This Ching Ming Festival, more opt for virtual tomb-sweeping and online shrines
- Local governments in China are strictly limiting access to cemeteries amid concerns over the spread of the coronavirus this Ching Ming Festival
- Virtual grave sweeping services existed before the pandemic, but it has given more people a reason to observe the tomb-sweeping festival online
In Beijing’s Jiugongshan Public Cemetery, staff silently perform rites for 25-year-old Liu He’s grandparents, cleaning their tombstones, placing flowers and fruits, and taking bows on behalf of Liu’s family a day ahead of Ching Ming Festival, or China’s “tomb-sweeping day”.
At the family's home, Liu’s mother also bows three times in the direction of an iPhone surrounded by fruits and incense, which is streaming the proceedings live.
“Mom and dad, sorry we can’t come to visit you this year due to the coronavirus,” she says. “Take care there.”
In the country’s Confucian culture, where filial piety is central, millions of Chinese people traditionally flock to cemeteries on Ching Ming Festival to pay respect to their ancestors, cleaning their tombs, burning paper money and symbolically offering food and drinks to the dead.
“To [my parents], being present to pay tribute on Ching Ming is not only to prove you’re not a lazy mourner. The festival is more about bringing people together and catching up with family or friends
Last year in Shanghai and Nanjing, the two biggest cities of southeast China, over 2 million and 5.7 million people respectively performed tomb-sweeping activities during Ching Ming.
