Next week is another important Chinese holiday called "Tomb Sweeping Day" or Qingming Festival. This is a very important day for families.
As explained to me by my friend, the night before the holiday begins, at least one person in the family must not sleep. Usually several people stay up. They play cards and talk, but it is important that at least someone is awake.
Why you might ask? Because on that night, at midnight, the festival begins and the dead ancestors come back to peek in and see how their progeny are doing. It would be bad if they came back from their celestial wanderings to find everyone asleep!
On this night, all lights in a family home should be left on. No one should go out of the house that night.
On the first morning after, everyone should offer incense and prayers before going outside of the house for the first time.
Families visit the gravesites of their ancestors and bring a small table. The table is set up at the gravesite and offerings are made of oranges, apples, banana, and water. Maybe sometimes some liquor.
At the tomb site, ceremonial money is burned (it is yellow paper with imprints of coins on it) and incense is offered. Of course, the male participants are ever eager to detonate firecrackers, so there is alot of pyrotechnics as well.
My friends mother, and many others, will say some words to the departed parents and ancestors. They will be told that everyone is happy, that they should enjoy some food, that they are welcome back during the festival, that they could help out the living by making sure there is more money in the coming year, and things like that.
People also go to the temple to pray to their local god or divinity. The buddhist temples are extremely busy this time of year, and in Wuhan the Guanyin temple will text message you a blessing to help keep the crowds at the temple down.
Some people go to Taoist temples, others to Buddhist ones. I don't know any christians around here, so I am not sure how they handle this tradition that certainly describes a different spiritual world than is acceptable in christendom.
During the festival, people remember their departed relatives several times a day. Devout people might spend most of each day at the graveyard.
I am not sure what I will be doing during this festival. All I know is to stay off the street the night when all the dead people are coming back to check in on the living.
As explained to me by my friend, the night before the holiday begins, at least one person in the family must not sleep. Usually several people stay up. They play cards and talk, but it is important that at least someone is awake.
Why you might ask? Because on that night, at midnight, the festival begins and the dead ancestors come back to peek in and see how their progeny are doing. It would be bad if they came back from their celestial wanderings to find everyone asleep!
On this night, all lights in a family home should be left on. No one should go out of the house that night.
On the first morning after, everyone should offer incense and prayers before going outside of the house for the first time.
Families visit the gravesites of their ancestors and bring a small table. The table is set up at the gravesite and offerings are made of oranges, apples, banana, and water. Maybe sometimes some liquor.
At the tomb site, ceremonial money is burned (it is yellow paper with imprints of coins on it) and incense is offered. Of course, the male participants are ever eager to detonate firecrackers, so there is alot of pyrotechnics as well.
My friends mother, and many others, will say some words to the departed parents and ancestors. They will be told that everyone is happy, that they should enjoy some food, that they are welcome back during the festival, that they could help out the living by making sure there is more money in the coming year, and things like that.
People also go to the temple to pray to their local god or divinity. The buddhist temples are extremely busy this time of year, and in Wuhan the Guanyin temple will text message you a blessing to help keep the crowds at the temple down.
Some people go to Taoist temples, others to Buddhist ones. I don't know any christians around here, so I am not sure how they handle this tradition that certainly describes a different spiritual world than is acceptable in christendom.
During the festival, people remember their departed relatives several times a day. Devout people might spend most of each day at the graveyard.
I am not sure what I will be doing during this festival. All I know is to stay off the street the night when all the dead people are coming back to check in on the living.
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