Local governments prohibit sale and production of joss paper, spirit money and other offerings used in ancestor worship during Tomb-Sweeping Day, sparking online debate and drawing rare dissent from state media over ‘crude and heavy-handed’ measures.
The Chinese Ching Ming Festival has seen a growth in the hiring of professional tomb-sweepers and ritual performers by family members who cannot make it to gravesites in China.
People living in some rural areas in China are going to great lengths to visit long-departed relatives during the annual Ching Ming Festival that their efforts have been dubbed “survival training in the wild”.
A team of Peruvian and Japanese archaeologists has unearthed a pre-Hispanic archaeological site in northern Peru dedicated to ancestor worship, with burial chambers, human remains and ceramic offerings."Two burial chambers with pits for placing mummies and offerings to the ancestors were found at the site," the expert said.
Of interest is the percentage figure that is repeatedly quoted to estimate the number of Christians in Botswana. It is unclear how it has been arrived at but