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Qīngmíng jié (清明节 or “Tomb Sweeping Festival”) is upon us. The characters for “Qīngmíng” could literally be translated as “Pure Brightness,” while “jié” can be understood as”festival”.

Of this festival, that has been observed for about 2500 years, I learned that it is held on the fifteenth day of the Spring Equinox, while it is officially celebrated this coming Sunday, Monday and Tuesday (3,4,5 April, 2022).

These are the moments in a Lunar year to remember one’s ancestors.

There is so much to be explored; to be taken note of; to be made into meanings.

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<< Qīngmíng jié >>

Why not, here and there,
take a moment,
these coming days
engage in
your own locality

offer thought to your mothers, brothers, sisters, fathers, aunts and cousins, nephews and uncles of more and less great-great-grandness

From the leaf, which you represent
on your tree,
to the root and the mycelium,
they relate
to us all

For a split second
don’t translate.
For an instance,
make it your profession

to touch the soil,
under you feet,
with your bare toes
with you finger tips.

Feel the diverse
textures, smoothness, wetness:
the dynamic geometries within
we can universally acknowledge

There, life is one,
there, we all, are
there we are
open-ended

—animasuri’22

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“Qīngmíng Shànghé Tú”

attached a small crop from the 12th century (960-1279), Sòng Dynasty’s artist 张择端 / Zhāng Zéduān’s Qīngmíng scroll: “Qīngmíng Shànghé Tú” ( 清明上河图 or “Along the River During the Qīngmíng Festival” or “A Picture up the River at Qīngmíng”. The scroll can be studied at the Palace Museum in Beijing).

A digitization of the scroll can be browsed here

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Qīngmíng as a path for Giving Thanks:

Thank you Dr. Walter Sepp Aigner . for enabling me to muse on this rich topic of walking with one’s common, simple, down-to-earth and personal ancestries. One would easily be convinced that you and I are ancestorally “not related”; and yet…