Ching Ming Festival - Kamloops, BC - Signs of History on Waymarking.com

Within the cemetery is a Chinese pagoda styled gazebo, within which are several informational signs telling us of aspects of the chinese community, the cemetery, and individuals who are buried here.

The cemetery was begun in the 1860s, with the first interments being those of Chinese miners who died in the Kamloops area. Later, when the CPR's transcontinental line was being built through this area in the mid 1880s, thousands of Chinese railroad workers lived in the area, many drifting elsewhere after the completion of the railway. Many, however, remained in the area and are the ancestors of much of the present Chinese community in Kamloops. Every year the Ching Ming Festival is still performed out of respect for those buried in this cemetery.

The cemetery itself is now a British Columbia Heritage Site.

Ching Ming Festival

Ching Ming Festival is also known as the Grave sweeping or Spring Remembrance Day. This is the annual ritual for Chinese families to pay their respect by visiting the graves of their ancestors, clearing away weeds, touch up gravestone inscriptions and make offerings to ensure their ancestors are comforted and well cared even after they have departed from this earth.

According to Buddhism and Taoism, the the soul of a deceased person would one day reincamate. Until such time, the soul would remain wandering in the place where he or she died. These souls needed to be comforted because they were left in foreign land with no one to remember them. Also the Chinese believe in cultural harmony and have due respect for their elders as well as for their ancestors.

Kamloops Chinese community has performed the Ching Ming rituals since the Chinese Cemetery has been in existence. Generous donations from different Chinese members have enabled the Kamloops Chinese Cemetery Heritage Society to carry out the cleaning and conduct the prescribed ceremonies each spring.

Paper money is burned for the deceased to use in his or her after life. Food is put in front of the headstone on the altar. This includes roast pork with crunchy skin attached, sweet Chinese pastries, steamed chicken, oranges and Chinese wine. Three sets of chopsticks and three Chinese wine cups are filled with rose wine. Each attendant bows three times with the wine cup in hand, in front of the grave and then pours the wine on the ground. This procedure is repeated three times. After the ceremony the food is consumed, thus having a picnic with the ancestors.
From the sign