CHINESE FUNERAL.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 200, 23 August 1940, Page 11

CHINESE FUNERAL.

LATE MRS. WONG DOO.

IMPRESSIVE CEREMONY. All the traditional ceremonial of old China marked the funeral yesterday of Mrs. Unui Wong Doo, wife of Mr. Thomas Wong Doo, prominent Chinese merchant in the city. The funeral cortege was impressively large and the esteem in which the late Mrs. Wong Doo wae held by Chinese and. Europeans alike was revealed by the fact that four trucks were required to carry the wreaths to Waikumete cemetery. The leading vehicle of the procession carried the white mourning banners of China, marked by the cabalistic characters that are the traditional words of farewell. From all over New Zealand Chinese had come to pay their last respects to the late Mrs. Doo, who had spent 26 of her 70 yeans of life as a member of the Chinese community in Auckland, and the road outside Messrs. C. Little and Sons' chapel was blocked by motor care and a vast assemblage of people. The chief mourners were Mr». Wong Doo's three sons, Messrs. Thomas, Norman and. William Wong Doo, two daughters, Mrs. Them Lee, of Vancouver, and Miss Minnie Wong Doo, ami 10 grandchildren and, iu accordance- with Chinese custom, the pall-bearers were the sons and first cousins of the deceased. Impressive Ceremony. Prior to the cortege leaving the undertaker's chapel a short service was conducted by the Chinese Presbyterian mksioner in Auckland, the Rev. Y. S. Chau, who later conducted the service at the graveside at the cemetery. A chill wind that blew during the actual burial service did not discourage the hundreds of people who followed the impressive ceremony with close interest. Alongside the grave there was a carpet of flowers of all colours and descriptions—wreath offerings from all over the Dominion—and the blaze of blooms made a fitting ackground as the pallbearers marched along the winding path and laid the small coffin beside the place prepared for it. At one end of the grave joss sticks were eet in the ground and lighted and, surrounded by the eweet smell of the incense that arose, the mourners sought a blessing from the soul of the departed. Crouched on the ground they lit papers which, fanned by the wind, burst into flame and added a bizarre touch to the scene. Then followed the symbolic feaet of farewell, observed by the pouring of wine from a bowl to the ground. Each of the relatives took part in this, kowtowing twice before pouring out the wine, and little Chinese children, hardly more than toddlers, gravely paid their respects to their honoured and revered grandmother. The ceremony closed with the casting of handful* of earth on to the grave, and ae the mournere moved away each was presented with a number of coins wrapped in paper. With the coins it is usual to buy good luck tokens, which will be worn in the hope that each mourner will live to be as full of years and wisdom as the departed.