Do you think it is necessary to ban the burning of paper money in Tomb-Sweeping Day?
Banning the burning of paper money in Tomb-Sweeping Day is actually a "one size fits all" approach, which is inappropriate. Because burning paper is one of our traditional cultural activities of offering sacrifices to our ancestors.
At the same time, ancestor worship in Ming and Qing Dynasties is also a root-seeking culture. If the Qingming Festival can't burn incense and paper to worship ancestors, what's the point of Tomb-Sweeping Day? Over time, no one went to the grave to worship their ancestors, and finally they didn't even know where their roots were.
If it is necessary to ban burning paper and money in Tomb-Sweeping Day, is it also necessary to ban temples and temples from burning incense? How about stopping the fire in the cemetery from burning? These problems also need our serious consideration. If we just ban it blindly, it may cause some unnecessary social spears and disputes, which will make the society more disharmonious. We need to look at these problems more scientifically and take a more practical approach.
Relevant departments are formulating relevant laws and regulations, and the implementation of relevant laws and regulations needs humanization and respect for national culture. We need to protect the cultural heritage of China people as much as possible, but we should also pay attention to environmental protection. Prohibiting burning paper and burning money is not necessarily a complete prohibition, and measures such as limiting the quantity and burning paper in different regions can be taken. It's not far from Tomb-Sweeping Day. For many people, Tomb-Sweeping Day is a very important festival, because it is a big day for people to sacrifice their ancestors and reunite with their families. For thousands of years, Tomb-Sweeping Day can be said to be an important festival to unite family centripetal force. Therefore, people attach great importance to Tomb-Sweeping Day. Wherever they can go home, they will rush home to worship their ancestors. On this day in Tomb-Sweeping Day, people will go up the mountain with firecrackers, incense sticks and paper money, first weed the graves, then light the incense sticks, place the tributes, and finally light the firecrackers, thus completing a lively and ceremonial Tomb-Sweeping Day sacrifice. This kind of sacrifice has been passed down for many years, and people have long been used to it, and even think it is the most important thing to do. Moreover, this kind of sacrifice has deeply attracted young people and children, because people can go for an outing in a cheerful atmosphere and "reunite" with their ancestors, so that they can know that their descendants are doing well. If the whole process is boring, I believe many people don't like sweeping graves.
However, in recent years, there are more and more controversies about Tomb-Sweeping Day's sacrifice. The main controversy is whether to ban burning paper money and setting off firecrackers. Those who call for a ban believe that burning paper money and setting off firecrackers may cause fires. Many people left after offering sacrifices, and many graves were in the mountains. Unburned paper money can easily cause fire. In fact, there are many such fires. Almost every year in Tomb-Sweeping Day, a fire accident will happen because people don't put out the fire in time after the sacrifice, so every year in Tomb-Sweeping Day, the local fire brigade is always on standby. In this case, some people think it is time to reform Tomb-Sweeping Day's sacrificial way. At a meeting held in March 2022, a NPC deputy put forward his own proposal. He suggested that Tomb-Sweeping Day should be banned from burning paper, and flowers should be encouraged as sacrifices to replace the previous methods of sacrifice. NPC representatives made this statement in good faith, but netizens didn't seem to appreciate it, and even strongly opposed it. In fact, netizens don't object for the sake of objecting, because banning Tomb-Sweeping Day from burning paper is not necessarily the best way. First of all, burning paper is a very important content in the sacrificial ceremony in China. It can even be said that without the link of burning paper, the whole sacrifice process is like having no soul. Besides, people like to burn paper. A very important reason is that people are willing to believe that these burnt paper money can really be sent to the underworld for ancestors to collect, and then they can have money to buy things underground. You can call it superstition, but it is also a pure emotional sustenance. Moreover, people don't know how to help their ancestors underground. If flowers are used instead, there will be problems. Many people will think, how can it be hard currency to spend underground? Besides, flowers cannot be burned. In China's sacrificial culture, things that can't be burned can't be sent underground. From this perspective, offering flowers is just beautiful and has nothing to do with ancestors. Then, offering flowers for sacrifice is a western-style way. Nowadays, many customs in China have been abandoned or banned. The new China Customs didn't appear in time, but westernized a lot. Western Customs is devouring the living space of China Customs. For thousands of years, offering flowers is not a traditional way of offering sacrifices in China. If it is forbidden to burn money, burn incense and set off firecrackers, then only flowers will be used for sacrifice. Although it is environmentally friendly, it is also a compromise between China customs and western customs. If every China custom is so compromised, most cultures in China will be broken in the future. Finally, flowers are too expensive for many rural people to buy. Flowers are beautiful, but the price is also high. The more beautiful flowers are, the more expensive they are. Moreover, many rural people sweep graves in Tomb-Sweeping Day, not just one tomb, but often family tombs. That must have cost a lot, so the cost will be high. Comparatively speaking, the cost of paper money and incense sticks is actually very low. The price of these things is much lower than that of flowers. If it is really necessary to ban the burning of paper money and only sacrifice flowers, it is really unbearable for many rural people.
Therefore, even if it is forbidden to burn paper money, it should be divided into regions. It is unrealistic to do so in the countryside! During Tomb-Sweeping Day, there were indeed fire accidents caused by grave-sweeping, but it didn't happen on a large scale. If we choose a one-size-fits-all approach because of individual cases, isn't it because we are choking on food? Moreover, there is a trend that people not only want to burn less paper money, but even want people to reduce on-site sacrifices, but choose online sacrifices. However, online sacrifice is more than just fooling ghosts. To sum up, even if we want to reform the way of sacrifice in Tomb-Sweeping Day, we should do it according to the different situations of cities and rural areas. Cities are generally cemeteries, and it is really not suitable for burning paper money and incense. However, in rural areas with vast territory and few people, it is still necessary to burn some paper money and incense sticks and set off some firecrackers appropriately. After all, many customs in China have died out in cities and only exist in rural areas. If the countryside is "wiped out" again, it is necessary. What do you think of this NPC senator?