ABSTRACT
The end of the funeral is significant because the deceased is now considered to be an object of worship for the family; an ancestor, instead of merely a dead corpse or a dangerous ghost. This chapter describes the ritual worship of the ancestor conducted at home and in the ancestral hall and finally the annual rituals performed at the graveyard during the Qing Ming celebrations. Because of the immigrant status of the Chinese in Singapore, the family and kinship organizations that existed in traditional China are not completely duplicated. This chapter will examine the effects of socioeconomic transformations on ritual performance 1 and the extent to which the changing occupational and residential patterns have affected religious ideas and rituals.
