Ching Ming, the Grave-sweeping Festival 清明時節

Ching Ming, the Grave-sweeping Festival

“A drizzling rain falls like tears on the Mourning Day;
The mourner's heart is going to break on his way.
Where can a wineshop be found to drown his sad hours?
A cowherd points to a cot 'mid Apricot Flowers.”

This well known poem by Du Mu of the Tang Dynasty has described well the normal weather condition at Ching Ming – it rains. In fact as far as I have remembered, 80% of the past Ching Ming Festival were raining days. The Ching Ming Festival this year was a bit unusual. It did not rain, just being warm and cloudy with occassional sunny spells, but not a single drop of rain. The even more unusual (and luckily) thing was, there was only 13 reports of hill fire.
For the Chinese, it is a day to remember and honour one's ancestors, and to tend to the graves of the departed ones. It is also the time when spring returns to the good earth and the land is greened again by the newly sprouted, a perfect time for the family to have a stroll among the greenery of the countryside after tending to the graves of the ancestors. The act of strolling in the field in spring time in such occasion was called “Spring Visit” or “Stepping into the Green” in the ancient time. This had been a long-time custom in many parts of the country for Ching Ming Festiival, and hence the other name for the occasion, “The Stepping into the Green Festival”. Some people (e.g. the people of Shantou region) are still following the custom nowadays.

As the weather normally starts to get warmer and wetter around the time of the Ching Ming Festival, it is also the right time for planting trees and corps, there is an old Chinese saying “It is the right time to plant the melon and bean seedlings around Ching Ming, so are the saplings”. Planting trees at Ching Ming was another old Chinese custom.

Sweeping the graves, offering food and libation to the ancestors and departed family members during Ching Ming is still a popular custom followed by many Chinese people nowadays. However, the customs of “Stepping into the Green” and tree planting have long been forgotten by many. Instead, there is a new replacement - “Burn to the ground”.

There are two important dates for remembering and honouring the ancestors in Chinese custom, one in the spring time, namely the Ching Ming, and the other in the autumn, namely the Chung Yang. Six months after the last tending to the graves, they must have been covered by the overgrown again. Due to laziness, some people just set the grave ground on fire to clear all the overgrown. Being careless during the common ritual of burning the offerings made of papers to the ancestors is also another cause of hill fire. But the most ridiculous of all is the intentional burning of the whole surrounding area to the ground by some selfish, immoral and foolish people, just base on the groundless speculation that burning the whole place will bring them good fortune and wealth. This is a crime that not only destroy the vast area of vegetation and all the living things within the area, but also threaten the lives and properties of the nearby villagers and hikers. In 1999, there were a total of 443 reports on hill fire in a single day during Ching Ming, and 300 hectares of hillside bushland was burned to ground. In 2001, 35 hikers and grave-sweepers were trapped by the hill fire and nearly died at Yuen Long.

Introducing such a disaster to nature and other people just for the sake of wishing for their own good fortune and wealth, I do not believe that their ancestors would answer such immoral and evil prayers from their descendants.


清明時節

　　清明時節雨紛紛
　　路上行人欲斷魂
　　借問酒家何處有
　　牧童遙指杏花村

唐朝詩人杜牧的七言絕詩《清明》家喻戶曉，清明會下雨，好像是正常不過的事，而事實上在我記憶中，清明時節十有八九都是下雨天。今年清明雖然有薄霧，但卻一丁點雨也沒下過，而且氣溫偏高高，還有陽光，反而有點不習慣。不過比較「意外」而且慶幸的是，今個清明本港只發生了十三宗山火。

清明是華人傳統拜祭先人和掃墓的日子，時值大地回春，草木吐綠，一家大小出遊到鄉郊掃墓，正好順道郊遊。春遊在古時又稱「探春」、「踏青」，古人向有清明踏青活動的的習俗，故清明又有「踏青節」之稱，中國部份地方(例如潮汕人)仍保留有清明日郊遊踏青的活動。

清明前後氣溫升高，春雨紛飛。雨量增多，種植樹苗成活率高成長快。因此，中國自古以來亦有清明植樹的習慣，農諺中亦有「清明前後，點瓜種豆。植樹造林，莫過清明」的講法。

近代人清明節祭拜祖先、悼念已逝的親人的習俗仍很盛行，但對於踏青春遊和植樹的習俗，卻完全忘記了。不再踏青、植樹之餘，似乎還多了個把綠野林木「徹底燒清光」的習慣！

華人祭祖傳統中，清明重陽是一年中最重視的春秋二祭，半年前清理過的祖墳，大概又重新湮沒在雜草叢之中，有人為貪圖方便快捷，採取了火燒的方法清理雜草。掃墓者隨意在山間墓地焚燒冥鏹，任由仍未熄滅的火種飄散，亦引發連場山火。不知是甚麼時候開始，有人基於所謂「火燒旺地」的說法想當然，故意縱火焚燒山地，以「保佑自家轉運發財」。這些自私、愚蠢兼缺德的行為，不單令大片草木一日之間在烈火中化為焦土，亦嚴重地威脅到附近民居和遠足人仕的生命財產。根據記錄，1999年清明節當日，香港總共就發生了443宗山火，300公頃林木化為焦土；2001年重陽元朗橫洲一場山火，更令35名遠足及掃墓人士被困於山火之中，險些葬身火海。

為了自家轉運發財而荼炭生靈，如果祖先有靈，恐怕也不會保祐如此缺德造孽的子孫。

The fading old Wan Chai 退色的舊灣仔

The fading old Wan Chai

Between Queen's Road and the tramway of Johnston Road are the old residential blocks built before the starting of the WW2, and streets that preserve many local cultures and characteristics carried down from the past. All that has changed since the starting of the re-development project.

Must re-development always be tearing everything down to the ground before start building anything?

The four 80-year-old detached buildings at Johnston Road, including the Wo Cheung Pawnshop, were "Lucky enough" to be choosen as the ones to be preserved. The surroundings ones were not so lucky, now all disappeared.

退色的舊灣仔

在皇后大道東至莊士敦道電車路之間是二次大戰前發展的住宅區，有多條很具香港本地特色的街道，部份更仍保留有戰前住宅的特色。重建社區，是否有必要全部拆卸重建，把整個舊區「連根拔起」？

莊士敦道項目中的和昌大押及相連的四座樓宇，是「有幸被選中」保留的唐樓之一。兩邊及後面其他的，經已消失。

Playing Dr. Doolittle 扮演杜立德醫生

Playing Dr. Doolittle

A beautiful butterfly landed on my palm on a sunny morning, allowed me to take as many close-up photos as I like without flying away, Cool! It surely would make anyone a happy man, believing that he/she has gained the trust from a butterfly. I have seen butterflies stopping on the surface of sweating human bodies, probably attracted by the warmth and humidity, or the contents of human sweat. But it could be even worse - dying or too weak to fly away.

People like me always willing to believe that animals do have human feelings and can be friendly to humans. I have always been dreaming of myself being Dr Doolittle, able to communicate with animals, understanding them, and able to give them the help they need and gain their trust. But the brutal fact is, wild animals are instinctively either too timid or alerted in response to human’s approach, just like having an instinctive dread of fire. Humans are bounded to be their natural enemy.

A wild animal that would not go away on your approach normally means two things : it is either too sick or weak to escape, or there is something it needs or needs to protect from you so desperately that it is worth risking its own life. Of course, it could be the reason that it has never seen a human before and is unaware of the fatal danger. Some people love to feed wild animals, thinking that this will do them good. In fact, apart from making them depend totally on human feeding, the animals will also loose their alert on humans which are always the major potential danger to their life, and thus destroying their instinctive survival ability in the wild.

And then again, it could be even worse – the wild animal would not go away, simply because it wants you as food!

Sad, cruel, but true.

扮演杜立德醫生

一個陽光燦爛的早上，一隻美麗的花蝴蝶降落在我的手掌上，留連不去，任由我不斷為牠拍攝微距距照片，正點啊！任何人遇到這種情況，大概都會開心不已，願意相信自己居然有獲取蝴蝶信任的能耐。我曾多次見過蝴蝶停留在別人濕透汗水的衣衫上，很可能是因為喜歡衣物表面瀰漫著的暖濕氣息，又或者是汗水中某些物質吸引了牠，亦可能是牠正處體弱無力，甚至瀕死邊緣，無法起飛。

不少的人都會像我這般，一廂情願地相信動物擁有人類感情，願意親近人類。自已一直都依然會夢想自己可以像故事中杜立德醫生般有與動物溝通的能力，明白牠們，了解牠們的需要，幫助牠們，從而得到牠們的信任。但殘酷的現實是，對於野生動物來說，人類根本就是牠們的天敵，對人類的怯懼和戒心，是與生俱來的生存本能，就像牠們天生都怕火一樣。

野生動物不會避開你，通常有兩個理由：一是牠們可能受了傷或正病重，無法逃離現場；二是你身上或現場有牠們極急需或重視的，而且程度足以令牠們以性命相博。當然，亦有可能是牠們從未見過人類，不識人心險惡。有些朋友熱愛餵飼野生動物，堅信是為了動物的福祉，但實際的情況是，這樣不單令野生動物逐漸變得完全依賴人類餵飼，牠們亦會無選擇性地放下對所有人類的戒心，因而大大削弱了牠們的天然生存能力。

但對你來說，野生動物不會避開你，可能是另一個更壞的原因－你是牠們的獵物！

可悲，殘酷，但卻是現實。