Name of Ritual

灵位 (memorial tablet) for the next 49 days

Description of Ritual/Practice

• The photo, tablet and incense urn from the funeral wake are brought back to the son’s home after cremation or burial, and a temporary altar is set up at home. If a deity or ancestor altar is installed in the house, the table used to set up the temporary altar must be shorter so that the deceased is not on the same or higher level than the deities and ancestors. Food offerings (similar to what was served to the deceased at the wake) is served everyday until the deceased has transitioned.
• Some families may opt to install the memorial tablet and temporary altar in temples or private columbaria that offer this service.

Who practices it? Who conducts the ritual?

Family Members, ritual specialists such as the nam mo lo and Buddhist monks, and columbarium staff and

Is it still practiced now?

• Altars at home tend to be smaller now due to space constraints.
• There is also an increasing trend of setting up temporary altars in temples or private columbaria with an increasing outsourcing of commemorative practices to service providers

Other interesting notes

• Most Cantonese will remove the temporary altar on the third seven sam chaat 三七 . Cantonese refer to this as peck leng 劈灵.
• The rest of the dialect groups may continue to keep the temporary tablet for 49 days to 100 days until the deceased has transitioned to ancestorship
• Some Hokkiens may replace the temporary tablet once before a permanent tablet is installed on the family’s prayers altar or in the temple.