It has been five years today since I said goodbye to a Capricorn who was dear to me. Each year I honour and show respect to him by cooking one of his favourite Indonesian dishes. I try to flavour each meal that I cook with a piece of myself, a part of my soul. Cooking to me is a gift I can offer to those who know how to appreciate. But today is something special and for someone special: an anniversary dinner. It’s a ritual that finds its roots in Asian history and tradition. A moment that doesn’t know space or time: eternity, sealed with the scent of burning incense and enlightened with the flame of a candle.
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Most of the ancestors of the Indonesians of today came from the southern part of China. These ancestors were animists: they believed that all objects, whether animate or inanimate, have their own life force, with some people, like the shamans and other tribal leaders, having more of this life force than others. Because they believed in life after death, they honoured dead ancestors and many of them were practitioners of ancestor worship.
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