The annual festival for grave cleaning was last week - Ching Ming, and it is a public holiday, therefore a day off school. We had a friend over for a sleepover, which is always fun mid week, so we decided to enjoy the beautiful weather (not too hot or cold at the moment) and wandered down to our local beach in Ng Fai Tin. The walk on the way down is easy and wandering around down there is so much fun with the kids.
We really need to arrange for a local beach cleanup, as the pollution that washes ashore is horrible. Some of the smaller coves around the area we live are very protected but it also causes pollution to get trapped there. Sadly, we didn't bring enough garbage bags to clean the entire beach but we made a small dent in a larger problem.
The kids played and collected lots and lots of seaweed and taught me all about what they had learned recently on camp about mangroves. (love our school)
The walk down may be easy but the walk back up the hill is VERY steep and it is quite the achievement to make it without any complaints from my two. We did well and managed to make it home chatting to the locals who were visiting the local graves for cleaning. Many of the Cantonese grave sights are just dotted among the country parks and deserted land. So from the beach up to our house, there are about 20 grave sites. I am always impressed by how many people 'actually' use this public holiday to visit ancestors/relatives graves to clean and tidy the site - and don't just head to the local mall or cinema.
Sadly, later in the day on our way back home we noticed a very large bush fire in a nearby country park which was caused by someone cleaning graves, and then lighting incense as an offering and leaving while it was still lit. This is a really sad part of this holiday - it is very common and as monsoon hasn't hit yet, the fire managed to burn over 30 football fields worth of park land. So sad.
Happy Ching Ming
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