Tomb Sweeping Day also known Qingming, or the rite of sweeping the ancestors’ graves, is a major holiday in Taiwan. For many families, it is only second in importance to the Lunar New Year.
The annual day of remembrance often involves excursions and picnics, as well as visits to graves to sweep up and serve the dead. To honor previous generations, descendants bring offerings of fresh flowers, food, fruits, drinks, and multi-colored paper, light candles and firecrackers, and burn incense and spirit money.
Besides burial sites, spirit money is also burned in braziers placed on the street in front of shops and restaurants and in many temples. The inevitable result is consistently higher concentrations of toxic emissions such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, leading to smog and haze shrouding Taipei and other metropolitan areas throughout the day.
In addition, burning spirit money can cause massive fires such as the one that ravaged a cemetery in Taichung in 2023. These problems are further compounded by rising temperatures and increasing drought resulting from climate change.
To reduce air pollution and fire hazard, Taiwan’s Environmental Protection Administration and National Fire Agency under the Ministry of the Interior advise the public to cease traditional burning rituals and turn to greener forms of commemoration. Alternative practices to express reverence for ancestors include performing worship online, substituting rice for spirit money, and donating to charity.
Despite these directives, however, there still remains a wide gap between the official rhetoric of “no fire” and reality that cannot be ignored. For many people, the government’s efforts to enforce controls are not enough.
Politically, officials have few incentives to enact principles and over time they have come to represent the interests of the economy more than the environment. On the other hand, individuals also have little motivation to cooperate, leaving the question of the environment instead for future generations.
This shapes a culture of what could be called resistance that results in people doing as they please. As one firefighter in Taichung told me, “people are actually not allowed to burn votive paper outside, but we keep one eye open one eye shut.”