China Overseas Chinese Network, April 3, title: Qingming again! Where do overseas Chinese and Chinese people send their grief?
"The wind of Pear Blossoms is coming up to clear the light, and the wandering son is half out of the city in search of spring."
Today is the first day of the Qingming Festival.
During the Qingming Festival, people visit tombs and go out to cherish the memory of their ancestors.
For the overseas Chinese living abroad, it is even more homesick.
Data map: Qingming outing.
Photo by Yu Liangliang
This year's Qingming Festival is still special, and the world is shrouded in the new crown pneumonia epidemic.
In such a situation, how do overseas Chinese spend the Ching Ming Festival?
How do they pin their grief?
Worshiping mountains, sweeping tombs... Overseas Chinese and Chinese people cherish the memory of their ancestors on the spot
Tomb-sweeping to worship the ancestors is one of the traditional customs of Qingming Festival.
On the day of Ching Ming Festival, worshippers clean up the tomb first, then put flowers, fruits, etc., and then light a stick of incense to express their grief and memory of the ancestors.
In Malaysia, the Ching Ming Festival is not a public holiday, but the Chinese do not forget to visit their graves to worship their ancestors.
The Chinese public cemetery is generally called "Yishan", so locals often say that the Qingming Festival should "go up the mountain to sweep the tomb" or directly say "worship to the mountain".
This year's Ching Ming Festival, the Malaysian government announced that Gongyi Mountain will not be closed, but people must observe epidemic prevention regulations when sweeping graves.
Data map: Yishan, an overseas Chinese in Manila, Philippines.
(Source: Feilong.com)
Huaqiao Yishan is the second oldest cemetery in Manila, Philippines. During the Second World War, many Chinese heroes and martyrs were born here and were buried here.
After the war, the overseas Chinese in the Philippines cherished the memory of the anti-Japanese martyrs and erected eight monuments and archways in Yishan to commemorate the anti-Japanese heroes' arch and the martyrs' hall.
Every year on the Ching Ming Festival, the staff of the Chinese Embassy in the Philippines and all walks of life in the Philippines will hold memorial activities here.
There is a cemetery for Chinese laborers in Nolet in Somme in northern France, where the remains of 884 Chinese laborers from World War I are buried.
Every year on Ching Ming Festival in France, people from all walks of life come here to pay their respects.
One hundred years ago, more than 140,000 Chinese laborers left their hometowns to make a living in Europe, where the war was raging.
They braved the threat of artillery fire and disease, and engaged in heavy work under extremely difficult conditions.
More than 20,000 people eventually lost their lives and buried their bones abroad.
In the suburbs of Sydney, there is a cemetery covering an area of 286 hectares. There are many Chinese tombstones in the cemetery. The earliest tombstones can be traced back more than one hundred years ago.
As more and more people learn about the cemetery, overseas Chinese from all over Australia will pay homage to them every year on Ching Ming Festival.
For the overseas Chinese living abroad, tomb sweeping is not only a ceremony to pay homage to the deceased, but also a return to traditional culture.
Under the epidemic, overseas Chinese compatriots "cloud sacrificial offerings" continue family affection
Affected by the new crown pneumonia epidemic, many places in China have announced the suspension of various commemorative and memorial activities during this year's Tomb-sweeping period, and suggested that overseas Chinese and overseas Chinese should temporarily postpone their return to their hometowns to visit their graves.
In view of this, some overseas Chinese have chosen "Cloud Sacrifice" to fulfill their wishes.
On April 2, the overseas Chinese community in Guangzhou held the 2020 "Cloud Sacrifice" event at the Tomb of the Thousands of Overseas Chinese in San Francisco.
(Screenshot of Zhongxin Video)
On April 2nd, the "Cloud Sacrifice" event of the "Tomb of Thousands of Overseas Chinese" in San Francisco jointly organized by the Federation of Overseas Chinese in Yuexiu District of Guangzhou and the Guangdong Branch of the American Chinese Chamber of Commerce was held in Guangzhou.
This year is the tenth year of the Qingming ritual activities of the "Tomb of a Thousand Overseas Chinese" in San Francisco.
The above-mentioned "Tomb of a Thousand Overseas Chinese" was built in 1887. In the tomb, 924 bones of the Chinese Americans were buried.
That year, the US government passed a series of Chinese exclusion laws, and the situation of overseas Chinese became increasingly difficult. Many overseas Chinese were killed or died of poverty.
In order to fulfill the wish of returning the fallen leaves of overseas Chinese to their roots, Guangzhou’s first charity organization "Ai Yu Shan Tang" negotiated with the US government and sent people to transport the remains of San Francisco back to burial in 1887.
It is worth mentioning that in order to meet the needs of overseas Chinese for sacrifice and sweeping during the epidemic, Qingming has launched "cloud sacrifice sweeping" and "representative sweeping" services this year.
Data map: "Cloud Scanning" site in Xikou Town, Ningbo, Zhejiang.
Photo by Zhuo Jianqing
Many cities in Guangdong have announced the suspension of sweeping activities during the Qingming period.
Among them, Jiangmen City has opened an online sacrifice scanning platform, funeral service agencies will provide the people with free and simple flower sacrifice services, and conditional funeral service agencies will also be organized by staff to hold concentrated public welfare sacrifices, hanging yellow ribbons and other activities; Foshan Many cemeteries have launched services such as free flower offerings and small programs to meet the mourning needs of the masses.
In Fujian, the hometown of overseas Chinese, the Fuzhou Civil Affairs Bureau and the Fuzhou Funeral Association jointly launched the "Ching Ming Memorial" online sacrifice and sweeping platform. At present, the platform has three network sacrifice sweeping methods: sacrifices for sages and martyrs, sacrifices for relatives and friends, and agency sacrifices. A personal memorial can be established online.
Traditional culture can’t forget the customs of Qingming Festival
In fact, overseas Chinese and overseas Chinese hold Qingming Festival commemorative activities in different ways every year.
Some old people brought their grandchildren to worship their ancestors, telling stories about the origin, legends, folk customs and hardships of the older generation of immigrants.
What is the origin of Qingming Festival?
What are the customs?
Let's listen to Xiaoqiao.
Qingming evolved into a festival to commemorate ancestors and is related to the Cold Food Festival.
In the Han Dynasty, the Han Food Festival was called a non-smoking festival, because people were not allowed to raise fires on this day. It was only at night that candles were lit in the palace and the fire was passed to the homes of valuable officials.
Later, the Qingming Festival also absorbed the content of another festival that appeared earlier, the Shangsi Festival.
The Shangsi Festival was held on the third day of the third month of the lunar calendar in ancient times. The main custom is to go outing, and to take a bath in Linhe to pray for blessings and disasters.
Since the Tang Dynasty, people have to go to the outskirts of their graves due to Qingming. In addition to mourning their ancestors, by the way, they walked into the green fields in the bright spring.
Therefore, Tomb Sweeping Festival is also called outing festival.
During the Song and Yuan dynasties, Qingming gradually formed a traditional festival centered on ancestor worship and tomb sweeping, which combined cold food customs with Shangsi outings and other activities.
What are the customs of Qingming?
Worshiping and sweeping the tomb, going out, swinging, flying kites, planting trees, touching eggs... In my country, in addition to the Han, some ethnic minorities also have the customs of the Ching Ming Festival.
Data Map: Flying a kite.
Photo by Guo Anping
There are still some misunderstandings about the Qingming Festival.
Is Qingming a sad day?
Qingming is actually both a sad day and a happy day.
In the Song Dynasty, Qingming incorporated the customs such as spring play in the March Shangsi Festival, and developed activities such as making friends outing, outdoor sports and entertainment, and becoming a comprehensive program.
Another misunderstanding is, does the tomb sweep have to be on the day of Qingming?
In fact, the time to sweep the tomb is best to be done on a single day of the lunar calendar 10 days before the festival or 10 days after the festival.
Also, is it necessary to burn paper for tomb sweeping?
The best way now is: buy a bunch of flowers to pay homage to the ancestors, and then sprinkle the petals on the tomb after the worship.
(Reference: China News, China Overseas Network, People's Daily; Author: Han Hui; ID: qiaowangzhongguo)