April 4th, 2004
Happy 04-04-04 day!
It’s a special day, being the only time in my life where I can say the day was 04-04-04.
I would also like to extend a Happy Tomb Sweeping Day out to all those people sweeping tombs today. Yes, today is Tomb Sweeping Day in Taiwan. It’s actually a yearly holiday event where the fam all goes out and sweeps the tombs of their ancestors. Sometimes they have to drive for hours to other areas of Taiwan, depending on where their family rests.
Unfortunately, Taiwan’s answer to cleaning many things involves burning everything instead of actually using a broom to clean all the overgrown weeds and bushes. So we went to check out the cemetaries and saw some families bushwackin’ through the graves- burning and ripping out a lot of overgrowth. The women usually sit and watch while a few men do all the dirty work. Then when it’s all cleared and burnt to heck, they place fake money under small rocks all over the graves- money that is symbolically being sent to the ancestors in their new life.
I liked talking to the Taiwanese about it because they totally think it’s just a regular thing and they wonder why the heck I want to talk about it. Anytime I’d bring it up with a Taiwanese friend, they’d usually respond with something like ‘Oh yah, I did that this weekend too’, and then go on to tell me about something else they did this weekend (something that they consider to be more interesting). I’m sure that many Taiwanese think we do the same thing in Canada.
I was looking forward to Tomb Sweeping Day all year, and I almost forgot about it. But luckily Mark and I often visit the cemetaries on Sundays (part of our Sunday drives we often go on- what can I say? I like Chinese cemetaries!), so we remembered as we were heading out. The cemetaries are pretty cool looking, and they seem to be shoved here and there. I can’t figure out how in Canada, a country with SO MUCH land, it costs a fortune for a tiny little slot in a cemetary, but somehow it is affordable for a huge elaborate plot in Taiwan, a country that is smaller than Vancouver Island!
Mark got in a scooter accident last week, but he’s ok- just a majorly bruised butt. He was on the highway and the scooter in front of him got cut off and wiped out, causing Mark to crash into him and also wipe out. The other guy was somewhat ok, perhaps some rib bruising or breaking, Mark wasn’t sure. We see scooter accidents all the time, and we really look at them with indifference now. One time on our way to Taichung, we saw three separate accidents actually happen! Almost every accident I see is a result of BOTH parties being complete idiots, so if I give any reaction at all, it’s usually a snicker. :)
Anyway, once again happy 04-04-04 day. It’s funny that it’s also Tomb Sweeping Day, since 4 is a ‘death’ number in Chinese. I don’t think anyone here realizes that though. In Taiwan, it’s not the year 2004, it is actually the year 93 (93 years since Taiwan has been established).
