Ch'ing Ming in extended families

As I was previewing and pre-reading this week's topic-- Marriage and Family, one picture on page 232 caught my eye. As a person with direct observations with this sort of memorial service called Ch'ing Ming, I see flash backs sparkles on the memory cells in my brain.

Ch'ing Ming is a practice whereas family members--usually the whole household from grandparents to the littlest ones--go out at night and burn fake paper moneys, paper houses, paper accessories which they think by doing this kind of practice, can go to the underworld to the dead relatives. They do this on a specific date they calculated on the "farmer's calender", usually around April. With the belief that the date they chose is the date in which the underworld gate opens, by burning their relatives things such as paper money, their deceased relatives can receive, on this day. They believe that the underworld gate closes again within certain hours, so they have to burn the paper money within those hours.

Although that some people don't believe in Ch'ing Ming anymore as they think it's superstitious which doesn't connect to the modern world anymore, it still exists and is still practiced in many areas around China. That's because they believe by bringing their dead relatives money, in exchange of a favor, those dead people can bring them good spirits, good fortune, good luck. That those dead spirits and make their roads in the real world wider, can bring them more opportunities in order to survive and such. With the little ones in the household, they believe that the dead from the underworld can bring health to children since children have a weaker immune system.

However another reason to practice Ch'ing Ming is that they believe since it's the only day the underworld connects the real world, and through burning scented wood sticks, which is kinda like a communication method, that the smoke acts as the medium --- they can talk monologues to tell those deceased relatives how they are doing today.

For example, those monologue might be: "Hi, big brother John, I miss you dearly and feel sorry about it that you have left us, for all of our family members miss you dearly since you've passed away. How are you doing over their? We are good. Sister Mary's kid Mat got into one of the top colleges in the world. Brother Sam's company is earning big money... Please continue to bring us good luck and fortune big brother John and we hope you don't feel lonely down there!"

A lot of Chinese I know don't believe that those paper money can really reach to the underworld now, especially Chinese in the modernized city. Ch'ing Ming is still practiced, however, as it's a form to remember the relatives.

As a conclusion, Ch'ing Ming still continues as a practice today however it's meaning may has changed to just a memorial to the deceased relatives.

Aboriginal World Wardaman Dreaming

Yidumduma Bill Harvey is an aboriginal elder of the Waterman tribe. " He is recognized throughout the world as an artist of high esteem on many different stages. He is a master storyteller, Songman, Didjeridoo player and maker, painter and writer. All his art forms have the deepest roots in the celebration of his Wardaman Aboriginal heritage and his unique ability to "walk in both worlds" and communicate the joy of his culture to a global audience. He has been formally acknowledged as one of Australia's living national treasures."(cited from Boomerang ad. Feb. 9 ) Bill speaks in a kind of broken English as Paul translates and helps weave the stories. Bill, along with Paul Taylor have been traveling in the U.S. telling their story. Paul Taylor grew up around Botany Bay and went to northern Australia as a health care worker. In the north, he found a great link between himself and the aboriginal peoples and culture.
The program began with Bill relating the story of creation. Aboriginals believe that the land is alive and that it came from "the ancestors". The ancestors came from the ocean and from the sky. All language comes from the songs which are about "caring for the land." As the ancestors came from the ocean, they were changed into birds and insects and all living things came from the ocean and the sky. The format of this program was story then song, story then song, as that is their way of telling a story. These stories and songs are passed to the children. There are also dances that aid in the storytelling. Paul did a wonderful dance of the sand hill crane and a dance that men did to connect to the earth and also one that women did to connect with the sky.
As Paul danced, Bill sang or played the didgeridoo and a drum like beating.
We also were exposed to aboriginal paintings and dreaming. The paintings connect with the landscape and the animals. All of the culture of the aborigine is connected to the landscape, according to Bill.
This was a fascinating short look into the life and stories of the aboriginal people. It was made extra wonderful as it was told by an elder and a man who loves and studies the culture and people.

Ice Age Houses in the Rocky Mountains

On Friday I attended a lecture given by Todd Surovell about Ice Age houses in the Rocky Mountains. The houses were found by Middle Park, CO in a place called Barger Gulch. The people who lived here called the Folsum people and were around about 12,000 years ago. The landscape now looks like a prairie and is filled with sagebrush. The archeologists have reason to believe that back when the Folsum people lived here they landscape may have been different and included trees. The archeologists worked on this site from 1997 to 2007 and recovered over 75,000 artifacts.
It was no surprise that the Folsum people lived in houses because they had to have some sort of shelter since they lived during the ice age. The archeologists located three different Folsum houses on the site. Houses and structures are able to give us insight about the culture such as economics, demography, organization, activities etc. Therefore, houses are a very important to find because they can answer so many questions about the culture through the many artifacts. The only downside is it can be very difficult to locate structures.
As this lecture pointed out, artifacts are a crucial part of learning about a culture. Most of the artifacts found at the Folsum site were smaller then a pinky nail but still the archeologists were able to gather information. They recovered over 75,000 artifacts from the site and Todd said that this was a lot of stuff one site! Typically hunter and gather types travel a lot so that their sources remain abundant therefore they do not leave a lot of stuff in one place. But the Folsum people were able to winter on their land because animals would move down from the mountains in the winter and onto their land so that had an abundance of food. Overall, this was an excellent lecture and I learned a lot about working at an archeological site. There were quite a few unfamiliar words about digging etc. but I still enjoyed learning about the lifestyle of the Folsum people.