Tag Archives: ritual death

Tomb Sweeping Day [Qingming Festival] Rituals

Age: 19

Text:

Tomb Sweeping Day, or [Qingming Festival] in Chinese, is a traditional, nation-wide festival that usually takes place in April. It is typically when we would go to sweep the tombs of our deceased ancestors and honor the family members who passed away by just cleaning their tombs, bringing food to their tombs, and sometimes burning fake money in front of their tombs.

These acts related to this traditional festival carry their own symbolic meanings. For example, burning money—typically, it will be fake paper money—is a gesture of providing basic needs in life, or ensuring the material needs, for our ancestors. We will also put food like fruits, desserts, and nuts, or anything that the deceased loved to eat, on top of their tomb. This, symbolically, allows them to enjoy the food they like to eat and enjoy the material well-being we as descendants provide for them in the afterlife. I think that through these acts of giving, or offering, of material things, we are trying to give back to our ancestors who passed away the way they took care of us before. And so our ancestors wouldn’t have to worry about not having enough food to eat or money to spend in their afterlife.

This, to me, is also a way of expressing reassurance—a way of telling them (the deceased ancestors) that we are having a good, decent, and dignified life, and we are making genuine efforts in our lives as independent and capable individuals—so here’s the proof: we are making our own money, and we are buying you food, so no need to worry about us!

Family members typically gather together to visit the tombs of their ancestors. Some families, like mine, would typically talk to our deceased loved ones in front of the tomb. We would update them about our recent lives, like our progress at school or at work, just like having an everyday chat with them when they were here, right in front of us. Finally, at the end of this tomb sweeping ritual, we express kind words and blessings to them in their own world.

Context:

The informant learned this ritual by participating in this festival every year, visiting the graves of ancestors with his family since he was a child. As time passes by, he begins to remember the important steps of this ritual, such as burning paper money and talking to the graves as if speaking to ancestors. He thinks that this festival is meaningful in the sense that it allows everyone who participates in its rituals to remember their loved ones who have passed away, and show them care.

Analysis:

  • Death and afterlife: The Tomb Sweeping Day (Qingming) rituals reflect the Chinese’s beliefs about death and afterlife in their culture—people believe that when someone passes, they don’t end their life entirely, and instead, they are just living in a different space and dimension, in their afterlife. This belief in “afterlife” has many cultural origins, including, possibly, Buddhism’s impact in China.
  • Performance: This ritual is performed by a family, with all family members, as a group. This makes tomb sweeping on Tomb Sweeping Day almost a familial thing. This reflects unity and family harmony’s importance in the Chinese culture. In addition, the performance of this ritual—showing up, bringing food, and burning money—is an act of showing respect for the deceased ones in a symbolic (not material) way. Even though the “food” and “money” cannot get to the deceased ones on a material level, on an emotional level, it is an effective way of showing love and care.

Hold your breath out of respect — Cemetery

Nationality: American
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: San Jose, CA
Performance Date: 3-18-19
Primary Language: English

Text

The following piece was collected from a twenty woman from San Jose, CA. The woman will hereafter be referred to as the “Informant”, and I the “Collector”.

Informant: “I used to do something as a kid and..haha…I still do it now. Haha I don’t know, I guess it stuck around.”

Collector: “What do you do?”

Informant: “Well, whenever my family and I drove past a cemetery, everyone in the car would hold their breaths.”

Collector: “Because you didn’t want the bad spirits to enter you or something?”

Informant: “No, actually. We would do it because my dad told me once that it was disrespectful to breathe in front of all the people who couldn’t breathe anymore. So we held our breaths.”

Context

            The Informant learned this from her father when she was a child, then she passed it on to her younger siblings. She remembers it clearly because she had actually heard about holding your breath when you pass a cemetery thing from her friend. She started doing it though because of the reason her dad told her they did it. It made more sense for her to hold her breath out of respect rather than out of fear. While she laughs about it being ridiculous now, she still does it if she remembers in time.

Interpretation

            Just like the Informant, I had also already heard of holding your breath when you pass a cemetery. And also like the informant, I thought the reason was to keep bad spirits from entering your body. I was surprised and also interested in hearing there was another reason why other people did it. The idea that people passing any cemetery feel the need to show respect to the graveyard is one that makes me both happy and sad. Happy because I’m glad to hear that people want to be respectful of the dead, but also sad because that respect shows itself in the sort of dark way of holding your breath in solidarity with the dead. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this tidbit of information.