Tomb Sweeping Holiday Growing in Interest

Right now I'm in the middle of a nice 4 day break before a crazy month of work, travel, races, etc begins (Sunday 3 NY colleagues arrive for the week, with the last one leaving on Saturday, then Sunday I depart for the US, heading to NY, NC and then back to NY/CT to see my mom, upon getting back to Shanghai I have 4 days before my first 1/2 Ironman race of the year - Challenge Taiwan.

 In any event the holiday right now is generally called Tomb Sweeping Day and the below article which appeared in the April 5th edition of The NY Times, lays out what goes on.  Short recap though is that it is a time to head to your ancestors tombs and burial site and pay your respects by cleaning up the area, burning fake money, food and anything else that those ancestors might need in the afterlife.  It's pretty interesting as this year I've heard some people talk about burning fake iPhones and iPads (made of paper by the way) but then others say they couldn't do that because their ancestors were farmers and wouldn't know how to use such advanced devices, so they stick to money and food.

 Check out the article here...

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/05/world/asia/in-china-a-newfound-interest-in-keeping-dead-relatives-happy.html?emc=eta1
 

 

March 2013 a record of sorts...

Now that we have somehow moved into the month of April, I noticed something pretty cool.  Even though I've been keeping this blog off/on for about 5 years now, last month, March 2013 showed the most traffic to the site.  I guess that means someone is reading it?  Shoot, guess that also means I will have to keep it going a bit longer....

Yes I still owe you more on my trip to India, my birthday, and other such events.  So keep checking back, keep reading and please feel free to post questions, give ideas for future posts, etc.