Tomb Sweeping Day

Tomb Sweeping weekend (Quingming Day) was April 2-5.  Here in Taiwan, it is always celebrated on April 5 to commemorate the day Chaing Kai-shek.  This is an important family and religious holiday here in Taiwan.  The embassy was closed for 2 days which gave us some time to explore a cemetery near our house.  

Once a week, Chad rides his bike over the mountain to get from a weekly clinic back home.  Following a gps app., he found a trail that wound through a cemetery.  Old steps wind up the mountain with paths through the cemetery on either side.  We enjoy wandering our way through the overgrow grave sites, looking at the tiles and cemetery stones.  We had wondered if the cemetery was forgotten, but also knew that the Taiwanese do not visit cemeteries as we do in America.  They believe the ghosts of the dead are wandering around and they do not wish to disturb them.  

Tomb Sweeping weekend is the one time of the year the Taiwanese visit the graves.  They clean them up, offer food offerings, burn sacrifices, place fake paper money around the grave to send to their needy dead relatives and pray to their ancestors.  

I wanted to see if anything was going on in our cemetery over the weekend.  I was surprised at how busy it was.  Many tombs were cleaned.  Families were walking up the steps or gathered around a tomb.  Here are some photos to help you understand.

Paper money is placed around the tomb, weighted with rocks.  This will provide for the ancestors in their after-life.

Paper money around these two tombs.

Families walking up the steps, carrying bags of food to leave as offerings.

A family gathered around a tomb burning a sacrifice.

Incense that has been burned on a tomb.

Flowers left at a tomb.

This was a surprise that took my breath away!  A tomb with a cross.  Amongst all the tombs with idols and sacrifices, this tomb was neat and tidy for the family remembered their dead, but there were no offerings or signs of paper money.