Festival experiences continuity, changes
Old traditions of national holiday inherited with modern adaptations
For more than 2,500 years, Tomb Sweeping Day, locally known as Qingming Festival, has been an occasion for Chinese to mourn the deceased and worship their ancestors. Today, although there have been changes, the tradition is well preserved.
“To me, it is an important holiday, second only to Spring Festival,” said Shi Yukun, who spent 15 hours flying from Birmingham, England, to Kaifeng in Henan province via Germany and Beijing.
He recalled that when he was young, his entire family would plan a trip several days before the festival. They prepared sacrifices and went to a graveyard in groups.
“The little ones knelt down in front of the tomb while the adults performed rituals of worship,” he said. “The children also had their tasks of folding the burning paper. The fastest would be rewarded during the picnic.”
Shi went to England seven years ago. “Only after I moved away did I feel the emotional attachment of Chinese people to their ancestral home,” he said. “Tomb Sweeping Day carries such feelings.”
In Qinghai province, a retired railway construction worker, Zhang Shenglin, brought alcohol to his former colleagues’ tombs, as he always does. Every Tomb Sweeping Day, he drinks and talks to them.
“Seven of my fellow workers died during construction of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway, four of them in my arms,” he said.
The 62-year-old was part of a crew that began digging a tunnel through a 3,800-meter-high mountain in 1974.
“We took three years to complete the tunnel, but some people died from floods during construction or were killed by falling stones,” he said. “I miss them so much.”
Work experience
At a cemetery in Changsha, Hunan province, which is swarming with people, Yang Xue and more than 10 volunteers have been helping visitors and directing traffic.
“We will be working here for 10 days,” said the firstyear student with the funeral institute of Changsha Social Work College. “Professionally, I feel an attachment to the festival.”
The institute, founded in 1995, was the first of its kind in China. Study subjects range from funeral oration and management to embalming.
A few years ago, students were reluctant to talk about their majors, but the situation is changing.
“With the development of society, humanism is increasingly important to customers, and old funeral workers are already outdated ,” said Su Lihui, a teacher with the institute. “Therefore, our graduates are in demand.”
Su said there were more than 900 jobs last year offered to about 200 graduates.
“I had worries before, but the more I learn, the more I feel that taking care of people when they have completed their journey in life is a respectable profession,” said another student who transferred to the funeral institute from a business school.
Caring for the living
The change in mindset has had certain effects. In Taosheng village, part of Nanchang, Jiangxi province, Xiong Houzi and 300 others boarded a bus to the cemetery, each smartly dressed and carrying flowers.
The scene stood in sharp contrast to several years ago, when villagers burned sacrifices, usually made of paper.
“We wore our worst clothes, for fear that the fire and smoke would stain or even damage our clothing,” Xiong said. Now, after mourning they go hiking, he added.
Li Xiangyuan, the Party chief of Quanzi community in Linyi, Shandong province, said: “Burning paper TVs and cars does no good for the deceased. If you’re a good child, take good care of your parents when they are alive.”