Feature

When mourning, wearing gold or diamonds is considered inauspicious. Instead, the Nyonyas wear pearls to symbolise tears, and jewellery made of silver and jade to represent solemnity and respect.

Most research around grief is related to human death; however, the death of a pet can trigger the same depth of grief. For many families, a pet’s passing feels no less heartbreaking than losing another human who is close to them.

Penang is home to many such public cemeteries. With the earliest ones dating back to the early 19th century, these sites are the result of the rapid growth of the early Chinese community, and more significantly, indicates the settling down of Chinese immigrants in Penang.

2025 marks the third year Nine Lives Coffee Roasters (NLCR) has hosted the Malaysia Aeropress Championship in the northern region. This time, it was held at Moonshine Bakehouse on Andaman Island, Penang.

It is believed that the performance of the story from the Yulanpen Sutra or Mulian Saves His Mother from Hell during the gong tek ritual helps the soul of the dead to journey safely and quickly towards rebirth, or to Western Paradise, the auspicious and heavenly world where Amitabha Buddha resides.

In contemporary bioethics, euthanasia is commonly defined as a deliberate intervention undertaken with the intention of ending life to relieve intractable suffering, a definition that may mask the deep human anguish at its centre.

From the home or hospital where death is certified, the mosque where prayers are led, to the burial ground and the gravestone where names are carved into, each pair of hands carries the deceased a little further along their final journey.