Hanoians visit graves before Lunar New Year

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From around the 10th to the 25th of the 12th lunar month, the Yen Ky and Bat Bat cemeteries (Ba Vi district, Hanoi) are crowded with people coming to clean graves and prepare offerings to burn incense for their ancestors and deceased relatives.

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Tomb-sweeping day is meant to commemorate ancestors, and is also an occasion for families living far away to gather and remember their roots.

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According to Dan Tri, on February 3 (December 25), many families from all over came to Bat Bat cemetery to visit graves.

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With less than a week to go until Tet, many people took advantage of the weekend to prepare tea, wine, votive paper, betel and areca nuts, incense and fruit for the ceremony. Many also did not forget to clear weeds and clean the graves of their loved ones.

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After 2 hours of traveling from the center of Hanoi, Mr. Vu Duc Nam's family (living in Hoan Kiem district) arrived at Bat Bat cemetery to visit the graves of their grandparents and ancestors.

"Today, I went with my mother and grandchildren to invite my father and the elders to come home for Tet. Every year, my family always arranges work, has all the children and grandchildren present to respectfully light incense and offer it to our grandparents and ancestors," said Mr. Nam.

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This is an occasion for children and grandchildren to express their respect to their ancestors and show solidarity and family reunion.

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A week ago, Mr. Hoang Van Hai (living in Hoang Mai district) and his younger brother went to visit a grave and discovered that the brick floor around the grave of a relative had been lifted up and broken. After investigating, the incident was caused by a tree growing deep and rooted close to the grave, so Mr. Hai's family had to hire someone to dig up the tree to make the grave flat and clean.

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Every year, Mr. Nguyen Thanh Long's family (living in Thanh Xuan district) regularly travels 70km to the cemetery to visit their ancestors' graves twice, during the year-end grave-sweeping festival and Thanh Minh festival.

Mr. Long said: "To me, tomb-sweeping day is an opportunity for each of us to remember our ancestors so that our descendants can remember the morality of drinking water and remembering its source of our nation."

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Ms. Kieu Trinh and her family, including many generations of children and grandchildren, came to clean and hold the ceremony. Ms. Trinh shared: "The clean and neat graves are like the children and grandchildren showing their respect to their ancestors."

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Sweeping graves at the end of the year is a long-standing custom of the Vietnamese people. Families will clean up their ancestors' graves on the day before Tet. After cleaning, children and grandchildren will bring flowers, offerings and burn incense to invite their ancestors to come home to celebrate Tet with their families. This is also an opportunity for families and children to reunite, gather and express their thoughts and feelings to the deceased in the past year.

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