The Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association led visits to five cemeteries for an early celebration of the tomb-sweeping festival to honor ancestors.
On a wind-swept Sunday morning in Maryland, Hon Yuen Wong leads a graveside ritual at Cedar Hill Cemetery and uses a blowtorch to light the tips of incense sticks at the altar of someone else’s ancestors. Members of the 17-person group bow three times, holding the burning incense in memory of the Chinese immigrants buried here. They drizzle three cups of rice wine on the grass.
“We’re depositing money in their accounts,” said Ted Gong, executive director of the 1882 Foundation, a nonprofit that seeks to broaden public knowledge about the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. “Here, play mah-jongg,” said Jan, who’s been coming to similar remembrances for decades. “Buy some good dim sum.”“It all feels a little casual, probably, but it means a lot,” said Kevin Lee, 37, who was among the younger members of the procession. He bowed and poured out wine with other elders and was accompanied by his parents. They make similar trips to commemorate their relatives every year, though they mostly do so as a family rather than part of the community.
As Wong honored the dead from his community, which he has been doing for a quarter century, the memories of his parents were close by. He’s 77 now, and as he drove from one cemetery to the next, he was brought back to his days as a young man and his father’s request that he return to Hong Kong. Wong’s dad was also a doctor and wanted them to practice together.