Tomb Sweeping Day is an old holiday. However, it was banned during much of recent history. From 1949 to 2008, Tomb Sweeping Day was outlawed. It’s back now and it’s a public holiday.
One aspect of Tomb Sweeping Day that I find unusual is the burning of paper items. Traditional Chinese beliefs on the afterlife dictate that the dead need stuff. So, people burned things that their departed loved ones might need later. In modern times, people burn paper replicas of these items. Common items to burn are spirit money (fake money specifically made for this purpose) and paper cars. People, however, can find a paper replica of just about anything to burn. I’ve even heard of paper mistresses and paper KTVs (karaoke bars) burned.
In addition to maintaining graves and burning money, there are other ancestral rites that people can perform. Some people bring food and drinks to graves and present them to their ancestors. After a certain amount of time (maybe 30 minutes) the descendants eat the food and drink the drinks. People also kowtow at the ancestors’ graves or at pictures of their ancestors.
People don’t have to participate in Tomb Sweeping Day. My co-worker told me that she will not be going to the cemetery because Beijing isn’t her family’s hometown. Therefore, she has no local graves to maintain. In lieu of a cemetery visit, she will do something outdoors to mark the beginning of spring. This is actually a common practice. This morning, I saw several children flying kites and many elderly ladies dancing. They were all doing something to commemorate the beginning of spring.
Tomb Sweeping Day is not a holiday that I see myself ever participating in. However, it’s certainly an interesting idea.
Burning paper iPhone 5s is the hot trend for Tomb Sweeping Day 2014.
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We also burn paper items during the mourning period after someone has passed. Same concept...make sure they have enough money, etc. to have a comfortable lifestyle in the afterlife. We went through I don't know how many bricks of paper money after my grandmother passed in '97. Thank goodness there wasn't Iphones yet!! Otherwise, those would probably have been burnt too....
ReplyDeleteIt's a nice idea. I can see how people in mourning would really try to do everything they could to make their loved one comfortable in a new place.
DeleteAs for the iPhones, my co-teacher told me a joke about this: A young guy went to the joss vendor to buy some paper items to burn for his grandma. At checkout, the vendor tries to sell the guy a paper iphone. The guy decline, saying that the iphone was invented after his grandma died so, she won't know how to use it. The vendor then tells him "That's ok. Steve Jobs is dead too. He'll teach your grandma how to use the iphone!"
It's an old tradition, just to honor/remember your ancestors. Sometimes, it seems like we care more about the dead than the living, but seeing as how the Chinese are very, very traditional and family oriented, I am not surprised if this was the case in some families.
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