Ancestor worship is a tradition that goes back to pre-recorded history in China. Confucianism's emphasis on filial piety also probably encouraged this practice. Feasts for the ancestors are often laid out in one's home and on special holidays like Qingming Festival (which is this weekend) people will go to cemeteries and saomu (扫墓), or sweep their ancestors graves. I've been told that actual sweeping is no longer involved and most people just leave flowers on the gravestone.
After decades of attacking traditional culture as bourgeois and reviling it a source of weakness for the Chinese nation, the Communist Party decided to make Qingming an official holiday last year. I know people who flew home as far as Henan and Hubei to saomu. The past couple of nights, my alley has been filled with people burning paper money for their ancestors to use in the afterlife. For people like me who often think traditional Chinese culture died sometime between the late 60s and mid-70s, this is evidence to the contrary. Mao tried to get rid of Confucius and other bad traditional elements, but did not succeed.
The ancestors must be smiling down on us, because the past three days have been the nicest of the year. I'm going outside to celebrate.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment