拜神 An Offering to the Spirits

Yesterday I ritualistically moved in. It is often said that Hong Kong retains a lot of the old Chinese traditions lost in the name of communism. I can say that I have truly experienced this.
拜神(bai sun) literally means to pay homage to (the) god(s). I think it's easier to just show you. The first picture is me signing a traditional and ceremonial contract declaring my intent to live in the apartment. Chinese ghosts are very business oriented.

Next I bowed three times with three incense and two traditional Chinese incense candle and put them into a carrot in each three corners of the room, one in the farthest corner of the other room, and one in the middle. The order always begins with East. Next, various paper offerings of gold, silver, money, and other papers are piled up next to each candle/incense offering.



Then these large stacks of very flammable paper are burned. And When I say burned I mean "bonfire" burned! We burned the piles of offerings in the bathroom so as not to damage the painted walls of the other rooms. The smoke is supposed to send the bad ghosts away so the windows and doors are shut.






The smoke was so thick Tsz Fung and I couldn't take it. It took us about 1 hour to burn everything, one very smoky hour.






Next, 5 different colored beans are thrown about the room to send homophobic ghosts running. Then after one hour, you pour boiling water on a sacred plant, open all the windows and doors(to let the good luck flow back in) and clean everything up.
If this doesn't do the trick I don't know what will!