Qingming

Last year, Pinky and I decided to connect a bit to her Chinese-Thai ancestry by adopting some of the Chinese festivals.

a Chinese shrine

We sort of celebrated the Hungry Ghost Festival, but never really got around to burning the joss paper like we were supposed to. Well, now it's almost time for the Qingming Festival, another Chinese festival dedicated to remembering one's ancestors. It's a time to visit one's ancestral graves in the springtime to sweep and clean them for the next year. It's also time to burn more joss paper!

burning joss paper

 We actually finally got around to burning our "ghost money" in Pinky's back yard sometime around last December. It was too late for the Ghost Festival and too early for Qingming, so let's just say that it counts for both!

Ghost Money

I wrote a little about Ghost Money (or Joss Paper) before. You can buy paper money and luxury goods to burn to send to your ancestors in Heaven. We don't take it seriously, but it's just kind of fun to connect to a bit of culture.

burning Ghost Money

Anyway, we burned all of the paper money and paper iphones that had been cluttering up my apartment for a few months. I guess it's a good time to write about it now, though, since it is the Qingming Festival after all!