Prayers and Offerings--Visible and Stimulating to the Senses

It must have been some auspicious day for prayers yesterday. On the bus to work in the morning, I saw a young lady in a bank uniform holding incense and prayer items for burning in front of a make shift altar of bread cartons waist high, with offerings placed on it, right in front of McDonald's. Intriguing. It was a pity I did not have a camera with me.

After my work out at the gym, I returned home. Once I stepped out of the elevator, it smelled of smoke and I could hardly see where I was going. Someone decided to burn offerings in the corridor, at the "auspicious" place of where the corridor breaks to the left and right wing. Idiots! (I know it is rude for it is the practise of their faith, but why in an apartment building's corridor with no air circulation? Someone would have easily mistaken it for a real fire and the smoke could be suffocating.) My freshly washed hair smelled of smoke in the 1 minute I was there moving from the elevator to letting myself into my apartment. Maybe I did express my irritation (although in English) noticeable to the owner of the home that did it (as we stepped out of the elevator together), I found the fire escape door next to my apartment left open this morning.

Interesting indeed, but I wonder, where's the common sense? I was from a heritage like such, but I guess I did not experience enough of it to understand. More to learn in my days in Macao to come.