 a head and each person was entitled to a seat at dinner and a blessing pack containing staples like rice and canned food.

Today, it is $100, and the committee has shrunk from more than 40 members at its peak before the pandemic to about 30, who are mostly in their 60s and 70s. 

“There are fewer such committees now. Some are too old to continue, while others have died,” he said. “It’s easy to call it a day, but much harder to gather people to start a new committee.” 

Passers-by would be familiar with the rows of items often seen at these dinners that attendees can bid on at the auction. These items, which are sometimes gifted but mostly purchased by the committee, can cost between $100 and $300, or more, and bids can go up to a few thousand dollars. Monies collected usually go into the next year’s coffers.

Teo said the costs for dinner, blessing pack staples like canned goods, and prayer items are up 20 to 30 per cent from 2025.

“I have to recruit more members to fund the items, but I cannot force people too. It has to come from the heart,” he said. “I’ll continue for as long as possible and if necessary, do it on a smaller scale if the budget is tight.”

Teo, whose troupe members help out at the dinner, typically does not engage getai organisers due to budget constraints.

Since 2025, however, a sponsor has helped fund a karaoke getai. Without a live band involved, it costs only about $3,500 compared with the usual $6,000 or more.

Teo’s wife Angela, the committee’s treasurer for the past decade, keeps the books. 

“Whether the committee earns or not, we will continue the tradition,” she said. The two years during the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic were the only time they had stopped the annual celebrations.

“Sometimes, we even have to fork out money when people who successfully bid for items did not pay up,“ she added. 

Asked if they would rope in their 11-year-old twin sons to succeed them in future, she looked at them quietly and said: “I don’t know. They are still so young.”

Rose Lim, 62, has been organising seventh month festivities for more than 30 years for Xing Zhong Gong, a home temple.

Her husband, temple founder and medium Raymond Quek, 63, said: ”We have been roping in friends and relatives to help, and will take one year at a time.”

Lim said the celebrations are funded by donors and devotees. They do not organise any dinner or auction.

“Many of these donors had their prayers answered, or they managed to strike 4-D or Toto,” she said.

Rising costs have also hit her hard, with prayer items increasing by around 30 per cent, which she attributes partly to oil prices driven by the war. 

But it is the erosion of her committee, more than the money, that weighs on her. 

“We are getting old. My committee members are mostly in their 60s and 70s,” she said. “Young people are educated, hold professional jobs, and don’t want to be doing this.” 

Chhua Bak Siang of the Toa Payoh Lorong 8 industrial park Zhong Yuan Jie committee is more upbeat.

The 79-year-old partner of a printing firm said his 160-member team has kept the annual tradition alive for 42 years.

“In the past, there were four Zhong Yuan Jie committees at this industrial park of about 600 units. We are the last one standing for the past decade or so,” he said.

Expenses are high: A banquet table with free-flowing liquor costs $580, and a getai show costs him over $10,000.

“Yes, prices have gone up, but we make sure we have savings from past years,” Chhua said. “We have even been donating to charities for the elderly.”

The members each forked out $120 for dinner and a blessing pack worth $100. But it is the auction takings, that can go up to $170,000 a year, that bring in most of the funds, he said.  

This year, the most expensive items would be four lanterns that together cost about $50,000. They can bring luck when hung up at the door of the factory unit for the rest of the year, Chhua said.

He makes a conscious effort to groom successors. With different trades represented at the industrial park, there are always volunteers who are willing to step up.

“We speak mostly Mandarin instead of dialects, and give the younger ones some responsibilities so that they feel a sense of ownership,” he said.

Today, his members range from those in their 30s to 80, with the majority in their 50s.

“The incense will never stop burning,” said Chhua. “There may be fewer Zhong Yuan festivities in future, but with devotees like us, it will never die out.”