cha-CHING MING!
yesterday was one of my favourite hong kong holiday, ching ming. also known as the grave-sweeping holiday, or spring remembrance, ching ming (clear and bright), is when chinese families show respect to their ancestors by visiting their graves and clearing away weeds, (the chinese believe that too many leaves surrounding the graves disturb the spirit of the ancestors) touch up and repaint the gravestone inscriptions, make offerings of wine and fruit, and burn paper money.
let me explain. apparently the chinese believe that the dead are in a sort of prison. you come in and have no money, and rely on packages from relatives. so, living relatives burn paper money for their ancestors to spend in the afterlife. but it doesn’t stop there. there are intricate paper models of microwaves, boats, jets, fans, heaters, televisions, dvd’s, cigarettes, blackberries, and even i-pod’s that folk are burning for their relatives. i have even seen replica lear jets for sale.
as for the food on the gravestone, no, that’s not a picnic, that food is an offering to the spirits. apparently spirits come in groups of three, as three sets of chopsticks and three Chinese wine cups are also placed above the food, close to the headstone. it is believed that relatives are not eating well in the afterlife, so their favourite dishes are set out to tempt their tastebuds. at the end of the day, the food is cleared away.
family members might also pour wine on the grave or set off firecrackers to scare away evil spirits. the firecrackers also let deceased loved ones know they’re there to pay their respects. folklore has it that unhappy spirits wander the earth on ching ming. It’s considered bad luck to do important business or have an operation on april 5th. stick to hanging out in the cemetery and offering your ancestors food and fake money.
in ancient china, qingming (as it is called in mandarin) was by no means the only time when sacrifices were made to ancestors. such ceremonies were held very frequently, about every two weeks, not including other important holidays and festivals. the ceremonies got to be so costly and elaborate and time consuming that in 732A.D. (tang dynasty), emperor xuanzong declared that respects would be formally paid at the tombs of ancestors only on the day of qingming in order to reduce the expenses. this is a custom that continues to this date.
paying respect to ancestors is not the selfless act it seems….the chinese believe that remembering your forefathers increases their own chances of luck. apparently the spirits have the power to fulfill wishes, so you need to stay in their good books.
ching ming is not just a day of remembrance, it is also called spring remembrance, and after visiting the graves, the family often goes out for a picnic (a real one, eating the food that was on the grave in a different location) to enjoy the weather, which is definitely improving.
we live very close to a graveyard and we love watching the reams of people filtering into the graveyard. although i don’t agree with the spirits thing, i do respect and appreciate the concept of remembering ancestors and their lives and sacrifices. we sort of did that in antigua, and even though the people discussed were not my blood relatives, hearing about their lives and how they worked to make them, and the times they lived through was really interesting.
so there you are…one of my favourite hong kong holidays, gone for another year.
