Today is Qing Ming Festival. Every year, my extended family (uncles, aunts, cousins etc.) would pool together money to buy a roasted suckling pig, chicken, fruits and snacks to visit my relatives’ graves. This year though, in order to keep everyone safe, my aunts and uncles all agreed that we should not visit the graves.⠀
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My dad decided that we were going to do our own version of the celebration at home, with improvised dishes that we made from ingredients that we already had instead of the usual feast. He even made a WeChat group at 5am, and pulled all of my family members in, so that we can share pictures of each household’s Qing Ming celebration, which made me think: is this going to be the Chinese uncle/auntie version of a Zoom hangout?
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While Qing Ming this year wasn’t the usual family affair of stacking mounds of fruit and splitting the pig afterwards, we made it work. My family was able to find our own way to pay respect to my grandparents and even made a brunch out of the offering food afterwards.⠀
Hope everyone is also finding creative ways to continue daily practices despite being stuck at home. Wishing everyone good health and a safe Qing Ming festival!⠀