清明节 Qingming Festival is celebrated all over the world on this day. Join the Chew family in remembrance of Red Bluff’s Chinese Ancestors Day or Tomb Sweeping by participating in Qing which means to clean and Ming which means bright, together cleaning the tombs to pure brightness.
Admission: Free for all to enjoy!
Details: The event will kick off with tomb cleaning followed by tribute meal and tea with the Red Bluff Chinese ancestors.
Location: Oak Hill Cemetery Chinese Section
Event is part of a complimentary one-year-series of events
Traditions of Ching Ming
Red Bluff’s historic Chinese Section of the cemetery is comprised of descendants directly from China’s Imperial period. The tradition of qingtuan during the Qingming Festival is believed to date back to the longest-reigning orthodox Zhou dynasty from Red Bluff’s Chew family lineage, of more than two millennia ago.
Today, the sacred 19th Century graves reflect the overseas Chinese traditions of performing QingMing rituals dating 176 years ago. The day is comprised of not only weeding of the area, cleaning of the headstone, and replacing the wilted flowers with fresh ones, but also the lighting of incense and burning of imitation paper money. The burning of the imitation money is for the deceased to use in the afterlife.
In addition, food and tea is laid out in front of each headstone as an offering to the spirits of the deceased.
Family and friends will then eat the food at the gravesite, akin to having a picnic with their deceased relatives. It is said to bring good luck to eat the food that was offered to the deceased. Some families may also set off firecrackers to scare off evil spirits and to alert the deceased relatives that they are there to pay their respects.
The Legend of Ching Ming
Tomb-Sweeping Festival dates back over 2,500 years. The legend is it that around 650 BC, a man called Jie Zitui saved the life of Chong'er, a prince from the Jin principality, who was on the brink of starvation. The prince promised to reward Jie in the future. Nineteen years later, Prince Chong'er became Duke Wen. He ordered a search for Jie who had gone into hiding in the remote mountains with his mother. The duke wanted Jie to serve as one of his ministers.
Jie, who preferred to be a hermit in the Mianshan Mountain in today's Jiexiu city of Shanxi, had no political ambitions and refused the duke's invitation. Chong'er ordered the mountain to be burned down to force Jie out of hiding. Unfortunately, Jie did not give in and the fire ended up killing him and his mother.
To commemorate the man who saved his life whose life he had just ended, Duke Wen held a memorial underneath a willow tree, which returned from its burnt state to produce lush leaves and branches, unlike poor Jie. The Duke declared that no one should eat hot food on the anniversary of the tragedy. The tradition of eating cold food on Tomb Sweeping Day continues to this day.
The day of the ceremony became Qingming, and willow branches are seen by many as a way of warding off evil spirits from family graves.
Sponsored by the Helen and Joe Chew Foundation and Paskenta Nomlaki Foundation
