There are usually trains of red tables and mountainous offerings as Chew clan members and other Hokkiens crowd Weld Quay. The night before and early hours of the Jade Emperor’s birthday is usually buzzing with fanfare.

Not this year though.

Today’s long-awaited festival will not be held for the first time in 113 years because of the pandemic and the wooden houses of Chew Jetty will remain silent as clan members forgo celebrating the festival even in the privacy of their homes.

Chan Hua Hin, 51, a clan member who’s spent his entire life at Chew Jetty, takes FMT through his home grounds, as he reveals its secrets and retells the story of the Jade Emperor Festival.

Chan says that at 11 pm on the eve of the celebrations, a clan member will bang a drum whilst walking along the wooden planks and alleyways of Chew Jetty.

Upon hearing this thundering beat, everyone will pour out from their stilted houses and trot to the main road bearing abundant offerings.

“Every household from the Chew clan must be present and each household offering must contain these five elements – chicken, roast pork, boiled eggs, fruits and different kuihs like ang ku and huat kuih,” Chan explains.

Once all the offerings are set on the table, they wait. As the clock strikes midnight, everyone scrambles to the head of the table.

There, the entire Chew Clan watches eagerly as the most respected clan member performs the honours of throwing two crescent-shaped wooden blocks on the ground.

“If one wooden block faces up and the other faces down, it means that the offerings have been accepted, but if they both face up it means that the offerings have not been fulfilled and it’s thrown again till it’s accepted,” says Chan, adding that if both rocks face downwards, it means the gods are smiling on the clan.

Only one person from the entire clan is selected and bestowed the privilege of throwing the wooden blocks.

The chosen member is not only deemed the most respected – but through ancestral beliefs, this person also has the “perfect” family.

The perfect family, Chan explains, must consist of an active, elder clan member whose family tree is complete with a husband and wife, a son and daughter, and grandchildren.

Although there are a set of ancestral requirements for having the “perfect” family – the whole Chew clan considers themselves one big family.

“To us these aren’t houses. They’re more like spaces,” says Chan.

“The minute you step inside the Chew Jetty, you’re immediately stepping into the front door of the entire Chew clan’s house.”

When asked if everyone in the jetty has the surname Chew, Chan laughs and says “it’s compulsory” – which is surprising, considering his surname is Chan.

Welcoming FMT into his mother’s house, Chan shares stories from his youth and what life was like growing up on the waters – but before that, Chan addresses the elephant in the room.

“I was adopted at four months old by my current mother who was my nanny then. That’s why I don’t have the Chew surname,” he says, explaining that his birth parents abandoned him at the nanny’s house, where he has lived ever since.

Chan says living at the jetty has been relaxing for the most part and thrilling. Yet he remembers one terrifying incident when he was 16 years old.

He says several top gang members from the jetty announced one day that a big fight was to take place against an opposing clan. They demanded that every household send one male for the fight.

“We were all asked to be on stand-by at the front of our jetty and to guard the base,” says Chan.

“I was screaming at the back just like in war movies. I was screaming chong ah chong ah!”

“We got to choose our weapons and since I went to school, I decided to grab a long stick instead of a knife. I figured I’d be able to reach out and hit the other person before they could reach me.”

Chan remembers how he stood at the back, knees shaking.

“It’s not like in the movies, the fight didn’t last that long. Not everyone had the guts to go forward. You need tremendous courage to fight.”

And, as Chan’s thrilling backstories come to an end, the sound of the sea below takes over, its rolling waves crashing into the house’s wooden stilts.

“I used to lie here and fall asleep to the sound of those waves, it was so relaxing,” Chan remembers, adding that he feels lucky to have had this life.

“We are really living in heaven and paradise.”

Although there may be no Jade Emperor Festival this year, there will always be a sense of belonging and family within the Chew Clan and no celebration is needed to prove that.