This year the actual date for the Ching Ming Festival is on April 4th. As I am a Cantonese, I call it Ching Ming. The Hokkiens pronounce it as Cheng Beng. In Mandarin it sounds like Qing Ming. It is also known as the Grave-sweeping Festival or "Clear and Bright" when literally translated.
Each year Ching Ming will fall on either the 4th or the 5th day of the fourth lunar month. This day also marks the beginning of spring in China. Here we don't have the four seasons but still refer to it as spring. One need not have to go on the actual date but is given the option to turn up either 10 days before or after this date. I am sure many would know that Ching Ming is a Taoist practice of honouring and remembering their ancestors. Food, joss papers, flowers, candles and incense are offered at the cemetery or at a columbarium as an act of filial piety by the family members of the dearly departed.
The food offered by some of the family members to the dead is usually what the deceased like to eat when alive. Sometimes, one can see the whole cemetery laid with a very sumptious feast. I have also seen the family members eating the food after the prayer ceremony. Some would pack the food home and eat them later. Honestly, I don't and won't take the food that has been offered at the graves. I find that they have a funny type of smell. Besides, my elders would usually prepare chicken and pork for the ancestors and I don't eat meat. By the way, even the apples and oranges smell funny. My mum tells me that I am overly sensitive but I have refused to eat the food ever since I was small.
Each year Ching Ming will fall on either the 4th or the 5th day of the fourth lunar month. This day also marks the beginning of spring in China. Here we don't have the four seasons but still refer to it as spring. One need not have to go on the actual date but is given the option to turn up either 10 days before or after this date. I am sure many would know that Ching Ming is a Taoist practice of honouring and remembering their ancestors. Food, joss papers, flowers, candles and incense are offered at the cemetery or at a columbarium as an act of filial piety by the family members of the dearly departed.
The food offered by some of the family members to the dead is usually what the deceased like to eat when alive. Sometimes, one can see the whole cemetery laid with a very sumptious feast. I have also seen the family members eating the food after the prayer ceremony. Some would pack the food home and eat them later. Honestly, I don't and won't take the food that has been offered at the graves. I find that they have a funny type of smell. Besides, my elders would usually prepare chicken and pork for the ancestors and I don't eat meat. By the way, even the apples and oranges smell funny. My mum tells me that I am overly sensitive but I have refused to eat the food ever since I was small.
Below is part of an article posted on a blog that I surfed recently. Unfortunately, I forgot the web address and am unable to reproduce it here. But I did manage to copy the article. So read on:
"I had personally asked several cultivators of the Taoist sect and also Buddhist practitioners with high level of spiritual cultivations. They personally told me to avoid all foods offered to the deceased. These foods are not supposed to be consumed by the living. The deceased are of "Yin" energy while the living are "Yang" energy. When food is offered to "Yin" entities their energies are transferred to the food which indirectly when consumed by the living would result in them also taking in the "Yin" energy.
What would happen if you take in the "Yin" energy? You would feel agitated, drained of your life force, feel exhausted and worst of all you will encounter some obstacles, i.e. bad luck, misfortunes, etc...
Try this the next time if you have the opportunity, take a sample of the food at home before you send the rest to be offered to the deceased. After the food is being offered taste the food and compare with the sample taken earlier. Is there any difference? Does the offered food taste appealing after the prayer ceremony? The sweetness is gone, the aroma had diminished and if you are aware, the meat offered would have shrunk (at times) or lose its freshness and emit a kind of weird odour".
What would happen if you take in the "Yin" energy? You would feel agitated, drained of your life force, feel exhausted and worst of all you will encounter some obstacles, i.e. bad luck, misfortunes, etc...
Try this the next time if you have the opportunity, take a sample of the food at home before you send the rest to be offered to the deceased. After the food is being offered taste the food and compare with the sample taken earlier. Is there any difference? Does the offered food taste appealing after the prayer ceremony? The sweetness is gone, the aroma had diminished and if you are aware, the meat offered would have shrunk (at times) or lose its freshness and emit a kind of weird odour".
p/s: I won't be posting any pictures of cemeteries as I had a bad experience after I did so last year.
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