Post by Blue on Apr 4, 2012 2:06:20 GMT
Today is the start of the fifth solar term Qingming (15 days after the Spring Equinox). It's the time for tomb sweeping, which is a de-facto family picnic to enjoy the beauty of spring. In the old days, families who were eating lunch next to their ancestor's tombs would also share their meal with the local shepherds.
In Taiwan there are massive traffic jams on the mountains and many people opt out to sweep the tombs one week before or after the festival.
The start of Qingming is also the time to mark one's calendar to see sakura blossoms in Japan (and have a picnic as well
). Curiously, the tradition of Hanami (having an outside party / picnic to watch blossoms) was imported from China to Japan more than a thousand of years ago, but the Chinese forgot about this tradition. Flights from Taiwan to Japan are fully booked during the Qingming festival just to watch the cherry blossoms. Otherwise, people in Taiwan go elsewhere to look for those blossoms.
www.themalaysianinsider.com/travel/article/the-empire-smiles-back-taiwans-japanese-cherry-blossom-festival
Also curious is that both tombs and sakura both represent mortality.
If you can't attend a sakura festival, you could join a Hakka Tung Blossom festival:
www.taipeitimes.com/News/lang/archives/2012/03/28/2003528850
From mid-April to May, the mountains of Taiwan turn all white from the Tung Blossoms, which can all be viewed when one drives on the freeways. Taiwan Hakka females were once encouraged to plant Tung trees for wood to be used for their dowry. These trees also contain plenty of oil. This practice has been abandoned, but these trees spread everywhere in Taiwan by natural methods, (just like the Taiwan mountain cherry tree has spread everywhere by birds on the mountains of northern Taiwan).
Here's a picture I took of the Shinjuku gardens in Tokyo one spring.
In Taiwan there are massive traffic jams on the mountains and many people opt out to sweep the tombs one week before or after the festival.
The start of Qingming is also the time to mark one's calendar to see sakura blossoms in Japan (and have a picnic as well
). Curiously, the tradition of Hanami (having an outside party / picnic to watch blossoms) was imported from China to Japan more than a thousand of years ago, but the Chinese forgot about this tradition. Flights from Taiwan to Japan are fully booked during the Qingming festival just to watch the cherry blossoms. Otherwise, people in Taiwan go elsewhere to look for those blossoms.www.themalaysianinsider.com/travel/article/the-empire-smiles-back-taiwans-japanese-cherry-blossom-festival
Also curious is that both tombs and sakura both represent mortality.
If you can't attend a sakura festival, you could join a Hakka Tung Blossom festival:
www.taipeitimes.com/News/lang/archives/2012/03/28/2003528850
From mid-April to May, the mountains of Taiwan turn all white from the Tung Blossoms, which can all be viewed when one drives on the freeways. Taiwan Hakka females were once encouraged to plant Tung trees for wood to be used for their dowry. These trees also contain plenty of oil. This practice has been abandoned, but these trees spread everywhere in Taiwan by natural methods, (just like the Taiwan mountain cherry tree has spread everywhere by birds on the mountains of northern Taiwan).
Here's a picture I took of the Shinjuku gardens in Tokyo one spring.
