Colourful papers

It's a yearly ritual for the Chinese to go the graveyards of their ancestors and/or loved ones. Most of the time, it is a norm to see them cleaning up the graves, do a little sprucing up like painting faded nameplates, sweeping, and then lastly, of course, they will offer prayers before leaving.

What I find interesting and favour the most is the involvement of colour papers here. Once the graves has been cleaned, swept and the weeds cleared, colourful papers will be placed all over the graves. Most of the time, this is tasked to the younger ones. The simplicity of the it and the involvement of colourful papers makes it ideal for the little ones who are eager to pitch in this yearly ritual. They would be able to create their master pieces.

Over at my family, we will normally match at least a couple of colourful papers and use stones to weigh it down on the grave. We would normally be asked to make sure the papers are evenly spread throughout the grave, so that not one side is heavily 'decorated' than the other. I used to really look forward to putting these papers and although I do chip in my share of cleaning up the graves that we visit, I still like this task the most.

I would try as best as I can to lay different colours together, evenly all over the graves. I don't simply choose the different colours but rather try to get matching ones. No specific rules were brought to my attention to say that colours have to be different or matching or you have to put more than a piece at one spot. It is just my own little idiosyncrasy self at work, unstoppable even if I wanted to. Once done, I cannot help but admire it. I would normally take a few steps back, accessing the outcome. Little but totally unnecessary adjustments would be made just to make it looks all right.

This year is no different. You guessed it, I did it in such. I do hope that I will have a chance to do this again next year, and the next. With family.

And yes, I am odd.