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A time to reflect, pay our respects
 THE
first Tomb Sweeping Day as a national holiday arrives in a week’s time.
Tourism bureaus and other businesses are devising ways to cash in on the
coming long weekend.
Meanwhile, local civil affairs administrations are closely working with
traffic police and fire departments as well as industrial and commercial
bureaus to come up with all kinds of contingency plans.
After all, they shoulder the responsibilities to make it convenient and
safe for large crowds of people going to cemeteries to pay their
respects to ancestors and loved ones. It is reported that about 7
million residents in Shanghai alone will make the trip to cemeteries in
suburban areas and neighboring provinces.
Folklorists, meanwhile, remind us of the good old traditional values of
Tomb Sweeping Day. Their work is worthwhile as it is important for all
people to have a better understanding of the tradition.
However, I do agree with some critics that we should not observe the
tradition by merely conducting the ritual of burning paper money and
other items.
Yes, the ancient Chinese belief that there is life after death still
lingers. In the ancient days, the belief made the dynastic emperors
arrange for their proper burials long before their deaths so that they
would be able to live the same luxurious and commanding life after they
died. The huge army of terracotta warriors and chariots of the First Qin
Emperor gives splendid testimony to this.
For the poor, they turned to burning paper money and paper-made replicas
of all items that might enable their dear ones to live a better life in
after world.
Today, this ritual seems to be running a little rampant. Over the years,
we have heard of persistent smoke and fires in cemeteries or even in
adjacent residential areas, as replicas of houses, cars and mahjong
tiles are burned.
a national holiday, Tomb Sweeping Day should also be treated as a solemn
occasion to remember all those who have sacrificed their lives for the
betterment of the society.
Indeed, during my childhood, all the deaths that I read or heard, or saw
on movie screens, were associated with revolutions, heroism and courage.
Tomb Sweeping Day, to most of us, was the day we made our vows to follow
in the steps of the revolutionaries and heroic people, who helped found
New China and enabled all us multi-ethnic Chinese to live a life free
from imperialist invasion and feudal oppression.
All the ceremonies that I went to on Tomb Sweeping Day when I was a
child have in some way helped enhance in me a strong sense of justice
and morality.
Of course, that same sense in many of us Chinese has evolved over the
years, but it has guided us in our work and life.
An American friend of mine told me that he had felt that some of his
Chinese friends’ sense of morality was stronger than most Americans he
knew, even though these Chinese do not necessarily believe in God. I
think Gu Jun, a professor with Shanghai University, is right in stating
that designating Tomb Sweeping Day as a national holiday is not a simple
return to the tradition or a mere salvation of traditional culture.
It is a day for us to think about the past, how to carry out the wills
of our ancestors and our respected ones, to make our society and our
life even better.
—The Daily Mail, China Daily news exchange item |
