CNY day 8&9 - Bai Tian Gong (Why sugarcane?)

Day 8 is the busiest day for Hokkiens where we prepare for the countdown to Day 9 and pray to the Heaven :)

My hardworking daddy!

The huge feast:

The super huge roasted pig!

The pair of sugarcane above is to remind the Hokkiens of WW2 while they pray to the Heaven. I heard my Granny said that during WW2, on the 9th day of CNY, while the Hokkiens try to escape from the Japanese, they came to this huge field of sugar canes. They squat down, looked into the sky and prayed very hard to be missed by the Japanese soldiers. Just as the Japanese reached, suddenly, the whole sky turned dark and the sugarcane covered everyone. The Japanese saw the dark sky and decided to turn back. The sugar canes shield them from the Japanese's sight so from then on, the Hokkiens are grateful to Heaven and made an effort to pray on this day. If it happened to me, I would make sure the whole family remember this ordeal.

Xoxo.