Qingming

The Monday after Easter was a legal holiday in China because of Qing Ming Jie, which in English we call Tomb Sweeping Day. I've blogged before about how significant the addition of holidays like Qing Ming and Dragon Boat to the official calendar of the PRC.

This year we were driving around the countryside North of our part of town, and this year we really noticed the tombs that had been freshly swept. Even though PRC law dictates cremation and burial in approved locations for the deceased, in rural areas, even inside the city limits of Beijing, more traditional rites can be followed. In this part of China, it means these dirt mounds, packed hard. Every year what dirt has fallen away is re-tamped as part of the tomb-keeping traditions.

I don't often notice the burial mounds that dot the country side, in the groves of fruit and nut trees, on the edges of corn fields, on any other day except Qing Ming. That is, unless it is a very recent grave, and then the flowers and tinsel wreaths are giveaways.

All along our way last Monday we noticed them for sure. White and yellow rags were strung in trees and placed on top of the mounds. Myles was a little unnerved; in the US (obviously) and even in Southern China and definitely in Hong Kong we saw a lot more larger cemeteries, separate from places where people's daily activities would take them.

He mused that the people must have been buried at the spot where they died. No, we told him. That is just the way they bury their loved ones here.