Tomb Sweeping Day

Today is a national holiday so I don't have school and most people don't have to work (only hundreds of thousands who have to go to work at 7-11 and OK Mart don't get the time off). The Chinese name is Qing Ming Jie which literally translates to Clear and Bright Festival. This is a prettier name than Tomb Sweeping, but the latter is more accurate about describing the activity that goes on this day.

My mother's side of the family still has a large presence in Taiwan. Her great grandfather came over from China oh so many years ago, and the descendants down the male line all meet every year at this time. Instead of cleaning the graves on Tomb Sweeping Day when it tends to be too crowded, my family organizes it a week earlier. So last Sunday I went with my uncle, aunt, cousin, and grandma down to Hsinchu. This was my first experience taking part in honoring my ancestors, including burning paper money as an offering.

After visiting the graves (including one of my great great great grandfather), we all went to a restaurant for lunch. Some relatives only go to this family reunion portion of the event. There are 13 along the generation at my grandfather's level. So including their kids, grandkids and great grandkids it added up to over 200 people there! The youngest man in my grandfather's generation was there as well as some wives in that same line. It was overwhelming to realize I had so much family all in one place.

Women in the direct family are allowed to go as kids, but once they're married, they become part of their husband's family. So my aunt didn't go even though she lives right in town. (But we did stop by to see her after lunch.) Every year, the responsibility of organizing rotates among the branches. Next year is my family's turn, so then I think it'll be ok for my mom and her sisters to come.

My mom has recently told me more stories about the family and it was nice to match faces to names. One of her cousins I'd heard about was particularly friendly and said as soon as he saw me he knew I was my mom's daughter. I usually think I look more like my dad so it was a surprise to hear that my face resembles my mom's so much.