Wednesday, April 2, 2008

Qing Ming Jie

Qing Ming Jie or Cheng Beng in Hokkien is a time for showing respect to the departed. For this year it falls on 4th April as this year is a leap year. For a normal year it falls on 5th April.

10 days before and after this date, descendents of the dead will go the graves to do some cleaning up and pray there. Usually grass will grow all over the graves after a year's lapse and they will do weeding to make them clean and look tidy again before praying and burning paper money there.

The purpose of Qing Ming is to remember our late parents or relatives. One way of doing this is going to the graves to do some service - weeding and cleaning up as well as praying there.

Qing Ming Jie has become part of the Chinese culture here.

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