Businessman Bid $258,888 for an Urn at Singapore’s Seventh Month Festival

September 7, 2009

By Wayang Times

urn-sold-for-2588888-seventh-month-festival

The media reported that a businessman named Mr Lim Chwee Kim bidded successfully for an urn for a cool price of S$258,888 (~US$180,000), during last Thursday’s Seventh Month Festival at the Lorong Koo Chye Sheng Hong Temple in Arumugam Road, Singapore.

It’s a small price to pay, he told The Sunday Times, for the good fortune he has enjoyed over the years.

After all, he added, the money goes towards funding the temple’s programmes for the needy. ‘The money is eventually returned to society. That’s why I don’t mind donating so much,’ he said in Mandarin.

The Ghost Festival (中元节) is a traditional Chinese festival and holiday, which is celebrated by Chinese in many countries. In the Chinese calendar (a lunisolar calendar), the Ghost Festival is on the 14th night of the seventh lunar month. In Chinese tradition, the fifteenth day of the seventh month in the lunar calendar is called Ghost Day and the seventh month in general is regarded as the Ghost Month, in which ghosts and spirits, including those of the deceased ancestors, come out from the lower realm. During the Qingming Festival the living descendants pay homage to their ancestors and on Ghost Day, the deceased visit the living.

I think such things can only happen in an Asian society. Agree?

Source: Straits Times

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