Qing Ming Festival 清明节

I was in Penang recently to celebrate ‘Qing Ming’ festival. Qing Ming festival is a celebration where the descendants remember and honour their ancestors at their grave site. It is a time to do ‘house-keeping’ by cleaning up the area around the grave, pulling out the weeds, ensuring the tablets are cleaned, the wordings on the tombstone are re-painted with fresh coat of paint and maintain the overall façade of the grave.

Over a period of twelve months, there will be rain and the earth, sand over the grave may get washed away. A depressed, crater-like grave does not look very ‘healthy’. Thus, it is also a time to ‘top-up’ the earth to create a small ‘hump’ over the grave. There are also services being offered to plant carpet-grass over the grave. It is nice idea that not only makes the grave look nice, it will also hold the earth from being washed away by the rain.

Traditionally, if one follows the way of Taoist practice, the first thing to do after arriving at the cemetery is to proceed to the main temple that governs the whole graveyard. One would offer prayers before proceeding to the grave of their ancestors.
Once at the ancestor’s grave, the descendants would clean up the grave and start to offer prayers. If you have been to a Chinese grave, you will notice a small tablet on the side of the grave, usually on the right if facing it. This is the God of the Earth and the descendant would first pray to the God of the Earth, request permission and to summon their ancestors, informing them that their descendants are there.

Depends on the family tradition, sometimes you will see the family members putting on gold and silver-colored paper over the grave. This is to symbolize the patching up of their ancestor’s home in the after-world. Sometimes you will find multi-colored papers as well. This is just in case the water-heater needs servicing or the roof-top needs to be repaired, etc. Consider this as maintenance work for their homes in afterlife.

Sometimes you will also find the descendants burning what looks like bank notes or money, paper shirts, and paper shoes. This is all symbolic to signify the offerings of ‘buying’ new shirts and shoes and giving their ancestors cash allowances to spend in their world. The value on the bank notes ranges from the smallest denomination to millions. Nowadays, you can find mobile phone, laptop computers and modern luxuries being offered to their ancestors. Whether they know how to use it is another story altogether.

When I was there one morning to follow the Qing Ming rituals, there were also other families who burn firecrackers, pretty much like during the Chinese New Year.
After all the prayers are carried out, the family members world feast on the food and drink they brought for the worship to signify family reunion with the ancestors.