Ching Ming Festival

Ching Ming (also Qingming) Festival literally means "Clear and Bright" Festival. It occurs on the 15th day after the Spring Equinox (usually April 4, 5 or 6th). This year it will fall on April 5. It is the day for cleaning the gravesites of your ancestors, burning the paper stuff-of-the-afterlife (money, clothes, gold ...), and offering of fruits and roasted meats (food).

But we normally pick a sunday before the actual date to perform our duties to our ancestors.


But first, a photo of the morning sun at 6.33am, taken just after sunrise (taken yesterday). It was a red orb for the first few minutes after sunrise.

In Kota Kinabalu, a lot of us picked today to celebrate Ching Ming. The Chinese Cemetery, managed by the Chinese Chamber of Commerce, is located at Mile 5.5, Tuaran Road. We went there at about 7am. The entry fee was RM10 for the past year's upkeep, which the management took to mean setting fire to the whole place, then chemically spraying all the remaining weeds and bushes just before Ching Ming!


The initial view of the older part of the cemetery was "a chaotic mess". This is typical of an old chinese cemetery. In the old days, you just pay the fee (it was $500 per lot in the late 70s) and then go select the site you want. You then build the grave as big and as elaborate as you want. Different people had different interpretations of Feng Shui, so the graves all faced different directions and had no "roads" to reach them. So going to one is an adventure in climbing and stepping over all the graves in between. Obviously the ones at the top had the "best" feng shui. This older part of the cemetery is officially "full".


The old signboard for the cemetery.


The Chinese Chamber of Commerce had set up a funeral parlour (business can be made even in a cemetery compound!). Previously the site was a very nice, covered but open-sided, waiting area.


Before going to the gravesite, you need to pay a visit to the temple of the "Gatekeeper"!


Then it down to some sweeping, cleaning and making the offerings.


A view from near the top of the hill.


When I turned to the left, it was a different sight. The christian portion of the cemetery was set out in nice and neat rows.


And so it also was in the New Extension part of the chinese cemetery (ie the next hill).

But despite the chaos, the older part had more character and colour. The Ching Ming Festival started more than 2,500 years ago. In 732AD, the emperor issued an edict that Ching Ming was ONLY to be celebrated on one day each year. It was because those rich folks had begun to celebrate (ie show off = waste) many many times a year.

Ching Ming is also the dividing date for the grades of green tea. The pre-Ching Ming harvested tea leaves are the "early and younger" tea leaves and are consequently more expensive.