In his poem "The Tomb Sweeping Festival" the Sung poet Kao Chu-ching wrote: "The cemeteries on the hill tops to north and south are all a bustle with tomb sweeping and sacrifice, paper ash flutters like butterflies and tears of blood stain them red like cuckoos; as dusk falls foxes sleep on the graves while the returning children smile at their lanterns. With wine in our lives we must get drunk; must one more drop add to the Styx?"
Life, oh life! People always like to sigh about the struggle of life, but when it comes to the Tomb Sweeping Festival, the traditional Chinese day of reunion between the living and the dead, people are subjected to the unbearable feelings of death.
The Tomb Sweeping Festival is always a time of much rain, bringing exuberant new life to the ground. New shoots spring forth from bare wood and the yellow earth is suffused with green. At the same time as those paying their respects and sweeping the tombs feel grief for the dead, there is also an understanding of the hope offered by life's never ending vitality.
With the passing of the east wind, children take advantage of the spring breeze on the Tomb Sweeping Festival to go out and fly kites. Later they will cut the long strings and let the kites float off into the distance, and spring passions naturally follow.
During the Spring Festival, refined ladies also forget the woe in their hearts, hanging swings in the newly greened gardens and frolicking together as they rid themselves of the tomb sweeping melancholy. As they follow the ups and downs of the swing, all sorrows are put to one side for the time being!
"With wine in our lives we must get drunk; must one more drop add to the styx?" Wine lets the living drink to their hearts' content. Must we let the dead get in our way? The fine rain of the Tomb Sweeping Festival lets us open up our hearts and smile as we talk about the the great affair of life and death!