What would my mom think if she saw me here in Ohio, sweeping a tomb and praying to ancestors — just like my husband would in China?
I’ll bet she would have cocked her head or raised an eyebrow, just as my relatives did when my husband announced our next stop. “We’re going to celebrate the Tomb Sweeping Festival,” also known as Qingming Jie. So John repeated himself and even explained it was a Chinese holiday where everyone visited their ancestors’ graves. But that only lead to polite smiles and nodding that suggested they were just trying to be nice and listen to him, but didn’t really understand.
That’s okay. If my mother was still alive, I’m sure she wouldn’t have understood what we were doing at that grave — a grave that was her own. Continue reading “How China’s Tomb Sweeping Tradition – And My Husband – Helped Me Cope With Grief”