Nine Emperor Gods Festival (九皇大帝) 2011 at Ampang (Day -3)

Saturday, September 24, 2011

Nine Emperor Gods Festival (九皇大帝) 2011 at Ampang (Day -3)

The Nine Emperor Gods (九皇大帝) Festival is coming up. Celebrated from the 1st to the 9th day of the Chinese 9th lunar month (a misnomer since the Chinese calendar is a lunisolar calendar). This year the festival falls on the 27th of September until the 5th of October 2011. The Nine Emperor Gods' temple in Ampang (安邦南天宮九皇大帝), Selangor is a large and ornate temple which is very popular with devotees around KL. Last year, the festival was an extended one and started a week or so earlier as they had just completed the renovations to the temple which included two beautifully lit pagodas and a new entrance arch and perimeter.

The Ampang Nine Emperor Gods Temple during the festival in 2010. This photo was taken at 1.05am in the morning! Just look at the number of devotees streaming endlessly to the temple.

Since this festival is coming up in the next few days, I've made the decision to try and post daily update since I get a good bird's-eye view from my balcony and bedroom. This is the first entry, three days before the celebration this year (Day -3). The pagodas were already lit at night for the past few days, a sign of the upcoming festival. Usually it is only lit on the 1st and the 15th day of the lunar calendar. Looking forward to seeing the stalls along the roadside to be set up in the next few days.

Below are the links that you can use to navigate to the entire set of nine days plus the sending off ceremony and taking the lantern pole down. Also included is a link to a good site to obtain info and beautiful pictures that captures the essence of the Nine Emperor God's Festival not only in Ampang, but also in Penang.

At the bottom of every day's post are links to either go forward one day/ post or go back a day/post or return here. So hopefully you will enjoy this simple account of what I've seen throughout the festival.