The spring rain and apricot blossoms are full of Qingming, and the reminiscence still complains that the hookah is light.
This weekend, Beijing will usher in the first peak of this year's Qingming Festival.
Since some relatives of the deceased cannot perform sacrifices and sweeps in person, various "sacrifice-sweeping" businesses have emerged.
While traditional customs are gradually becoming trendy, consumers should be alert to the problems of arbitrary price charging and lack of integrity, and more importantly, beware of all kinds of frauds that are popular around the festival.
Sweep
Low threshold, big spread, high profit
"On all dates of the Qingming Festival, the graveyards in Beijing will be scanned on behalf of them." "On behalf of the Qingming Festival, you can buy flowers and fruits for sacrifices." As the Qingming Festival is approaching, there are more sellers offering paid tomb-sweeping services on various online shopping and social platforms.
They generally use their own city and surrounding areas as their service scope, and many of them did not release information until mid-March, apparently aiming at "business opportunities".
The reporter saw that the prices of private cleaning services vary widely in different places, and the content is also varied.
For example, according to a seller who undertakes the scanning service in Suzhou, the service charges 500 yuan per service.
Add 100 yuan for flowers and 100 yuan for fruits or pastries.
An additional fee will be charged for kowtowing, and an additional 200 yuan will be charged if the tomb sweeper needs to open the live video broadcast and ask the grave sweeper to talk to their relatives.
Another seller who claims to be able to "pour wine, chat, and cry on behalf of others" is asking as high as 1,000 yuan.
A seller who undertakes a scanning service in Tianjin offered a price of 200 yuan, which is a relatively low charge online.
He said that he had been doing tomb-sweeping services for several years during the Qingming Festival, and the 200 yuan was directly charged for labor.
If the cemetery is far away, additional tolls will be added as appropriate.
In terms of offering flower offerings, customers can ask for anything they want to buy, and they will be reimbursed.
"When you arrive at the location you designated, first photograph the original condition of the tombstone. Then scrub and place flower offerings. If you have anything to say, you can send the words in advance, recite it for you, and finally bow and salute." The seller He introduced the specific process to the reporter, saying, "The one that we don't make is solemn and solemn, but you have a wish. In the past, you could secretly burn some paper. Give you some incense."
In addition to sweeping graves gradually spread across the country, in recent years, more businesses have used their brains, and even moved services such as "substitute paper burning" to attract customers online.
A company specializing in funeral services issued a slogan, saying that "it has a professional paper burning room to relieve fire hazards; there are abundant materials, various forms of banknotes, and funeral supplies are readily available."
It is understood that the "super value burning paper set" launched by this company has five grades from 108 yuan to 1998 yuan.
All will be handwritten and written by "professionals" to ensure that relatives can receive it.
Take the fourth 998 yuan "substitute burning set" as an example, which contains 11 kinds of common paper and cloth offerings such as ingots, cloth cold clothes suits, and punch money.
The reporter searched on the online shopping platform and found that the price of these sacrifices is usually around ten or twenty yuan. If the wholesale price is used, it will be cheaper.
official
Cemetery service at no extra charge
Compared to spending a lot of money to find strangers to perform sweeping in an uneasy mood, what many people may not know is that many cemeteries themselves provide convenient services such as sweeping for sacrifices, and there is no additional charge.
The Futian Cemetery is located in the scenic area of the western suburbs of Beijing, with prosperous vegetation and is known as the "Hundred Mu Peach Garden".
Every Qingming season, the garden is full of fragrance, and the spring scenery is picturesque.
On Wednesday morning, citizens came one after another to offer sacrifices.
The cemetery management has set up a service area at the entrance, providing free buckets, towels, brooms, as well as brushes and gold powder for marking monuments, and so on.
There is also a large bucket of blooming white chrysanthemums on the table, which are also distributed to the public for free, and each person can receive three.
According to the staff, citizens follow and enter the WeChat public account of "Beijing Social Construction and Civil Affairs", select "Funeral Service Appointment", and then click "Sacrificial Sweeping" to select a specific funeral and sweeping institution on the page.
Then select the appointment time for the sacrifice, and enter the name of the deceased, the tomb ID number and other information.
"We will arrange personnel to perform the ritual sweeping according to your appointment time, mainly to wipe and clean the tombstones and the surrounding environment, and then present three chrysanthemums." The other party emphasized that as long as the citizens make an appointment, the ritual sweeping work will be completed.
"There will never be a situation where you make an appointment on the platform, but we see the information but don't go to the funeral."
Besides chrysanthemums, what should the citizens do if they want to display other personalized offerings?
The staff said that if the family members have needs, they can mail the items to the cemetery business office, and attach a note to clearly state how to place them.
After the items are signed, contact the cemetery, and the staff will place the items in front of the tomb.
However, considering the perishability and related management provisions, please try not to mail cakes, fruits and other foods.
From Futian Cemetery to the north, the Beijing Jinshan Cemetery in the core area of Xishan is built on the mountain.
The location of the tomb here is getting higher and higher according to the development time, and climbing up the stairs is a big test for people's physical strength.
In the business hall, the staff said that the cleaning service on behalf of the cemetery is a measure in the convenience service of the cemetery, and no public fees are charged.
"This year, the appointment has been opened from March 15, and the cleaning service from March 19 to April 10 can be arranged. So far, more than a dozen citizens have received requests for cleaning."
According to reports, these cleaning needs will be delegated to the staff on duty in the cemetery.
"After finding the corresponding tombstone, clean and wipe it, place flowers, and take pictures and record the tombstone after the sacrifice." The other party showed some pictures of the sacrificed tombstone to the reporter, all of which were facing the tombstone and could clearly see the name of the deceased. angle.
The tombstone has been cleaned, and the front of the tombstone is enshrining three yellow chrysanthemums.
"Most of the needs of the cleaning agent are communicated with us by phone, and some people make an appointment online. Some family members want to see the status of the tombstone with their own eyes. in the mailbox."
remind
Beware of "seasonal" scams
In fact, there have always been disputes among the people regarding various types of sacrifice and sweeping services.
Some people think that the Qingming Festival sacrifices focus on this sense of ceremony. If you have to invite outsiders to do the sweeping of the tomb and burning paper, you will lose the meaning of "respect".
There are also many people, especially young people, who feel that under the background of population mobility, especially due to the impact of the epidemic in recent years, there is indeed a realistic constraint on grave sweeping.
"It's better to be able to think about this matter and be willing to spend this kind of money, than to do nothing and let the tomb overgrown with weeds, right?"
Opinions vary, and there is no set standard.
But in the face of all kinds of "business" derived from Qingming, it is most real to avoid being fooled.
According to media reports, some consumers received several live videos from businesses after purchasing 200 yuan worth of "substitute burning" services online.
But when it was transferred to the mobile phone, the flaw was found. "Except for the first video, which was shot on the same day, the other videos were shot a month ago. The same video, I don't know how many people were deceived."
In response to similar fraud, the Sichuan Provincial Consumer Council issued a consumer reminder, saying that in recent years, there have been services such as surrogate tomb sweeping, burning paper money, and even crying on behalf of customers. , just to deceive consumers by switching to other scenes through WeChat live broadcast.
It is recommended that consumers choose a formal institution and safeguard their legitimate rights and interests in a timely manner when disputes arise.
In addition, some "seasonal" scams circulating during the Qingming period are also worthy of people's vigilance.
Recently, the police in many places have successively issued anti-fraud reminders during the Qingming Festival, revealing several common methods of fraud.
For example, scammers make up a name with a high rate of repetition and falsely claim that he has passed away and send mass messages.
Some people will mistakenly think that someone they know has passed away, and it is not convenient to verify, so they will directly transfer money "accompanying members".
There are also some scams that make a fuss about "funeral expenses". The liar falsely claims that he is a staff member of the civil affairs department.
Once the family members believe it and check whether the subsidy has been received, the scammers will use various rhetoric to make the family members click on the link or scan the QR code, etc., to induce the money to be transferred out.
Similar cases have occurred in Beijing, Hangzhou, Guangdong and other places.
Our reporter Wei Jing