"an Impression of the Buddhist-Taoist Ceremonies of Intercession for the Dead By Box W, Fesox, It Is seldom shat we who live in the amazing Orient are jarred out of our complacent composure by the ight of a new thing. 1 have lived fand travelled in China and other hearts of eastern Asia for many yours, find thought myself possessed of n fair share of Nonehalance—but now T must ein again to build up a sophisticated nuvi, for 1 have seen the Festival Intercession held. this autumn in Canton! Such a bizarre, dazzling. and fexotle spectacle it has not been my food fortune to experience before, find others of the fow Westerners who took tHe opportunity to visit the seem lo share my feelings of and bewilderment, This festival while not exaelly novel Nereessionary ceremonies. occur, T understand:
Canton) equalled only {wo or three times dur-Inga century; it richly deserves some sort of a report, amens Tenevolent Institution bits of decoration impossible to was Aladdin's palace come true, for the intricate traceries upon which whielt we gazed enthralled were not mere brio-a-prac thrown together for week's view, but work wrought carefully (o endure! Tt was some time [before the more veteran members of our party reravered sufficiently to Feallze that all this decoration was in units or sections adroitly dovetailed Jand fabricated together to hide and Jembellish the bamboo framework of facade and wall.
"The principle is substantially the same og that used for the ornamental on of the exotic triumphal-arches: which' span Canton and Honekong streets on jubilee days; these decora~ tions, however, were far more autistic and of @ greater delicacy and magnil~ cence. Not often during a given jeentury are they summoned from their Slorehouses to sparkle for the hol pol fol as they were doing this festival week.
Canton possesses in its Pong Bin Hospital a famous benevolent institu lon which, besides earing for the ailing, poor and serving as a last refuge of those whose relntives—fcoring, the onus of a doth in the heme—boring them ere to pass. their last bury all une Individuals found dead in the 1d victims of major catastrophes Ruch as fires or floods. This hospital, us in previous years, ce-operated with Ainunaber of well-renown Buddhist and Taoist monasteries all over the prov nee of Kuangtung to arrange a series of ceremonies of Intercession for the dead: the special magnif~ence and size fof the affair this year "..aeted many thousands of sightseers besides numer Tous devotees who took advantage of the opportunities afforded in connec tion with prayers for their ancestors. Profits from the fees and donations pald in, afler the considerable ex-Denses of the enterprise wore met, Went mainly to ald in the benin-volent protects of the Fung Bin Hosp.
We learned of the existence of this Festival of Intereession only a dey two keforo the allotted ten days were up, and Immediately a small party of Interested foreigners went into Canton city, and took rickshaws to the hospital. Long before we reached the site ni the ceremonies (a large vacant area near the hospital, just north= west of the famed Goddess-of-Merey HUI), we were forced to abandon our conveyances and work our way on foot through enormous throngs simiterly bent on visiting the spectable.
Thousands of Electric Lights In the distance could be seen an im= mense tower spangled with thousands of elretrie bulbs where radiance made ita landmark for miles. The tower blind not been there two weeks de tore Swent along by the crowd, we trvdned through an extended passageway lined with hundreds of red strips of paper pasted longitudinally on the walls, beaing characters which indicate the names" of and amounts given hnumecous donors to the festival, Half the boars in Canton had chosen this venue as propitious hunting groun and we had a gristy gauntlet to run befor reaching the entrance to the hospital rounds, The institution self was open o visitors, but we} were swing along with the throng toward the building which supported the 200-foot shining, tower.
For these of us in southeastern China who are familiar with the marvellous theatre matsheds flung to-nther for a few days' use yet capable of seating thousands, no miracles with poles, bamboo, and. thatch can be a complete surprise: but the enormous structure which now lonmed. catho-Aralefushon before us, with its main and subsidiary towers, was almost in a elnss by itself, Tt _must_ have been aver one 100 yards long. and almost as wide, with a ceiling perhaps 50 fect abave the earth floor," But fam antlelpating, for the fiest'alimpse we had of the facade of the front of the "ample," entirely aside from its dimensions,' yave. us perhaps the sveatest thrill of the entire experience!
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.