Cities suspending Tomb Sweeping Day activities in effort to contain epidemic

Many Chinese cities have suspended Tomb Sweeping Day activities and instead will provide online homage services to help contain the novel coronavirus outbreak.

Nanjing, Jiangsu province, has closed all cemeteries and will not arrange for locals to pour ashes of their deceased loved ones into the Yangtze River on boats in the days surrounding Tomb Sweeping Day, which falls on April 4 this year.

The holiday, also known as the Qingming Festival, is an important day for Chinese people to memorialize their deceased loved ones. More than 9.7 million Chinese people visited cemeteries during the festival last year, according to figures from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism.

The country also saw 100 million domestic trips during the 2019 three-day Qingming Festival holiday, according to the ministry.

Yang Ling, who works at the Nanjing funeral management office, said that people can ask cemetery workers to sweep tombs for them or pay tribute to the deceased on cemetery websites.

"The workers can visit the graves, clear the weeds around the tombs and present flowers for people who apply for the service," he said. "An online platform for people seeking workers to sweep tombs in Nanjing will also be provided on March 20. People can download the 'My Nanjing' app to pay tribute for free."

Hu Jing, director of Yuhua Cemetery in Nanjing, said that the cemetery has provided more than 10,000 online homage services this year and expects to see more applications as Tomb Sweeping Day approaches.

"The applicants can participate by using WeChat video," Hu said. "We can provide photos of the workers presenting flowers, burning incense and lighting candles to them as well."

"Some people who didn't know the cemeteries had been closed and came to the grave sites showed great understanding," Hu said. "They understand the effort to contain the virus and asked us to lay the flowers in front of the tombs for them."

Many cities in Jiangsu have taken similar measures. Workers at Meiyuan Cemetery in Wuxi's Binhu district have hired professional etiquette companies to help its workers provide better service to people who cannot visit the graves in person.

Jiangsu, which has a population of more than 80 million, has reported 631 cases of novel coronavirus pneumonia and has discharged 627 as of Wednesday.

Zhengzhou, Henan province, also simplified this year's ancestral worship ceremony for the legendary Huangdi, or Yellow Emperor, on Tuesday.

The city usually invites thousands of guests from around the world to attend the annual worship ceremony for Huangdi－who is regarded as one of the common ancestors of the Chinese people－but did not invite any guests this year.

Guo Jun contributed to this story.