(Fighting new crown pneumonia) Indonesian Chinese in the new crown epidemic sweeps tombs to pay homage to their ancestors on Ching Ming Festival
China News Agency, Jakarta, April 4th, title: Chinese Indonesian Indonesians sweep their graves to pay homage to their ancestors on Ching Ming Festival during the new crown epidemic
China News Agency reporter Lin Yongchuan
"Because of the new crown epidemic, this year is the second year in a row that there is no way to return to the hometown to sweep the tombs and worship the ancestors. I can only entrust relatives in my hometown to take care of the fathers' cemetery and burn incense and paper to worship.
On the 4th, the traditional Chinese Tomb-sweeping Festival, the second-generation Chinese Guo Juren, who was over seventy years old, introduced to a reporter from China News Service on the phone.
Guo Juren, who has moved to the capital Jakarta from the Indonesian island of Sumatra for decades, used to return to the countryside of Sumatra every year during the Ching Ming Festival to go to the countryside of Sumatra to visit his grave, because it was the place where the ancestors traveled across the ocean from China to Indonesia.
Continuing the Chinese tradition, tomb-sweeping in 10 days before and after the Ching Ming Festival is a custom passed on from generation to generation by Indonesian Chinese.
Guo Juren said that despite the long distance and inconvenient transportation, returning to his hometown to visit the grave was his constant "following" decades after he moved to Jakarta.
The new crown epidemic started in Indonesia in March last year, and it has not yet been controlled.
"Because of the epidemic prevention and control regulations, it is impossible to return to the countryside for two consecutive years of Tomb-sweeping Day." Guo Juren said that the grave-sweeping event had to be entrusted to relatives in the countryside.
"The video has been sent from family members in my hometown, and the cemetery of my parents is kept clean." Guo Juren said that he wished his ancestors bless his children and grandchildren, and bless the epidemic to pass earlier and life to return to normal.
In addition to sweeping tombs, worshipping ancestors during the Qingming Festival is a tradition of Indonesian Chinese that has continued for more than a hundred years.
Every April, the "Spring Festival", which lasts from the beginning of the month to the end of the month, becomes the busiest time of the year for the Indonesian Chinese community.
In normal years, the Indonesian Association of Hundred Family Surnames will select a weekend in Jakarta to hold an "ancestor worship ceremony" in which all surnames will sacrifice to the ancestor of China, the Yellow Emperor.
Bandung and other cities where the Chinese "Baishi Temple" has been built will also hold collective ancestor worship ceremonies.
In addition to sending representatives to participate in the above ceremony, each surname will also hold ancestral worship ceremonies in the spring and autumn in the ancestral halls of each surname.
It is reported that there are more than 70 ancestral shrines with Chinese surnames in Jakarta alone.
Established in 1907 with a history of more than 110 years, the "Jiang Xia Tang" Office in Medan is a clan association of the Chinese surnamed Huang in North Sumatra, Indonesia. The association purchased land to open up Yishan and established "Jiang Xia Yi Ting" in 1922. Clan cemetery.
The continuation of the custom of two sacrifices in spring and autumn each year has become a spiritual bond between the local tribe of the surname Huang and the culture of the native country.
The honorary chairman of the office, Huang Yinhua, said that the Indonesian government implemented large-scale community epidemic prevention measures in April last year.
The current government is implementing small-scale community restrictions on epidemic prevention measures, and "every households basically go to sweep the tombs before the Ching Ming Festival."
Huang Yinhua, whose ancestral home is in Nan'an, Fujian, China, served as the chairman of the "Jiang Xia Tang" office from 1987 to 2018.
He said that the Chinese are the most self-disciplined ethnic group in Indonesian society, and everyone can abide by the government's epidemic prevention regulations.
China’s successful experience in fighting the epidemic has also made people realize the importance of abiding by regulations and self-discipline to defeat the epidemic.
"Although the ceremonies of concentrated worship of ancestors are temporarily gone, there are still sacrifices for each family in their own homes."
Huang Yinhua said that after all, being careful to pursue a long distance is a value passed down from generation to generation by the sons and daughters of China.
(Finish)