I went back to Jakarta following a 3-day long weekend over Easter. I attended Qing Ming which is the tomb-sweeping time for traditional Chinese family to gather around ancestral home / burial ground to get together and clean up the resting ground of our ancestor. It happens on early April, family may choose either the weekend prior or the weekend after April 1.
My family chose to gather for my paternal grandmother's tomb at Cilegon, around 90k east Jakarta. We picked up 2ko who prepared bakpao (meat dumpling), bakchang (pork meat dumpling), and "huatkwee" (translated literally as 'growth cake'). Mom and Dad cooked homemake fried yam cakes, that is crispy and savoury, and is a family favorite. We set off at 640am to pick up Sen and then 2ko at her house at Kedoya, then proceeded to meet the convoy at KM 42 by tollroad before meeting up just past the tollbooth at Cilegon Timur.
The car convoy proceeded to highway, and then turned to village roads that is damaged by the sand mining trucks, before proceeding further into the village. I remembered the ground to be relatively empty, and it was now full with various grave stones. My grandmother's place is one of those on the top, near a yellow-painted gazebo, and is overlooking the area full of rice paddyfields, and sometimes you can hear birds chirping and rooster crowing. It is indeed a beautiful and serene resting place, one that is rare these days given the cost of empty land. A couple of village kids gathered around and singing, and waited for the leftover fruits or some small changes that outpour from the hearts of the families who gathered.
The ritual starts with cleaning of the graves, from a year worth of dusts, and grass which grew tall since last year's sweeping. I imagine that when the ritual started in China, they must have chosen this time a few months after Spring festival when the weather permits a cleaning, out of the winter frost and the spring grass and flowers, while allowing the descendants a reason to gather and retain the family bond. We then brought over the cakes, sweet ones, the meat meals, and fruits (pineapples, grapes, apples are the favorite) over. This was also complemented by boxes of paper gold, paper monies, paper clothes, and other offerings. We then lined up to offer our players and remembrance and then lighted up the rest of red candles and 'hio' incense around the ground. After that, the wait, and the chat, and the gossiping began over family catch-up while waiting for my grandmother's spirit (hopefully) to come over and enjoy the food offerings. After a period of time deemed appropriate, we then started burning the papers offering. The sun was blazing hot under a clear cloudless sky, it was amazingly bright and a beautiful day. My grandmother is obviously blessed lady, her five sons and four daughters have wonderful grandsons and grand-daughters. And the grandsons from each of her sons, except one, were cooperating to undertake this task of sending the underground wealth to her. I watched with pride and a slight sense of wistfulness of her happy achievements, a slight smart housewife supporting the family as life partner to my late grandfather who was known to be de-facto village chief. After this stage, this was completed by my eldest male cousin, completed the burning by dousing a circle of water around the pot. Then we offered our final amen, and started packing the fruits and cakes to gazebo and enjoyed the light meal together. The final stage was observing grounds around for various improvements and clean-up activities, such as hacking away two trees offending the view from my grandmother's gravesites, and lots of hustle and bustle over a tree right on the front-right of the site where a tree with thorny trunk sprung up high, and its thorny branches protuded dangerous. We stayed to monitor and supervise, as apparently the keeper did not follow up as instructed last year after we left. The tree also has a natural bird nest resting on one of its high branches, a cause of lots of pointing and awe.
We then said goodbyes and proceeded back to Jakarta. Strangely the sky turned grey and started to rain heavily, which is a blessing on a day like this and is considered to be a good sign. I found this trip to be useful bonding over my root, my ancestor, and my extended family in general. I wish that we can do this at least once a year in the future.
