My Grandfather's actual grave.

Grandfather's tombstone, from Chio Sai, Xia Men, China.

Tho ti kong, the Guardian. In mandarin it is read as "Hou Tu" but in some parts of China it is called "Fu shen"

Sui Chiok Kwei, the street heading to my grandpa's grave.

This caught my attention as I saw this traditional chinese grave standing in the middle. So old school.

Here lies the grave of my Gwakong, (hokkien term for grandfather in mother's side). Each year, we see to it that we visit his grave at Manila Chinese Cemetery, Chinese-Filipinos have two All Soul's Day, the first is Ching Ming Festival or known as sweeping of graves it is held April 5 in Chinese Lunar calendar, date for some reason is stable, however, you can celebrate it 20 days before, and the second one is November 1 where Filipinos and Chinese both celebrate that particular day, also I wanna mention the Hungry Ghost Month or Chit Geh Puah, celebrated the whole month of the 7th lunar month, but the main celebration is held on the 15th day of 7th lunar month. My mom and I are getting busy before the actual day approach, we are headed to Ongpin (Chinatown) to buy stuffs like food offering, such as fruits, Kim tsuah (paper money), incense, candles, bong tsuah multi-colored paper to paste on top of grave, sweets, ang lao hue or ampao in tagalog. My mom will first offer foods and pay respect to the tho ti kong which is located at the right side of the grave. Tho Ti Kong means spirit land keeper, or guardian. According to the old tradition, you must first pay respect first to the higher entity as he needs to call the departed spirit that your loved ones visit you and you need to take the offering.

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