First Ching Ming with New Family

i cannot believe what i saw when i rode on the motorbike with jason, passing through a narrow path in between two little huts... it was a steep hill, with 2 dominant concrete structure painted with red paints at the edge sitting up there and staring down... the hill was previously a graveyard for many other tombs..and now it left only the Chang family's. unlike the ordinary chinese graveyard, it has only one tomb, one hill, and it is very steep. to add to the seemingly difficult journey, there's one small stream before we could reach the hill, with a 2 ft wide bridge made by wooden planks constructed by the family to pass thorugh.

when we reached the top, a group of perhaps 20 ppl was already up there.. and many i met for the first time. great.. family reunion it seems. the view up the hill was fantastic. i can see the whole town, the roofs and the ridges of jason' house and his neighbours, extremely small windows and the dark figurine inside, one quiet cow and the shed roofing over it, white clouds in the distance and the greenhill beneath them....

so there it started the normal ritual for chinese family, lay the food for praying, knee down and pray. .one by one...started with the men, then the women... then they burn the paper money for the ancestor...i was told these were the grand grand grand grand parent's tomb. perhapds one more grand.. jason himself can't be sure of that too. it took about 30 minutes for the praying. we went down the hill after that. my mind was still playing the image of the huge red tomb that u can only see when you look up, and feeling that you are being watched.

we proceeded with the next tomb. they were located on the other side of the town. that was a totally opposite scenery. few small hills connecting each other, full of tombs. There are so many different designs and colours. The sky is blue. It feels bright. peaceful. it's a vibrant scene. many cars already parked aside and i can see people on the hill. not very crowded. just lively. (lively for graveyard) :)

the snd tomb belongs to the grand grand grand i think. how do my new family know where to locate their ancestors?.. cause all together i was told there are 14 of them that belong to this big family. yes,14. most of them were in fact designed the same way as the prime one. well, it is logical to do so. at least from far i can tell which one is related to this family. that reminds me of the auntie at the restaurant where i had breakfast earlier... 'your Chang family's Ching Ming visit has lots of people.... 'yeah. really lots of them, lots of ancestors too.

the second one went on smoothly. same as the third.. and the pace of people working beginning to get faster... the movement of each ritual become more and more swift after every one tomb visited. not hard to understand why..the sun was so hot that it burn. at the 5th one(if i have not mistaken) one of the grand uncle starts to ask for luck from his father. .. which is our grand grand uncle..(or father, i really have no idea.)let's have a look at his praying

'dear grandpa, this is your grandson praying, together with your grand grand, grand grand grand, and grand grand grand grand children. please give us luck to hit 4 numbers. we will use the money to repair your tomb and those that belong to our family. then one of the uncle knee down. someone past him a case filled with bamboo sticks carved with numbers... so he started to shake the case... slowly...then all of a sudden all the sticks inside came off the case...hahahah this is one uncle that had never tried asking for number from the ancestor. in the end the grand uncle took over, got 4 numbers, and start again

'dear grandpa, thank you for the 4 number. please show 'xing pui' if they are the number you gave us.' 'xing pui' means throwing 2 50cent coins on the floor, with one showing head and one showing flower. this is the way the ancestor say yes. if both showing hte same feature, then the answer is no.first hit, YES! we got the 'Xing Pui'. He continued,'dear grandpa, please show 'xing pui' if we should buy from Magnum.' Another hit. ' Dear grandpa, please show 'xing pui' if we should buy from Damacai... and it went on and on.

we were all laughing and smiling during the praying. It was fun. The grand uncle has been very entertaining. :) My boss once told me, Ching Ming is the CHinease New YEar for those lying down there. i understand why now, it's the reunion not only for those who lives, but together with those who had passed away too.