Memories of Qingming – Part 3

A Love Story From The Graves.

On a gloomy and windy day, a frangipani landed on the edge of a tombstone. Perhaps, it wanted to be near the fading, hanging red hibiscus it was admiring and longing from the treetop? Will the impending rain separate them again? Or will they wilt together? An ant and silent, invisible souls around them will bear witness.

The frangipani or plumeria is known as the “graveyard flower” locally and the trees are found in abundance at Chinese, Malay and Christian cemeteries. It was in bloom during Qing Ming 2015 and the fallen flowers were scattered beautifully on top of graves.

The frangipani tree is the national tree of Laos and the flower is the national flower of Nicaragua. The hibiscus is the national flower of Malaysia, South Korea and Haiti. It is also the state flower of Hawaii where the plumeria is used as one of the flowers for the Hawaiian Lei or garland. Like the hibiscus, the plumeria comes in a variety of colours.

Sony Alpha a7R, ISO 3200, f9, 1/640 sec.

#qingming #grave #love #flower #plumeria #hibiscus #nature #cemetery

Memories of Qingming – Part 1

This is one of my favourite photographic memories from the graveyards on Tomb Sweeping Day. 15 days after the Spring Equinox, the Chinese sweep or visit the tombs of their departed loved ones annually.

The weather may be wet and gloomy on that day in 2008, but the Qing Ming Jie (清明节) (or Ching Ming Festival) tradition of burning paper offerings was captured in this image of cold against warmth.

To capture the silhouettes of relatives (strangers) surrounding the tomb and bonfire, I climbed down low on the hilly terrain.

Olympus E-510, 1SO 400, f4.5, 1/320 sec.

#qingming #tomb #bonfire #tradition