April 6, 04 Cloudy

Last Sunday was Chang Ming festival, a day for people to worship their ancestors.

That day, I joined my husband's family and visited their home village in Dongguan. That village located at suburb area of Dongguan, it is a single lineage village. All residents had the same family name YUEN, which is also my husband's family name.The whole village participated agricultural acitivities in the previous time. Many villagers had already moved the city centre, Hong Kong or oversea to involve in the totally differnet lifestyle.

All ancestors' grave yard just situated besides farmland or fish pond, it is really shocking me. 'Didn't the villagers scare when they worked in farmland and when they pick up their head, they could see the grave in front of them?' I asked my husband, then he said the villagers believed ancestors are their family members or neighbours, they would not hurt them, and even hope to get closer to them, to form a link in their daily life. 'Of course,' he added, 'It is not the same story if the dead was someone you hated, people may spit on one's grave when everytime passed by.

Therotically speaking, graves there cannot be claimed as graveyards, because the bones of each ancestor were stored in a ceramic container and exposed on the ground. People digged a very shallow hole on the ground and put it there and secured its position with stones. There is then no name indicated of someone who is R.I.P. Almost the whole container could be seen. When their decendants visit the grave, they would dig a handful of fresh soil and put at the top of the container. Therefore the more frequent the decendants 'sweep their grave', the taller the 'tower' of the soil on or besides the container.