Halloween is really a crazy carnival; it is a kind of scary for me. People dress up in costumes such as supper man, joker, knight, evil, nurse and a lot of stuff. That is so excited, we I saw this, I can’t believe my eyes. Before I come to America, I just heard about this festival, but now, I really see it, it’s so cool!
In china, we also have a day to remember the dead people; it is call Tomb-sweeping Day. “Its origin dates back to the spring and autumn period. Jin prince chong’er ran away from the country with his supporters due to persecution. They were homeless for 19 years and things got so bad that chong’er began to starve to death. One of the prince’s faithful followers, jie zitui, cut a piece of muscle from his own leg and served it to his master. Chong’er was saved and, in 636 BC, he took back the throne. He rewarded the official who had stayed loyal to him but he forgot about jie zitui. By the time chong’er remember him, a heartbroken jie zitui had traveled deep into the mountains. Chong’er wanted to persuade jie to come home, so he had the hills set on fire. But jie was later found beside a large tree, with his old mother on his back. Both were dead. Saddened by the tragedy, chong’er ordered that fires could not be lit on the day of jie zitui’s death. From this comes Hanshi Day, or cold food day. People visited jie zitui’s tomb the next day to pay their respects. Over time, Hanshi Day was replaced with Tomb- Sweeping Day. It is on April 4 every year”. There is a poem to describe this day, “rains fall heavily as Qingming comes, and passers-by with lowered spirits go.” We use this day to remember loved ones who have departed. We visit our ancestor’s graves to sweep away the dirt on it, in this way; we show our respect for them. Some times, we also go to our relatives’ grave to sweep away the dirt and say something to them as if they were still alive. So this is really a very special day. But the difference between here is in this day, people will be very seriousness, they don’t wear in costume but very formal cloth in order to show their sincerity and respect to the dead people.
2 comments:
That was really very interesting! I'm glad that you told me the history of this day. I have never heard it before though I knew about the holiday.
I agree- interesting story. Also, it's true that though Halloween is a day about the dead & the spirits, it's really not serious at all. It's more like we're mocking the spirits.
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