清明节 is a traditional chinese festival where people would visit graves of departed family members to make offerings and to spring clean them. This year 清明节 falls on 5 Apr 2010. People usually do it 10 days before or 10 days after the actual day i.e. 26 Mar - 16 Apr 2010.
My family decided to head down to Choa Chu Kang Cemetery to visit my father's grave today. Huge crowds are expected on the actual day and the preceding 2 sundays which is today and 3 Apr. 2 Apr should also be very crowded as it was a public holiday (Good Friday). As in previous years, we left my mother's house punctually at 6.30 am. Surprisingly, it was not as crowed as I feared. Heavy traffic only occurred near the junction of Jalan Bahar & Choa Chu Kang. We reached our destination at 6.50am. Everything was done within 2 hrs and we returned home at 9 am, the earliest for the past 21 years!
My wife, my sister & brother-in-law, my nephew and I went to Kong Meng San Temple (光明山）to pay our respects to my parents-in-law yesterday. As it was a public holiday and being 4 days to the actual Qing Ming Festival, it was crowded especially if you were coming from Bishan. Fortunately, I took the Upper Thomson Road and turned in to Sin Ming Ave where traffic was fairly smooth and we managed to reach there about 2 pm. However, I could not park at the nearest HDB areas as there was 2 parking attendants with a sign "Carpark full". I managed to find a lot at the park car near the Bishan Park. We did our offerings and finished at about 3.45 pm.
ReplyDeleteMy father's grave has not been maintained for many years. As a result, the soil at the top of the tomb has eroded and there aren't any grasses on it. There are also some cracks on the cement surrounding it. Had engaged "Mr Koon" on 15 Apr 10 to plant some grasses ($200)and to do yearly maintenance ($50/yr) for us.
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