tomb sweeping

yesterday woke up at 3.30am to go chua chu kang!! yea. in the middle of god knows time.. its a tradition though. for my maternal family. we all meet at my ahgong's tomb which is the first stop. it was raining so heavily (for the first time) that my uncle brought out his ultra big umbrella! (the one that u'll see at the swimming pools, cafes even with the ice cream man) it was hilarious larh. dont know how he gets that. came in good use though. to shelter my ancestors. haha. we shouted few times of 'huat ah!' at all places and other people followed. copycats haha!
well. like my cousin said, its really touching to see families gathered around a tomb stone, praying, serving, chatting together. obviously, not assured tt everyone would turn up from each family. my ancestors are really fortunate! (or im really fortunate too!) about 90% of my maternal family went every year! even at this wee hours! best still, we always 'picnic' at my ahma's tomb. yea. i mean literally, we laughed, joked, eat mee hoon, durians, eggs, bread, dumplings there! haha.. like wad my mum said, my ahma likes parties and noises! hee. oh, and after visiting the last tomb stone at the coffee hill, we all went for breakfast together as well! its really a family gathering! we're so bonded! (except a few of course) haha.
but wad pondered me was, are all these offerings necessary? will the dead really gets it? its always at this time, tt my cousins and i will question..
"how big are their wallets?! the notes so big?!"
"got bank wad.."
"or they use visa!?"
"hmm.. then how they collect the money?"
"some one will do it for them.."
haha.. you sure? well, supposely.
hmm.. when my generation comes into place, will we still do the same for our ancestors? if all dead are cremated and ashes are kept, will one day the whole country be full of them? becoz the number seems to be increasing and nve ending.. will one day the law says keep all ashes at home? or even no one supposed to keep it?!
seriously, we'll nve know until the day comes. perhaps, people engaged themselves in todays world too much that the emphasis placed on respecting the dead, honouring our ancestors get less and less important?
well, for now, im just doing wad im told to do and wad i've been doing for years
=)