I accompanied my girlfriend back to her hometown over the weekend, participating in the ancient Chinese tradition of "tomb sweeping". While the actual holiday, "tomb sweeping day", is in April, we went to Tangshan for the anniversary of her grandmother's passing. First a little background on the practice of tomb sweeping. The main point is to honor your deceased relatives by giving them gifts for the afterlife and caring for their grave. Part of the practice is literally sweeping the headstone of your relative, hence the name "tomb sweeping day". Paper money, and occasionally clothes, are burned for relatives to receive in the afterlife. This practice was very puzzling for me last year when I noticed a bunch of people burning stuff in the streets of Beijing. No one told me about the practice, and I literally thought people were burning trash (Beijing's garbage collection services aren't so good). Now I know better.
We traveled to the cemetery early in the morning. Along the road to the cemetery venders sold various fake flower arrangements and the paper money (not really money). Inside the cemetery were countless rows of graves buried military style. The cemetery looks like an ancient Chinese palace and contrasts strikingly with the modern high-rises and factories of Tangshan. Tangshan is sort of like the Pittsburgh of China and is home to the headquarters of the state steel company. We walked to Tang Qi's grandmother's tomb and swept the headstone and did some bowing. Afterwards, we filed through the cemetery to a row of ovens. Each oven was represented by a animal of the Chinese zodiac. A fire was promptly lit, and we began burning various forms of fake paper money to honor the deceased.
The whole experience is eerily similar to western burial practices. It sort of makes you realize there's a common sense aspect to honoring and burial of the deceased. Obviously no photos were taken.
We traveled to the cemetery early in the morning. Along the road to the cemetery venders sold various fake flower arrangements and the paper money (not really money). Inside the cemetery were countless rows of graves buried military style. The cemetery looks like an ancient Chinese palace and contrasts strikingly with the modern high-rises and factories of Tangshan. Tangshan is sort of like the Pittsburgh of China and is home to the headquarters of the state steel company. We walked to Tang Qi's grandmother's tomb and swept the headstone and did some bowing. Afterwards, we filed through the cemetery to a row of ovens. Each oven was represented by a animal of the Chinese zodiac. A fire was promptly lit, and we began burning various forms of fake paper money to honor the deceased.
The whole experience is eerily similar to western burial practices. It sort of makes you realize there's a common sense aspect to honoring and burial of the deceased. Obviously no photos were taken.
No comments:
Post a Comment