China News Service, Jinan, April 4 (Reporter Sha Jianlong and Zhao Xiao) Wipe tombstones, clean up weeds, and place flowers... During the Qingming Festival in 2022, Tian Juncheng, who is far away in Shanghai, placed an order through an online platform for his The ancestors of Gaomi's hometown in Weifang sacrificed to express their remembrance.
Although he was unable to return to his hometown to perform sacrifices, he felt that he also expressed his condolences to his ancestors.
In recent years, with the advocacy of the state and the situation of epidemic prevention and control, the emergence of forms such as "cloud sacrificial sweeping" and "valet sacrificial sweeping" have made the traditional customs of paying homage to ancestors on Qingming Festival more healthy, safe and civilized, making Tomb-sweeping Day is more "clean and bright".
The cemetery and related departments have also further optimized services, providing more civilized and environmentally friendly burial methods and ritual sweeping methods for the public to choose from.
A cemetery in Shandong is located in Xiaoli Town, Changqing District, Jinan, one of the birthplaces of Chinese filial piety culture.
On the eve of this year's Qingming Festival, the cemetery also launched "cloud sacrificial sweeping" and "valet sacrificial sweeping" and other sacrificial sweeping forms to make it easier for customers who cannot perform on-site sacrificial sweeps to express their grief.
The relevant person in charge of the cemetery told reporters that in recent years, there have been fewer and fewer sacrificial sweeping methods such as burning paper on the spot.
The reporter sorted out and found that at present, the domestic epidemic situation is spreading in many places, and the prevention and control situation is grim.
In order to avoid cross-infection caused by crowds gathering and gathering, local government departments have stepped up the advocacy of non-returning to the hometown for sacrifices, and funeral service agencies have also launched unified cleaning of tombs, placement of flowers, valet sacrifice sweeping, online sacrifice sweeping, and customization. bouquets and other services.
According to Song Huayu, a lecturer at the School of History and Culture of Shandong Normal University, the rise of new forms such as "online sacrificial sweeping" and "valet sacrificial sweeping" is not only affected by the epidemic, but also because most modern people are away from home and are busy with work and life. Due to time and space constraints, it is impossible to guarantee that they can return to their hometown to worship and sweep each year on the Qingming Festival. They can only express their remembrance and memory of their ancestors in the form of online memorial service.
"This form uses virtual space, but it can also hold real emotions and release the grief and nostalgia for the deceased in the heart."
Zhu Zhenhua, secretary-general of Shandong Folklore Association and associate professor of Qilu Normal University, believes that since the beginning of the new century, with the comprehensive advancement of urbanization, the traditional farming civilization and working mode of Chinese society have undergone tremendous changes, which has brought about changes in people's life rhythm. Acceleration and rapid movement of the population.
It should be said that modernization has caused the social phenomenon of people "leaving the soil and leaving their hometowns", which in turn has led to the challenge of the traditional model of sweeping tombs and worshiping ancestors.
So, has ancestor worship at the grave become the standard for testing contemporary filial piety?
This should be viewed dialectically.
Zhu Zhenhua said that the ancients emphasized the filial piety of human relations, and put "li" and "respect" in a prominent position.
From this perspective, traditional ritual activities such as tomb sweeping and worship have their cultural connotations that cannot be discarded at will.
Qualified individuals can adopt worship methods that they think are in line with ancient rituals and do not violate local regulations such as current epidemic prevention and control or fire protection.
The ancients had the concept of "ceremony should follow the appropriate, and the order should follow the customs". They believed that the salute should be in accordance with the time and appropriateness, and the current sacrifice should be viewed with a more open perspective.
Zhu Zhenhua said that in modern society, more emphasis is placed on the concept of "rich support but less burial" and even "thick support and less sacrifice".
"When elders are alive, giving them more material preferential treatment and spiritual comfort is far more important than the sense of ritual after death." (End)