QingMing Festival

QingMing Festival (or the Festival of Pure Brightness) is one of the 24 seasonal division points of the Chinese calendar. The Festival usually falls on the 4-6 of April and marks the time when weather starts to get warmer and rainier and thus is the best time for spring plowing and sowing. But this Festival is not only to commemorate the coming of spring, it is also a time to honor passed ancestors and is also known as "the grave sweeping festival". On this day families will gather together and go to the grave sites of their ancestors, sweep the grave, put flowers and food offerings in front of the grave, light fire crackers, and burn paper money for the deceased to use in the after life. The fire crackers are to scare away the evil spirits, who are scared of loud noises and bright lights. Nowadays, people also buy paper cars and houses to give to their relatives in the afterlife. Traditionally, only cold food is eaten on this day as well. This is because a long time ago there was a king who accidentally killed one of his most loyal servants in a fire while he was trying to find him on a mountain, so in order to honor this servants loyalty he made this day for him where no one could use fire. However, cold food day is not always followed anymore. Today, QingMing Jie is also not always celebrated on the actual day and can be celebrated anytime the family can all get together around that day, usually before.
This weekend I had the opportunity to go with Huangjie back to her home town in a place called Rong Chang, near Chongqing, to celebrate this holiday with her family. Rong Chang is about 3 and a half hours east of Chengdu. We took a bus there on Friday afternoon where her "younger brother," but actually her younger cousin, met us at the bus station. We found a hotel and then went to meet with her other cousin and his wife for dinner. We had Chongqing Hotpot, which sadly I could not enjoy because I had a really bad stomach ache. I am not sure where it came from, but I had to ask to go back to the hotel after dinner because it hurt so bad. Luckily, her younger brother/cousin is a Chinese doctor and went to the pharmacy to get me some medicine. A half an hour after I took the medicine, I felt much better.
The next day we got up and went to her father's family's house which was out in the country on a farm right next to the railroad tracks. We walked along the railroad tracks to get there because there are no roads. The family grew all sorts of different vegetables and had a lovely house right next to the river. They also had pigs which lived in the bathroom (in between the pig stalls). We waited for everyone to arrive, maybe 50 people, and then made our way across the tracks to another house (though still in Huangjie's family) where the graves were located. The graves were above ground, Han style graves with stone embankments in the front (although Huangjie's family is of the Kejia, or Hakka, ethnic minority group). In front on the graves themselves were plaques with family trees written on them. The largest grave had three people buried in it. The plaques were all carved by Huangjie's father. The ceremony consisted of lighting fires with the paper money, lighting candles, incense, and fireworks, and praying in front of the graves by bowing three times. Some people participated while others just watched.
After that we all went back to the first house and ate a huge lunch, which was delicious. It amazed me that they could prepare that much delicious food without any modern convenience.
That afternoon Huangjie taught me how to play Chongqing Majhong (a different version than Chengdu Mahjong) and we played with her family until dinner time. After dinner we drove back to the hotel. We ate light because the night before her older cousin had given us goose feet to eat, but I couldn't because my stomach hurt, so he insisted we take them back to the hotel for later and we decided to eat those for dinner instead. The goose feet are prepared with a special sauce and smoked and are a Rong Chang specialty. So we ate goose feet and watched the swimming world championships on CCTV5 (the sports channel) and talked. I had never thought that I would enjoy eating goose feet, but they actually weren't that bad, much better than chicken feet.
The next day we went to her mother's side of the family's house which is also around Rong Chang and did pretty much the same thing. In the morning we first walked around and looked at her younger brother/cousin's new house that he had just built. It was three floors and although it was built out of concrete, had alot of big windows, was very clean, and had good lighting. I liked it. Then we looked at her uncle's new house he was building, which was HUGE. It was only half done though. After our stroll we had another ceremony of firecrackers and paper burning. This time food was also put before the grave, which was then taken away again after the ceremony was finished presumably to be eaten or at least fed to the pigs.
Then we went back to her younger brother/cousin's new house to have lunch. There was a much more manageable number of people this time, maybe 20 or so at the ceremony and only 10 or so (including the inhabitants of the house) stayed for lunch. Everyone in her family was really nice and I had a really good time. Aside from the honoring of the ancestors, there were also alot of older grandmas and grandpas around who were treated with alot of respect and graciousness that sometimes I think our culture is lacking. Not always, but it was just nice to be part of a big family. It made me miss my extended family and our big gatherings alot, especially my grandma.
After lunch I sat out on the porch and looked out at the surrounding fields and rice paddies while we waited for the car that would take us to the bus station. It was very peaceful and quiet.
We got back to Chengdu this evening and I had homework and things to do before starting another busy week. But I was very happy to have the opportunity to experience this part of Chinese culture and be accepted so warmly into her family. It was very inspiring towards how grateful we should be for the family we have and the support they give us. Someday I am going to have to figure out a way to repay Huangjie for all the wonderful things she does for me.