犒军 "KOH KOON"
What does it mean?
The term
犒军 ‘koh koon’ literally
means paying respect to the spiritual and or heavenly soldier
When and where is such an event
held?
This event is held every 2nd
and 16th of every Chinese calendar month from 2pm – 3.45pm in our temple
What is the purpose of having
such an event?
The main reason for such an event
is to allow us have a specific period to thank the
军 ‘koon’ for their work in helping
us.
Who are the
军 ‘koon’?
The
军 ‘koon’ are the five directional spiritual soldier
(五营军将)
that we pray to (most temple including ours do have
an altar for the
军 ‘koon’) and there can also
be the heavenly soldier.
What are the activity when
holding such an event?
During this period, offering for
the ‘koon’ for their assistant will be given by the temple and individual who wish to
participate in such an occasion can offer their thanks simply with 5 oranges, 1
stack 6000 gold joss paper(金
纸)
, yellow money
(黄
钱) and jia horse (armour)
(甲
马).
Can I offer more during
犒军 ‘koh koon’?
For those who wish to offer more
can do so by offering 3,5 or 7 different type of meat (item offered should be in
odd quantity) all preferably in whole.
You can also offer 3,5 or 7
different type of fruits, each of which should preferably be in a set of 5. Gold joss
paper, yellow paper and jia horse can also be offered in larger quantity.
What should I do with the item I
buy to offer when I am in the temple?
All offering by individual should
be taken to the ‘koon’ altar to announce what they have bring and to let known
whom is giving such offering as well as the reason for it if there is any.
Once that is done, all offered
item can be place on table facing the ‘koon’ altar which temple member have put in
place.
What else are there do after
giving the offering?
We will have to wait for food
offering to be consumed by the ‘koon’ and by 3.45pm temple member will then offered
the tea and wine and ask for permission to start burning all the joss paper which
had been offered.
Are the joss paper burned at the
temple premises?
As our devotee joss paper
offering are normally a lot and although we try to have all of it burned at our
temple premises, we might not be able to do so.
We wish also not to offend our neighbor with the ashes flying into their premises, as such sometime due to
the large quantity of joss paper, some of it will be burnt at another
location.
Will the ‘koon’ be able to
receive what we offered if we are burning the joss paper somewhere else?
We wish to let known that such
practice is acceptable as the remaining paper will be burn together with our diety ‘fu’ which will inform and enable the
军‘koon’ to accept our offering
at another location.
Can we take back the food which
we offered?
Once the burning for the joss
paper start which is normally around 4.00pm-4.15pm, food and fruits offered by
individual can be taken back for their own consumption.
Temple food offering will also
be given out to anyone who are able to have their meals in the temple.
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