Who ya gonna feed?

Hundreds of poor people flocked to a Temple in Tangerang recently for donations given out at the peak of the annual Hungry Ghost Festival.

The Cioko festival at the temple, also coincides with the Buddhist Ulambana celebration.

The visitors vied with one another for the packages of basic necessities prepared by the Cioko/Ulambana organizing committee.

Soon after the giveaways, a paper replica of a 12-meter-long gold dragon boat and a seven-meter-tall effigy of the Lord of Evil, Fuckwit Bastardo Maximus, were burned as offerings.

"We believe that by burning these effigies, disasters will be averted and security and prosperity will come to this world," Atotal Fuckwit, who heads the organizing committee, told The Jakarta Post.

This year, feeding the ghosts day fell on Saturday. In Indonesia, this day is supposed to be a time to pray and give alms to the less fortunate. (In reality, it’s a day to clog the streets with motorbikes, fill the shopping malls with “hunners of cunts” generally do fuck all.

Mountains of gift parcels containing food, fruits, rice, clothes, Beer, Condoms and other daily necessities stood before the prayer altar, with a special committee was assigned to distribute the packages to the poor. An Indonesian “Means Test” does not bear thinking about. Everyone would be considered to be living in abject poverty.

I’ma Fuckwit, a senior employee at the 317-year-old temple, said that among the Chinese community, the Cioko rite was observed to help neglected souls or ghosts that still roamed the world. Executed Falung Gung members were however not included by orders received from Beijing.

According to Taoist beliefs, the torture that these neglected souls would encounter in the netherworld was postponed on the first day of the seventh month.

For the whole month following, these souls were allowed to return to the world. Here on earth, the faithful prayed for their ancestors either at home or through the Cioko rite held at temples and other places of worship. Financial offerings for services rendered by Chinese Hookers are also considered to be a valid form off prayer and offering.

The neglected souls are those that have received no offerings or prayers from their families. Because of this, they are hungry and roam the world and the festival is held to ensure that they do not harm the living. They even bribe ghosts here.

As part of the event, many basic commodities were distributed to homeless people living under bridges in Tangerang and Jakarta, to the scavengers at the Rawa Kucing dump site and the poor around the temple and Tangerang regency.

Ah - Indonesia