A 22-year-old youth uploaded a TikTok video of himself chewing food in front of Hungry Ghost Festival offerings by the roadside, sparking backlash online.
In a 15-second clip posted on August 24, the youth, who goes by the handle @antcnius, captioned his video: “When you’re broke and hungry but you realised 7th month just started so you genuinely just start grabbing food off the floor.”
In the video, he was seen reaching towards a Huat Kueh (Prosperity Cake) placed among the offerings, then turning to the camera while chewing green food.
@antcnius early bird catches the worm ahh tiktok 😭🙏#sg #esotericangel333 #sgtiktok #emo #matcha ♬ original sound – 🕯️
The video quickly went viral with more than 272,000 views at the time of writing.
Some netizens laughed it off, but many were shocked and criticised him for being disrespectful. A few even commented that he should be sent to a welfare home.
No ill intentions, just wanted to make people laugh
According to Shin Min Daily News, when contacted, the youth clarified that he did not eat the offerings. “What I was chewing was pandan cake I bought from a nearby shop. The offering shown was orange, but the cake I ate was green,” he said.
He explained that the idea came when he was hungry and jokingly thought about eating offerings.
“Of course, I didn’t do it. It was just an idea that gave me inspiration for the video,” he said.
The youth then added that he only wanted to make people laugh and had no intention of insulting religion. He comes from a Buddhist family and said he understands the importance of respecting religious practices.
“Eating offerings or making a mess of them is shameful behaviour. The video was not for fame, just for fun,” he said.
