/ Chinese Culture
What I Learnt This Week: Expo Holiday and Waking the Dead
Rumour has it (and I always place my faith unquestionably in rumour) that the denizens of Shanghai are being awarded an extra two days over the Labour Day holiday - that's a total of five days, stretching from April 30 to May 4. Presumably, we will all be marshaled to various sites across the city to bathe in the reflected glory of the parti-coloured pavilions, as they glitter across the Shanghai landscape. Any excuse for extra holidays - I'll take it! All hail Haibao and his all-consuming power. May he reward us for loyal service with holidays at the closing ceremony as well.
It's that time of year when you give your ancestors a spring clean. I've been reminiscing of the many times spent going to the cemetery buildings, opening my grandfather's box - containing his cremated remains - and giving it a quick spruce up with a clean white handkerchief, perhaps dropping off some fruit and a few flowers, or even a written note. Without the rare luxury of a grave, he is settled amongst a wall of boxes, in one wall of many, in one building of many. I've never actually been during the holiday, far too crowded, but surely there is an influx during this time. So what happens if there's a simultaneous visit from two families with adjacent boxes? What happens when several people go to the same spot at the same wall at the same moment? Do they queue up and wait their turn? Take a number? Or do they jostle in, elbows knobbly and faces fierce? From my recollection, we had to line up and bow to the cremated ashes: my parents, my sister, my brother and I. That's a row of five people taking up a lot of space. Would we have a time limit? I'm going to go sit in solitude, eat some of those green rice balls filled with red paste (青团), and ponder the question.