China Trip Part Three: Qingyuan, Tombsweeping Month

It is disrespectful and inauspicious to film or take pictures at a cemetery so I will leave you with a map instead.

My mom and I received an unexpected phone call from a relative. "We changed the day for tomb sweeping." It was very sudden and we were fortunate that our previous plans weren't that important. It may have been called tomb sweeping, but it's another family obligation you have to attend. I mean you could refuse, but we all know that it will just make you look bad. Technically Grandpa is suppose to come, but the journey is too stressful for an old man so we became the representatives of our family. It would be one of my worst days of allergies.
We woke up early for Uncle to pick us up. The drive from Guangzhou to Qingyuan is a long drive, at least 4 hours. My nose was acting up in the worst of times. We are talking a constant shuffle of tissues and sneezing. Thinking back, I don't know how I managed to survive that day. The Qingming Festival had long passed, but yet we were still doing tomb sweeping. The reason being is that on Qingming, the roads get so congested that you have no way of entering the graveyards to pay your respects. So what everyone does is that during the month after Qingming, you come whenever you want as long as the month hasn't ended yet. It was a whopping 85 degrees with a side of extreme humidity also at 80%. Maybe even higher. The mosquitoes are much fiercer as they like to chase people. I myself became a sacrificial lamb.

When we arrived at the mountain where the graves were, a lot of family members were already here. They came with all the offerings and gear needed to get this thing going. Before we all started hiking upwards, one of the great aunts made mugwort cakes to eat. In fact, she made all the foods for us to bring home (which we forgot in Uncle's car when we went homebound in Guangzhou). It was my first time tasting mugwort as it is hard to get fresh ones in the United States. This lump of rice cake was a dark green almost black piece of deep fried treat. It was very greasy, but packed with a lot of grassy mugwort. Mugwort has a very grassy smell to it, you either like it or don't like it.

As we hiked up, you can see the rows of tombstones lined up tightly next to each other. There isn't a lot of place to stand either so you had to stand on other people's tombstones. They lit the joss paper and incense. The smoke was intense and definitely much stronger than tomb sweeping in the States. Due to regulations in the States, there are designations where you can burn joss paper and where to dump it. Here in China where everyone burns it, cemeteries already provide you with large containers to burn papers and areas in front of the tombstones to stick your incense. My eyes were tearing and my nose ran like an open faucet. My allergies to smoke broke out intensely. It was only a week since I landed and I was still not use to the air in Guangzhou. I wanted it to be over soon because I was very tired already. After paying respects to our great grandfather, I think, we went to pay respects to great aunt who passed away recently. We hiked back down the mountain while others went to pay respects to another relative.

I didn't it was customary in some villages to burn firecrackers during tomb sweeping. It's never a sombre and quiet event. Even tomb sweeping is loud. I also learned that in Qingyuan, people like to use roast goose to pay respects as opposed to the commonly used roast pork or suckling pig. I guess every place has its unique culture. We walked further down the mountain to another place. Not everyone gets to have a grave since land is scarce in China. Most people choose cremation and our deceased second great uncle chose that. In a special designated area, you ask the workers there to locate the urn of ashes. In another stone area is a set of stone altars with multiple steps. Second Uncle placed his father's urn on the top level and placed other offerings on the lower levels. His son poured the wine and lit of the joss paper. We paid our respects and headed out.

Now it was the large lunch gathering.  We were a party of 25 people or so including young children. We occupied two tables and that day spent only 800 RMB for a feast. We even had a shit ton of leftovers. There was a lot of local food to enjoy and I couldn't even eat a lot. We had steamed buns as an appetizer since we were all hungry. I think a good 6-7 hours had already passed. Qingyuan is known for their chicken, but apparently they are also known for their roast goose. Indeed they had very delicious roast goose, something I cannot find in my Chinatown. There were also other dishes which I can no longer remember. I think we may have gotten a large pot of offal soup and local greens. Here in Qingyuan we can eat with no worries because everything is organic and locally sourced. Livestock is cage free and fed organic foods. However that day on the table laid an abomination, the chicken. As soon as it was placed on the table, I knew something looked dreadfully wrong. The meat looked way too translucent for a cooked chicken so it had to be raw. I'm so glad I didn't eat it and neither did my mom. But on that drive home, Uncle and Aunt had a bad stomachache. And our Qingyuan excursion still hasn't ended. See you in the next entry.