A day for children and grandchildren to meet to remember their ancestors

Hello friends, today is Sunday, March 30th, which is the day when relatives gather to pay respect to their ancestors who have passed away. This is a tradition of Thai-Chinese people, called Ching Ming. Children and grandchildren in the same family will bring food to offer to our ancestors, which is like a strategy for children to meet each other and not abandon each other. At around ten in the morning, everyone will gather food and place it in front of the picture of the deceased. Behind the picture is a cavity to store the bones of the deceased relatives. Various temples will provide this service.

For those who are high-class, they will rent a large area, especially an area with a good location, such as one with a river in the front or a mountain in the back. The price and arrangement of the place to store the bones will be beautiful and spacious because it is expensive and there are people to take care of cleaning, such as cutting grass and sweeping the surrounding area. This type of area is called a graveyard.

For our family, we use the method of paying for a small space provided by the temple, which is popular among most people because it is not expensive and does not require much maintenance because it is an area in the temple area and there are people to take care of it.

When everyone is ready, incense will be lit. I will give one flower to everyone to use in paying respect and remembering our deceased relatives to receive the food that our children and relatives bring. Then we will invite monks to perform a funeral ceremony or to speak words to make everyone understand the truth of life that we cannot escape death. Then the monks will bless everyone who comes.

When the ceremony is over, my children and grandchildren come from different places because some of them have families in different provinces. They will bring food to exchange and sit and eat together, talking like people who have not seen each other for a long time. Then everyone goes their separate ways.

Today, my family has joined together to offer three tents to the temple to provide shade from the sun. We held a ceremony to offer them to the temple because the temple is demolishing the pavilion to build a new one, so it is needed. It is also close to Songkran, when the temple will hold an annual event.

Today ended with happiness from meeting each other and making merit together. It is also time to say goodbye to my friends. I wish everyone who reads this article to be happy as well.

Thank you to all my friends who have supported me.