Qingming Festival in March…

For Asians in general, and Vietnamese in particular, the graves of ancestors are very important. Everyone wants to have a “peaceful and beautiful grave”, and there is a saying “living for the grave, no one lives for a bowl of rice”. What people fear most is “disturbing the grave”.

It is unclear when the custom of “sweeping graves” on the occasion of Qingming Festival began. In terms of the original meaning of the word, “Thanh” means purification, purity, meaning “cleanliness” or “freshness”, “Minh” means bright. Qingming is the sky at that time, clear and bright. Qingming is one of the 24 solar terms in the traditional Eastern calendar, usually falling around April 4 or 5 of the solar calendar, about half a month after the Spring Equinox.

In terms of weather, the climate in the North from the time of Thanh Minh onwards, drizzle and humidity have almost ended. The weather gradually turns to summer and becomes clearer and more pleasant. Therefore, after a winter, the grass and trees that have been hiding in the frost also have this opportunity to sprout and grow strongly.

In the past, almost all graves were located in the fields, covered with earth, not built with solid bricks and cement like today. On this occasion, family members and relatives gathered to go to the fields to "sweep the graves", visiting all the graves of their ancestors. The thick grass was cleared, the missing land was filled in, the stele was washed, the words were re-inked, three incense sticks were lit and placed on the grave to show their remembrance.

“Visiting graves on Qingming Festival is one of the most sacred acts of respect that the living can show to the dead. As we know, graves are kept respectfully in Vietnam until the end of the family. No one in the family has the right to move a grave, or even make a small change, without the agreement of the whole family,” scholar Nguyen Van Huyen wrote in a study.

“Of the hundred good deeds, filial piety comes first.” In deep filial piety, people celebrate the Qingming Festival every year. By performing rituals and visiting the graves of the deceased, the living not only strengthen the bond with their loved ones, “getting closer to the dead”, thinking that “death is like birth, death is like existence”, as if their loved ones are still hidden somewhere.

And in the silence of incense smoke, silence among the graves, in meditation, in an invisible thread, people not only remember the figures who have "gone to the other side of the mountain" but also have the opportunity to think about their own lives. The finite and fragile human life. Then, I, like everyone else, will only be a mound of earth "in this lonely world"...

“Thanh minh in the third lunar month/The ceremony is to visit graves, the festival is to go for a walk” – Nguyen Du wrote in the Tale of Kieu. And Mr. Nguyen from Tien Dien village, who sympathized with the fragile lives of people, wrote “Eulogy for Ten Kinds of Living Beings” and so sympathized with the unclaimed graves: “The mounds of dirt on the side of the road are rustling/The grass is half yellow, half green, sadly/Why is it that during the Thanh minh festival/The incense smoke here is so deserted”?

Most of the graves in the cemetery in Quang Ba have sunk and have not been cared for for a long time. (Photo: GH)

… By chance, during the Qingming Festival this year, I had the opportunity to visit a little-known cemetery right in the middle of Hanoi , in the “golden land” area along West Lake, located in Quang Ba ward. The cemetery of the Chinese community that used to live in Hanoi.

The vicissitudes of life and the vicissitudes of life have caused most of the graves in this cemetery to be untended, many of them have collapsed and flattened. Even the tombstones are tilted, half-submerged in the ground. The dense vegetation has become a complicated area, forcing the ward authorities to hang a sign saying “cemetery land, strictly prohibited from buying, selling, or transferring”.

Thanh minh, light a stick of incense for the lonely souls and hope for a “reasonable” solution for the land. It is also a good thing to do!

Giang Hoang

Source: https://baophapluat.vn/thanh-minh-trong-tiet-thang-ba-post544932.html