清明 (tomb-sweeping day)

posted in: hong kong 0

April 5th was tomb-sweeping day, so I went for a walk to the chinese christian cemetery about 10 minutes up the hill from my residence.

entering the upper cemetery
entering the upper cemetery

(yes, this is how they build cemeteries in hilly terrain such as hong kong.)

below, you can see a sweeper leaving the group on the left, after having done her job (sweepers carry both a broom and a watering can).

view from lower cemetery
view from lower cemetery

people use this day to pay respects to the departed, whole families huddling around graves. One group distributed sheets of music among themselves and started singing to the grave (I guess it was a fav song?).

this holiday happily coincided with easter to make a 5-day weekend–and the upshot of being in HK has been no bombardments of chocolate bunnies. I guess Li Ka Shing hasn’t gotten on that bandwagon yet… though he does have an ad outside the cemetery.

look how much fun we're having drinking overpriced bottled water! at the cemetery!
look how much fun we're having drinking overpriced bottled water! at the cemetery!