Thoughts on Tomb Sweeping Day 清明節

Today, April 4, 2020 is Tomb Sweeping Day, or better known in Chinese as Qing Ming Jie 清明節, “Clear and Bright Holiday.” In a tradition dating back millennia, this is the day in the spring when families go to the tombs of their ancestors, “sweep” them clean, and have a ceremony of remembrance. In typical Chinese fashion the ceremony represents the search for balance in life. On this day in the spring, a season of new growth and hope for the harvest of a new year, you take time to look back, and remember the lives of those who have preceded you, and now have a time of rest.

Since moving here to Macao I have not done anything special on this day as I do not have any ancestors here. But in the past I have been in Taiwan during this holiday, and participated in remembrances with Donna and her family. I find it to be a moving and deeply meaningful ceremony, as it is a time for the whole family to be connected, both the living and the dead, and reminds you not only of where you came from, but of your future destiny.

This year’s Qing Ming festival comes when we here in Macao, as well as people across the globe, are facing a global pandemic, and fear of sickness and death from covid-19. This day has been declared a national day of mourning, with flags at half-staff, and three minutes of prayer and reflection at 10:00. As we watch the news, and look at social media feeds for news of people we know, the situation looks grim. We know that there will be a time when the world is no longer facing this plague. But we don’t know when.

Thankfully the situation in Macao is under control. There continues to be no community-wide spread of the virus. The only new cases are detected in recent returnees, who have left hot spots in the US, UK, and elsewhere. The university now has a plan to partially open the campus to students, which I hope will soon be extended to include local primary and secondary schools, so that my daughter can go back to school.

Unfortunately, the relative safety we experience in Macao is not to be found in the world outside. The number of cases in the US continues to rise at a terrifying rate or more than 20,000 per day. Deaths continue to rise, with a peak weeks away. As time passes—78 days since I last had a face-to-face class with my students on January 17—with the list of canceled or delayed events continuing to rise, it is hard to have a positive mood. We all wish for a Resurrection, the end of death, the end of this virus, when we can “return” to a life that is easy to remember, but hard to imagine.

Covid-19, go away. Be swept away. No one will mourn your passing.