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