A long weekend (and cultural information) April 9, 2010
Posted by freda in China.2 comments
While the Christian world celebrated Easter weekend, here in China it was the Qingming Festival, otherwise known as Tomb Sweeping Day (on Monday, April 5th). This was coincidental, as “the Qingming Festival is based on the solar calendar and occurs two weeks after the vernal equinox – usually April 4, 5, or 6.” (All of the following information is directly quoted from an article by Laura Tang, found in the April edition of the monthly magazine put out by SEA – Shanghai Expatriate Association – and the sites her source as Mooncakes and Hungry Ghosts: Festivals of China by Carol Stepanchuk and Charles Wong, 1991.)
Qingming means “clear brightness” and comes from the idea that, at this time of year, the air and light become clear and pure. People, no longer struggling through winter, are refreshed by spring. At one time, Qingming was a celebration of spring’s return. Similar to springtime celebrations in other cultures, or even the secular side of Easter, the Chinese people would enjoy dancing, singing and picnicking, and they would boil and colour eggs. Later, the eggs would be broken to symbolize the opening and distribution of life throughout the earth. The emperor would plant trees on the palace grounds as part of fertility rites. Villagers would place pine branches in front doors to symbolize long life and hang sprigs of willows under the eaves as a symbol of life and a talisman against evil. …This celebration of new life evolved into a solemn rite of showing reverence and respect to ancestors, because the Chinese see death and life as being closely linked. Indeed, they traditionally believed that the dead were responsible for ensuring fertility in families and in the land. It was important to make sacrifices of food and spirit money to ancestors to ensure abundant blessings and good fortune rather than illness, misfortune and hunger. For hundreds of years, these offerings comprised a form of ancestor worship that included caring for the ancestral graves. The families would set out with hoes and brooms to sweep away dirt and remove weeds from the area. Unlike the elaborate tombs built for emperors, a common gravesite was small, but accomodated ranking members of the family – those who had contributed to the continuation of the family line. Married couples would be buried in the main area, with single persons and children around perimeter. A good location of interment, in alignment with the principles of feng shui, and subsequent proper care of gravesite would ensure the descendents health and prosperity. When choosing a gravesite, families would often employ the services of a geomancer, or feng shui master, who would determine the most auspicious site…. The arrangement of the tomb or gravesite and the subsequent yearly cleanings and offerings would keep the ancestors content – integral parts of ancestor worship. Ancestor worship was an act of reverence, honour and obligation. Ancestors were treated like living beings believed to have rights and responsibilities. They had the right to be honoured and treated with proper respect and the correlating responsibility to honour the requests of descendents. If a descendent did not pay proper respect to his ancestor, the ancestor might punish him as if he was a naughty child. However, if an ancestor ignored the pleas of his descendents, he may find himself abandoned and left to fend for himself among despised wandering ghosts….. Today, younger generations continue observing the Qingming Festival, now sometimes referred to as “Tomb Sweeping Day.” Even those who have abandoned the practise of ancestor worship feel uncomfortable discarding the traditions of Qingming altogether. Visiting and caring for the grave indicates that the family has not died out, and represents the head of the family’s devotion to his descendents. These time-honoured rites give a sense of peace, continuity and belonging gained by remembering favourite or admired ancestors. For many, the Qingming festival provides a significant occasion to simply remember deceased loved ones and show respect for their memories. … The Chinese government now promotes the celebration of Qingming, believing that the continuation of such traditions cultivates a hormonious society. In recent years, the current government designated Qingming a national holiday during which schools and many offices are closed.
Having no ancestors in China, we did not sweep a tomb. We did, however, have a lovely long weekend, starting Friday evening, with a group of us meeting for happy hour drinks and dinner at a local Italian restaurant.
On Saturday Don golfed, I did some shopping with Sharon, and then we had our friends, the Choi’s, over for dinner – Richard, Kim, and their three children Aimee, Hanson and Cady. (We met them in Florida, Kim was part of the book club there, and then they were transferred to Shanghai about a year and a half ago.) They brought us the most beautiful house-warming gift – phoenix (female) and dragon (male) sculptures – not sure what they’re made of, but some kind of wood, we think, and painted spectacularly –
the phoenix
the dragon
On Sunday, Mr. Shi took us to a Peach Blossom Festival – which was his idea to show us, after we had been talking about blossoming trees. The place was a large park, full of peach trees bursting into three different colours of blooms….
entrance to the park
three colours of blossoms
Don amongst the many blossoms
such a pretty setting
A beautiful setting, hundreds of blossoming trees, and then an exhibition-game park-atmosphere, with mid-way-type attractions, like games, activities, craft vendors and food stalls….
she's so cute, but looks a little worried about the monkey on her shoulder
kids rolling inside these plastic barrels around the lake
amazing works of art, to eat
he pours out the heated sugar-concoction into an animal shape, creating the candy-on-a-stick
There were baby ducks for sale, and children having great fun chasing them and choosing their pets… well, pets for a few weeks, and then, probably dinner!!
corralling a pet... (or dinner?)
And of course, peach blossom branches to buy for home….
After wandering around the peach blossom festival, we first made a stop at one of our favourite furniture stores to order a couple of small tables for our long, cavernous hallway (where we had thought the “altar” table would go, but then changed our minds on that), and then to the flower market to buy a couple of vase-like-pots – one for umbrellas and one for these intriguing bamboo-like-stalks-with-birds-of-paradise-type-flowers attached. I have no idea what they are, but they look cool. We have placed them in our “lobby,” and together with my shoe cabinet (yay – it’s here!) and chairs, our lobby is looking good, if I do say so myself. We just need a picture to go on the wall above the cabinet, but I will take my time to find what I want.
shoe cabinet, with one (of two) chairs flanking the cabinet, and the pot of unknown plants
inside the shoe cabinet
upclose look at the unknown stalks
After all that shopping, we stopped off at home for a glass of wine and to change our clothes, and then we went out for dinner to a Greek place in an area called Cool Docks, overlooking the river. We were home early enough to watch a movie – Crazy Heart, for which Jeff Bridges won best actor, which I had just bought at a DVD store for 10 kwai (slang, like “buck,” and equivalent to about $1.50). We thought Bridges was great in an average movie.
Monday (Tomb Sweeping Day) was gorgeous – sunny and very warm. We took the ferry across the river and walked on the renovated, extended, newly re-opened Bund – just another part of the huge number of buildings and clean-up projects around the city in preparation for Expo. The Bund is an historical area of Shanghai, “originally a towpath for dragging barges of rice, it gets its Anglo-Indian name from the embankments built up to discourage flooding (band is an embankment in Hindi). It became the seat of foreign power in the early 20th century and the iconic stone buildings typify colonial-era Shanghai.” (from my Lonely Planet City Guide to Shanghai.) Even though the official re-opening had been the previous weekend, with hoardes of people out walking, this weekend was equally as busy, and I include a few pictures of the crowds and the view so you can experience vicariously….
look at those crowds!
the whole sweep of the Bund
the view of Pudong from the Bund
All in all, a great weekend.
And now, in just a few short hours, our second visitor – my mother – is arriving. Next time I’ll have details of our time together.
Happy 25th Birthday, Nico!! We love you!
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