The most common English translation of the Cheng Beng Festival is ‘Chinese All Souls Day’. The not-so-common ones are :
- Chinese Memorial Day
- Spring Remembrance Day
- Tomb/Grave Sweeping Day
- Clear Brightness Festival
My personal favourite is ‘Tomb Sweeping Day’.
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Maybe because it brings back childhood memories of the annual trips we made to my great grandparents’ graves in Batu Gantung with fresh fruits, kuih-muih (traditional Malaysian cakes), roast pork, paper offerings and a hoe (to clear the weeds). I think we stopped when I turned 10. Not sure why though.
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Nowadays, due to lack of space on this small island, more and more folks are cremated and their ashes put into urns which are then put into a small space. No more graves and big tombstones. My grandparents (God bless their souls) no longer have the luxury of huge grave sites.
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Every year at this time, I will meet relatives I only see once a year. They travel back to Penang from all over the country and from different corners of the world for this day. Yes, they are part of the thousands of folks who contribute to the HORRIBLE traffic jams on Penang island at this time of the year!
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I personally think it’s weird how they seem to think Cheng Beng is more important than CNY but I have accepted a long time ago that there are many things my family does which I will never understand. Some, I don’t believe in either.
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But they are family. So…
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