Is there any particular order for visiting graves during Qingming Festival?

Since ancient times, Tomb-Sweeping Day has been a traditional festival in my country. People will carry out horse-drawn repair work on this day and perform a series of kneeling homage to their ancestors to commemorate their ancestors. So, what is the order of visiting graves during Qingming Festival? Is there any particular order for visiting graves?

The order of visiting graves during Qingming Festival

When visiting graves on Qingming Festival, the normal order cannot be reversed. The order is: repair the grave - burn incense - offer meat - toast - worship - set off firecrackers to say farewell. In addition, the order of worshipping generations is also important. The order is: father, mother, eldest son, eldest daughter, second son, second daughter... and so on.

Is there a particular order for visiting graves?

It’s very particular. During this solemn festival, we are struggling with whether to repair the tomb or burn paper first. What is the etiquette for this? The ancients left it to us to do. Visiting the tombs and worshiping our ancestors on Qingming Festival is a way to respect our ancestors and commemorate the deceased. However, most emperors in rural my country are in the wild, where weeds grow all year round. Every time a tomb is repaired, the weeds on the tomb are overgrown, and after a year of wind and sun, rain will inevitably wash away the soil and cause it to be lost and loosened. Sometimes it will even be damaged by some small insects, causing collapse in some areas at that time. Therefore, when we visit the tombs and worship our ancestors during the Qingming Festival, we should first repair the tomb and then burn paper. The reason is actually very simple.

First of all, repairing the tomb is a way to show respect to our ancestors, and add some new soil in the middle of the tomb, or repair some holes or collapsed places. If you burn paper for the ancestors at the beginning, it is a great disrespect to the ancestors and very unfilial. Because the land was divided in the wild at that time, there were few people to manage these components. Therefore, we are very particular when repairing the tomb. Remember not to move some stones on the tomb, and replace them in a good mood. We think that these stones are not placed well, we can only add some new stones or soil to make this person more solid. We can only increase but not reduce, which is our most basic respect.

We need to be at the top of the mountain when eating, and we have done some offerings to our ancestors at work, and start burning paper money. We can pray while burning it before burning it. The content of our prayer is that we hope our ancestors will bless our family with peace all year round, and have abundant financial resources, no illness or disaster, and our children will be successful in their studies. This is our yearning for auspiciousness and our deepest prayer. After we complete it before our birthday, we start to kowtow, and finally set off firecrackers, realizing that the new year will be prosperous. After the firecrackers are set off, it means the end of ancestor worship.