Qing Ming Festival is usually occurring on the 5th of April (+/- 1 or 2 days) every year when the Sun reaches the celestial longitude of 15 degree. Most importantly, it is also the day for Chinese to pray before the ancestors, sweep the tombs and offer food, tea, wine, chopsticks, joss paper accessories etc..
Usually my grandfather, granduncle, father, uncles and aunties would go to “sweep” the tombs of my great-grand parents and great-great-grandparents 2 or 3 weeks before the actual day to prevent traffic jam. My great-grand parents passed away when I was studying in primary school, but I have never followed them to sweep the tomb every year on Qing Ming.
Yesterday (Sunday), I went to the tombs for the first time. The two big blocks of tombs were just next to each other. This year my grandfather and my elder granduncle (my grandfather’s elder brother) did not follow the team because they are too old and it will not be easy for them to climb up a hill. Therefore, this is the first time my brother and I are “invited” to join them this year.
My relatives and my father, my brother and I spent about 2 hours there cleaning the tombs, give the food as offering, and finally we burned the “golden and silvery paper” before we said bye bye to our ancestors.
From the tombstone I saw that my great-great-grandfather was labeled with the 18th generation, and my great grandfather was labeled with 19th generation. Then I calculated which generation I am. It turned out that I am the 22nd generation, and my nephews are the 23rd generation.
Do you know that great-great-grandfather is also known as:-
1. Grandfather’s grandfather.
2. Father’s great-grandfather.
3. Great-grandfather’s father.
For me, I do NOT agree that burning things such as “fake money”, fake clothings, paper houses, paper cars can help the ancestor in the other world. These actions do not make sense at all and create pollution. But most of my relatives are doing that and I can’t stop them.
The most important value of Qing Ming Festival is to remember our ancestors and learn the value of “XiaoDao” (filial piety in Chinese). It is the good and positive value of respect and obedience to parents and ancestors. It is the basic value that helps in creating a peaceful and harmony environment from the scale of a family to the entire country since thousands of years ago.
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Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackChecking out ere . Nanged ur post. =)
I won’t be able to pray for my grandpa and grandma since I’m studying abroad.
-> JLean,
-> jfook, may be next year. Years ago, I have also missed 2 times to “sweep the tombs” for my grandmother (mother’s mother) when I was studying abroad.
You do not agree to the burning of joss paper because it pollute the environment. BUT you have not had the opportunity to “meet” the spirit asking you for it and some do. That’s why the burning of joss paper is still around these days!
-> Mr/Ms. l, I meet quite a number of cases last time when I joined a Buddhist temple. The spirited requested for many other things such as helping them to leave from their suffering, hunger, looking for (usually disturb) people and so on, but they never request for paper money, paper house, paper cloth etc..
We used Buddhist way to solve the problem such as “ChaoDu”, “FaHui”, Chanting (reading sutras and mantra)etc (with offering and negotiation). to fulfill their request and resolve conflicts between the spirit and human.
Those spirit who request for joss paper are actually wanted to attract attention but we might have interpreted it wrongly and use traditional Chinese method which might not really solve the problem, and did something that the spirit will never receive. Sometimes, the spirit gave up and went away because their descendants have done something yet did not help him/her much.
Do you know that “some” spirit cannot eat the food that we offer without reading a type of mantra called “BianShiZhenYan”?
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