is the first cemetery in Yangmingshan, Taiwan, and the city of Taipei in the distance. Xinhua News Agency reporter Zhang Guojun photo
Xinhua News Agency, Taipei, April 5 (Reporter Li Jianhua Liu Gang) On the 5th Ching Ming Festival, although there was no rain in Taipei, the weather was gloomy and the clouds were as black as ink.
In the early morning of Yangming Mountain, the number of vehicles going up the mountain increased significantly. The transportation department implements traffic control at the intersection leading to the cemetery, prohibits foreign vehicles from going up the mountain, and opens a grave sweeping cemetery to transport the people of sacrifice to the cemetery for free.
Yangmingshan No. 1 Cemetery is located deep in the mountains and forests, with a quiet environment and shaded trees. In the morning, there were a large number of people who came for the sacrifice. They held flowers and carried large bags of sacrifices up the mountain. The first stop of the
grave sweeping cemetery is the "Spirit Bone Pagoda", which is a large-scale spiritual bone storage facility in Taipei City, which stores more than 30,000 urns. The small square in front of the Spirit Bone Pagoda was crowded and bustling.
A Fa conference is being held here to pray for the deceased. After the puja is over, people place various sacrifices such as cakes and fruits on the sacrifice table. According to the worship process, they light incense, bow and incense outside the tower, and then enter the tower to visit the ancestors.
There was a surging crowd at the scene, but in order. In order to protect the environment, the burning of paper money is not allowed at the scene. People write the name of the deceased on the paper money and then send it to the burning place for unified burning. In addition, it is encouraged to replace incense sticks with hands together, and use electronic lotus lamps to replace candles. Even if incense is burned, the people follow the initiative of "one person burns only one incense stick".
is not far from the place where the burning is, there is a "space-time mail box". The public can receive free time-space postcards and write blessings to their ancestors. Every day, the staff will open the mailbox and burn the postcards and paper money together.
According to the on-site staff, the bone storage cabinets in the spirit bone tower are currently fully filled. The newly-built "Zhen Ai Building" was completed in 2012, which can hold 50,000 urn urns, and currently has about half of the space used.
Auntie Chen, who is in her 70s, volunteers at the Linggu Tower Square. She said that she has 7 family members sleeping here, including her wife who died five years ago.
On weekdays, Chen Apo works as a volunteer at the funeral home, and at the cemetery during the Ching Ming Festival. She has persisted for more than ten years. She has a daughter. After the death of her wife, she chose to live alone in order not to cause trouble to her daughter. Speaking of where she is going, Granny Chen seemed very calm, "After I die, the flowers will be buried, the dust will return to the dust, the soil will return to the earth."
On April 5th, people worshipped in the flower burial area of the No. 1 Cemetery in Yangmingshan, Taiwan. The dead. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Zhang Guojun
The flower burial in the mouth of Granny Chen is an environmentally friendly burial promoted in Taiwan in recent years. After cremation, the ashes of the deceased are placed in environmentally-friendly paper bags and buried in the flower field. No tombstones or names will be erected. About half a year later That is "return to nature". Environmental protection burials also include sea burials and tree burials. As the concept of environmental protection has become popular among the people in recent years, it has gradually become the choice of more and more people. The "Zhenshan Garden" not far from the entrance of the
cemetery is the flower burial area, where cherry trees, tassels, podocarpus, and other shrubs such as rhododendrons, camellia, and osmanthus are planted. The reporter saw here that the rectangular flower fields were surrounded by brightly colored erythrina flowers, some round stones were placed in the flower fields, and bunches of flowers and various sacrifices were placed outside the flower fields.
took the bus to continue forward and came to the cemetery area. There are a total of 20 cemeteries, the burial grounds are arranged in layers, and the mountains and plains are dotted with red azaleas and white bidens.
Grave sweepers came one after another, holding flowers and carrying various sacrifices. Standing in front of the tombstone, some burned incense and burned paper, and some chanted words, and looked solemn or sad. The walls of the tomb are engraved with people’s evaluations of the deceased relatives, such as "Yide Changzhao", "Loyalty and Diligence", "Loyalty forever", etc. Many tombstones are also engraved with the ancestral home of the deceased, such as Tianjin, Jimo, Shandong, and Wuxi, Jiangsu. Wait. The time of
has reached four o'clock in the afternoon, the sky finally cleared, and most of the people have finished their sacrifices and set off on their way home. The reporter saw that most of the cemetery had been cleaned up, clean and tidy, only flowers and unburnt incense sticks remained. In the empty tomb area, Mr. Gao with white hair sat alone in front of the tombstone, waiting quietly for the incense sticks to burn out before getting up and leaving.
Mr. Gao, who is in his 50s, comes from Los Angeles, USA. This time he went back to Taiwan to visit his grandfather's grave. The next day he would fly to Shanghai to visit his grandma's grave. "My grandfather and I have never seen each other, but our ancestors are really important. The family is passed down from generation to generation." He said.
Mr. Gao has lived in the United States for more than 30 years. As long as he has time for Ching Ming Festival, he will visit his elders and show his filial piety. He said that his family is veryI attach importance to Chinese culture and education. My son speaks Chinese very well. This year he was unable to come back due to the heavy workload of university. I will bring him back next year to sweep the grave. "One needs to know where he came from." On the bus down the mountain, the reporter met Arrived a young couple with two young children, one of whom was still infant. The husband, Mr. Fan, told reporters that they came to visit the grave for the aunt and brought the children, hoping that the children would not forget their ancestors.
At the entrance of the cemetery, there stands a huge archway with four large characters that are very conspicuous: Shen Zhong chases far.
No matter how the circumstances change, in this traditional festival, people's feelings of cherishing the memory of the ancestors and pursuing the long-term are always passed on.
