清明节 Ching Ming Jie

清明节 Ching Ming Jie - Clear Bright Festival / Tomb Sweeping Holiday

Tomb Sweeping is a holiday in early April to give everyone a chance to honor their ancestors and visit the graves of their ancestors to tidy them up.  It is a special feeling to feel a tie to great great ancestors and I'm glad I got a chance to go!  I got to see family members I didn't know I had!

Dad's Side

Below is Great Grandpa Wang's gravesite.  Feng Shui (Lit: Wind Water) is really important in positioning graves.  Graves aren't neatly organized in rows but are angled in all different directions according to Feng Shui of the spot.  We cleared all the grasses that grew over the past year, swept up all the dirt, and put these slips of paper all around that represent clothes, burned paper that represent money, and put out plates of fruit for ancestors to use in the afterlife.  This tradition comes from Chinese Folk religion.

Great Grandpa  王 Wang's Tomb

Offerings

Grandpa Wang's brother, his wife and son on the left.  My dad's brother and his wife on the right.

Tu Di Gong - Earth God Deity to protect ancestors - usually one at every grave.

Shu-Shu (Dad's cousin), Shu-shu (dad's youngest brother), sen sen (dad's brother's wife), GuGu (dad's sister), Jio-Puo (dad's uncle's wife), Jio-Gong (dad's uncle)

Shu-Shu Dad's brother and Sen Sen

Me and Cousin Shih-Yuan

Me and cheery a-jik (dad's youngest brother).  That's grandpas old house in the background in the process of being remodeled.



Mom's side

Grandpa Hsu was a principal at an elementary school in southern Taiwan and very well respected in the community.  Didn't have as much to clean here, my grandma hired someone to maintain it.

Grandpa Hsu

Aunts uncles and cousin

The Hsu Mausoleum was not yet complete when Grandpa Hsu passed away.  So many relatives I didn't know I had!  Just on my grandpa's side, my mom has 30+ cousins.  Adding my grandma's side, would be ~50+!

The Shu surname 許 at the top.

Big Family!  My maternal grandpa had 4 brothers and 1 sister.  Here are my distant cousins, nieces, aunts, uncles, nephews, great-aunts.  This photo was taken at my Mom's cousin's house.  Her cousin is about my grandma's age.  Traditional house about 100 years old - my mom's cousin still lives there.

The matriarchs of the family.  First row middle is my grandpa's 2nd older brother's wife.  First row on the right is the oldest daughter of my grandpa's oldest brother (she's the oldest of my mom's generation).

What an incredible experience to discover family!