What Would Jimmy Do?

Oklahoma, the Sooner state, is noted for a few things — the parking meter was invented there, it was Indian Territory for some years before statehood, it’s the home of Will Rogers and Mickey Mantle and I grew up there.
But if that’s not enough, something we’ve come to accept as necessary and something that literally changed the way the world shops was conceived in Oklahoma using a simple folding chair.

In the late 1930s (1936, I think) Sylvan Goldman, like any good business man, was trying to find a way to increase sales. Goldman had two grocery store chains in Oklahoma City — Standard and Humpty Dumpty. (There were Humpty Dumpty stores in the area of Oklahoma that I grew up in — I don’t remember any “Standard” stores.) Anyhow, Goldman noticed that when the wire hand-held baskets his stores provided became full or heavy, most customers headed for the checkout. He figured the problem could be remedied if shoppers had a way to conveniently carry more items through the isles. Well, inspiration struck one evening while he was in his office pondering the problem. As the story goes, a simple wooden folding chair caught his eye. What if that chair had wheels on the bottom and a basket on the seat? Or — it might be even better if there were two baskets.

Goldman explained his idea to Fred Young, a carpenter and handyman that worked at the store. Young began tinkering and after many months and a quite a few prototypes, they hit upon a design they thought would work. (The original design was two metal folding chairs stacked on top of one another with wheels at the base of the legs to roll the cart around the store.)

The first carts used metal frames that each held two big baskets — 19 inches long, 13 inches wide and 9 inches deep. When not in use, the baskets could be removed and stacked together, and the frames folded up to a depth of only five inches — that preserved floor space, a precious commodity of any retail store.

The shopping cart was once called the “greatest development in the history of merchandising.” Interestingly enough, the shopping cart didn’t catch on right away. In order to generate interest and sway public opinion, Goldman took out newspaper ads, but they didn’t work. Most women’s reaction, was ‘no more carts for me. I’ve been pushing enough baby carriages. I don’t want to push any more.’ And the men said, ‘you mean with my big strong arms I can’t carry a darn little basket like that?’ The initial try to sell the idea was a complete flop. Kind of as a last resort, Goldman hired attractive men and women to walk around his stores pushing the shopping carts — that last ditch effort proved to be a stroke of genius. The carts became acceptable and his business went through the roof. It was so successful that he began selling the carts to other supermarket chains…. and by 1940, he had a seven-year waiting list.

While we’re on the subject, I guess now is as good a time as any to air one of the “little” things that irritate me the most. To return a shopping cart to the proper place in the store, or to a designated area in the parking lot is easy… and most of us recognize it as the correct and appropriate thing to do. I can’t think of any situation, with the possible exception of some kind of dire emergency, that a person should not be able to return their cart. 

I think whether someone does, or doesn’t return their cart says a lot about a person. As far as I know, it isn’t illegal to leave a cart in the parking lot, on the sidewalk, in the aisle or up against some else’s car. So what a person does with the cart serves as a perfect example of whether that person will do what’s right without being forced to do it. Since there is no punishment for not returning a shopping cart, a person gains “nothing” by doing so. People return shopping carts because it’s the right thing to do. What a person does with a shopping cart is a good indication of whether that person is a good or bad member of society.
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The other day after golf, one of the guys was complaining…. about everything, it seemed. One of the group said, “Boy, you must have got up on the wrong side of the bed today.” Well, that got me to thinking…. I’d heard that phrase used to describe someone that’s grumpy, or unhappy, fairly often over the years. If you get up rested, happy and ready to tackle the day, then you must have got up on the right side of the bed. 

I sleep on the left side of the bed — every night, and I get up on the left side of the bed every day. So how can it be the right side one day but the wrong side on another day?

Sayings like these, whose meanings aren’t clear from the words themselves, are called idioms. I’ve talked about idioms on this blog many times. My extensive research discovered, not surprisingly, that there is no clear explanation as to how the idiom “getting up on the wrong side of the bed” came about. But, like most of these things, there are a few theories — for example:

One theory claimed the saying came about as the result of an old superstition that it was unlucky to get out of bed with your left leg first. This superstition appears to have started in Ancient Rome, where many Romans were careful to always get out of bed on the right side. This fit with other superstitions of the time that the “left” side was unlucky. Some people, including Augustus Caesar, believed that it was bad luck to put on your left shoe first. 

Others believed that this and other idioms that contain the phrase “the wrong side,” merely reflect the fact that there are positive and negative aspects of any situation. 

The ancient Egyptians believed that good and bad spirits lived among earthlings. They believed that the “left side” belonged to the forces of death and destruction. Hence, if you woke up on the left side of the bed, you were most likely possessed by evil spirits and you were probably going to do bad things during the day. 

These beliefs have taken root so deeply in the collective mind of mankind that even today some of the hotels in various parts of the world face the left sides of the beds in their rooms to the wall to prevent customers from waking up on the wrong side. But of course, someone always has to be different… in this case, it’s the Chinese. The left side belief is reversed in ancient Chinese tradition. Feng shui experts believe that it’s best to get out of bed on the left side. The left side is associated with money, power and health — getting out on the right side will being death and despair. 

So ‚ is it possible that there’s actually a right and a wrong side of the bed? Some people think there is. 
(Some) sleep scientists rely on psychology to conclude that the left side of the bed is right and the right side of the bed is wrong. They know that the left side of the brain controls logic and rational thought, while the right side of the brain controls emotion and imagination. If you get out of bed on the left side, they believe that you may focus your energy on logic and stay away from volatile emotions. 

So what do you think? Is there a right and wrong side of the bed? I’m not sure, but no matter which side you get up on, Claire has the solution — she says, “Every day when I wake up I can be happy or unhappy. I choose happy!”
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A few days ago I discussed the use of the the word “john” when referring to the toilet or bathroom (among other things.) Well, obviously my mind is still in the toilet, because I got to thinking about the other terms I’ve used to refer to the toilet over the years.

The term “toilet” itself comes from the French “toilette,” which meant “dressing room.” “Toilette” was derived from the French “toile,” meaning “cloth” — specifically, referring to the cloth draped over someone’s shoulders while their hair was being groomed. During the 17th century, the toilet was simply the process of getting dressed, fixing your hair, applying make-up and the like — more or less the grooming of one’s self. This gradually began to refer to the items around where someone was groomed, such as the table, powder bottles, and other items. During the 1900s in America, the term began being used to refer to both the room itself where people got dressed and ready for the day, as well as the device itself now most commonly known as “the toilet.” 

The British word for the toilet, “loo,” derives from the French “guardez l’eau,” meaning “watch our for the water.” This comes from the fact that, in medieval Europe, people simply threw the contents of their chamber pots out the window onto the streets. Before throwing the waste out the window, they’d yell “Guardez l’eau!” The term “guardez l’eau” first came to the English as “gardy-loo” and then shortened to “loo,” which eventually came to mean the toilet itself.

The term “latrine” comes from the Latin “lavare,” which means “to wash.” The earliest reference to this term being used in English goes all the way back to the mid-17th century.

The term “lavatory” is also derived from the Latin “lavare,” but from the Latin variation “lavatorium,” that means “washbasin.” This began to be used in English in the late 19th century.

The term “restroom” seems to be American in origin and came into use in the early 20th century. It comes from the notion of “rest” referring to “refreshing” one’s self. About the same time “restroom” came into use, the British term “retiring room,” derived from more or less the same notion, began to be used among the upper class in Great Britain. 

The term “crapper” comes from the company name “Thomas Crapper & Co Ltd,” that made toilets in Britain. American soldiers in WWI stationed in England found this funny because of the play on words with the previously existing term “crap” and began calling the toilet “the crapper.”

The toilet is also sometimes known as the “head.” Most anyone that’s been in or around the Navy, uses that term. It was originally a maritime euphemism, and comes from the fact that, traditionally, the toilet on a marine vessel was located at the front of the ship (the head.) This was so that water from the sea that splashed up on the front of the boat would wash the waste away. The first known documented occurrence of the term was from 1708 by Woodes Rogers, Governor of the Bahamas. He used the word to refer to a ships toilet in the book “Cruising Voyage Around the World.”

The movie “Psycho” (1960) is believed to be the first movie where a toilet is shown being flushed. (The flushing took place just before Janet Leigh’s character takes a shower and subsequently gets stabbed to death.)

The first toilet shown on a TV show appeared on the pilot episode of “Leave it to Beaver” in 1957, titled “Captain Jack.” Wally and the Beaver hide a mail order baby alligator in the toilet tank. Special care was taken during the filming to only show the tank and never the seat — so as not to offend people. 

I’ve alway heard that if you live in the southern hemisphere, below the equator, water spins the opposite direction when the toilet is flushed. That isn’t true… the way water spins down a toilet is entirely determined by which way the jets are pointed. 

At this point, this subject simply begs for one of the thousands of toilet jokes I’ve heard over the years, but I’ll spare you that and and take my usual high road by leaving you with something informative or something to ponder, like…. if you can see the handwriting on the wall — you’re on the toilet.
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I grew up in what was, and is, called “Tornado Alley.” Beginning just about this time of year and lasting until the first part of June, tornado warnings were pretty much a daily occurrence. When I was a kid, it seems like most tornadoes struck somewhere along Tornado Alley, a flat stretch of land from western Texas to North Dakota. This region was a hotspot for tornadoes because the dry polar air from Canada met the warm moist tropical air from the Gulf of Mexico — for most of the rest of the U.S, tornadoes were a rarity. But for whatever reason, that’s changed today…. just about anyplace can have a tornado. 

My mother was the ultimate “cloud watcher,” especially around this time of the year and she almost never saw a cloud that she didn’t think a tornado was going to drop out of. I heard all sorts of her theories about tornadoes and some I still hear today, but most of them are simply not true. 

When we lived in Oklahoma, pretty much all the weather moved from the southwest to the northeast. I still hear today that you should go to the southwest corner of your basement during a tornado warning. Tornadoes can move in any direction, so hiding in one corner is no more beneficial than any other. In fact, occupying the area that is closest to the approaching tornado — whether above the ground or in the basement — results in the most fatalities. A study conducted in the 1960s showed that the north side of a house is the safest area, both above ground and below. I might mention that where I grew up in Oklahoma, houses didn’t have basements, so during tornadoes, people went the “southwest corner” of their houses — or into the bathroom, which was supposedly a safer place because of the plumbing pipes being well anchored in the ground. But most people, like my mother, insisted on having a storm cellar — a hole dug underground to protect you from tornadoes.

Another (false) precaution that minimizes damage due to a tornado, is opening all the windows in your house — to equalize the pressure. Engineers agree that a storm with 260-mile-per-hour winds — classified as an F4, or “devastating” tornado — creates a pressure drop of only 10 percent. Houses and building have enough vents and natural openings to easily accommodate that. 

One belief is that tornadoes never strike large cities. This is another myth that persists today. The combination of traffic, dense activity, and considerable amounts of concrete and asphalt in large cities creates what is known as a “heat island.” This rising warm air has the potential to disrupt minor tornado activity, but it’s no match for the fury of larger tornadoes. Cities also occupy a much smaller geographic area than rural regions of the country, so the chance that a tornado will strike a city is relatively small. But — on a single day in 1998, three major tornadoes struck Nashville, Tennessee. St. Louis, Missouri, witnessed ten tornadoes between 1871 and 2007, resulting to more than 370 deaths. An F3 tornado tore through Dallas in 1957. In 1997, tornadoes touched down in Miami and Cincinnati, and another hit Fort Worth, Texas, in 2000.

Other “myths” about tornadoes I grew up hearing constantly include…Tornadoes are alway clearly visible ahead. No — tornadoes can be obscured or even invisible due to rain or nearby clouds.
If you’re in a car, you can out-drive a tornado. No again — tornadoes can travel well over 60 mph… and cars can easily be lifted or blown over by the storm.
The best protection from a tornado while in the car is hiding under an overpass. Experts agree that this will put you at more risk. The structure may not be stable and increases your risk of bing hit by flying debris. 
You only need to worry about tornadoes during “tornado season.” That almost, kind of, seemed to be true when I was growing up, but today tornadoes often happen at any time of the year, not just the spring. 

The formation of a tornado is so complex that scientists still don’t completely understand it. And the unpredictability of tornadoes makes them difficult — and dangerous — to study. A tornado will demolish everything in its path, including measuring equipment. And so, the secrets behind one of nature’s mysteries are yet to be discovered…. Happy Spring!
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At the course where we most often play golf, the “club house” area was closed during the pandemic. They installed a window so you could pay your green fees without entering the facility. There was a sign on the door that said the facility was closed to the public — and you could enter only if you needed to use the “John.” The use of the word John to refer to the toilet is common, but it’s not usually used on a sign like this one.  Well, of course, this got me to wondering…. how did “John” come to refer to a toilet? I wonder what John did to deserve so much disrespect?

The most common explanation for why we call the bathroom the John is that it retained an association with the first name of British nobleman Sir John Harington, who invented the flush toilet in 1596. But the truth is that although Harington is usually credited with devising a prototype of the flush toilet, the “john” moniker for the bathroom is probably not related to his achievements. (This is probably a good time to note that the flushing toilet concept is credited to Thomas Crapper…. yea, that leads to another popular myth — and maybe another blog entry.)

But back to Harington — the newfangled toilet idea never really caught on during Harington’s lifetime; it didn’t come into widespread use until after 1775, when another British inventor, Alexander Cummings, received a patent for it. The term “john” for the bathroom wasn’t recorded in print until the mid-18th century. And of course “john” is an American term — you don’t hear people in Britain call the bathroom “john” — they call it the “W.C.” (water closet.)

As I mentioned, the first recorded use of the term “john” to refer to the bathroom dates back to 1738 and is found in the rules that governed the actions of incoming Harvard freshmen…. “No freshman shall mingo against the College wall or go into the fellows’ cuz john.” Supposedly, “cuz john” was short for cousin John, an 18th-century American slang term for the bathroom.

The word “mingo” was slang for urinating. It’s interesting to note that the college elders at Harvard found it necessary to enact a rule prohibiting students from peeing on the sides of college buildings. 

Cousin John’s actual identity is a mystery, but he probably wan’t anybody in particular. “Going to visit cousin John” was probably just a euphemism for using the bathroom.

Of course the name John is one of the most common names and, probably because it is so common, has become a generic designation for any man — like… Mac, Jack, or Joe. We’re familiar with phrases like Hey, Mac! Got a light? and the term G.I. Joe has come to mean any man serving in the military. “Johndarm” or “John” is a slang word for a policeman — especially in France. The term “John Doe” originated in English law as a fictitious name to describe one of the people involved in certain types of litigation. John Doe is also often used to refer to a corpse whose identity is unknown. A demijohn is a large bottle, usually encased in wicker, like a bottle of Chianti. A prostitute’s client is often referred to as a john. A John boat is a small, flat-bottomed boat used on inland waterways. A johnny cake is a cake made of cornmeal and toasted over a fire. A shameful name from the past, in the United States, is “John Crow.” We’ve all been asked to sign our “John Hancock” and many people have received a Dear John Letter. Most of us have heard about John Henry and John Q. Public as well as John Law. And if you’re a Johnnie-come-lately, you’ve probably wondered who shot John?

So those whose name is John should feel honored that their name has spawned so many expressions, even though not all of them are likely to please bearers of the name.
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Shortly after we were married, Claire gave me a Swiss Army Knife. I still have that knife and, in fact, put it to good use just yesterday. 

Since Switzerland stays out of international disputes, it make you wonder how its army became associated with what is one of the best known, and most commonly used, pieces of military hardware in the world. 

The Swiss Army Knife was the brainchild of Swiss cutlery manufacturer Karl Elsener. Elsener was more than a little ticked that the Swiss soldiers got their standard issue knives from a German manufacturer, so he set out to win the contract from the Swiss government.

When Claire bought that knife for me, there were two Swiss companies producing “Swiss Army Knives” — Wenger and Victorinox. My knife is a Victorinox. Wenger sold their knives as the “Genuine Swiss Army Knife,” and Victorinox claimed to be the “Original Swiss Army Knife.” Victorinox acquired Wenger in 2005. Interestingly, both Wenger and Victorinox used the cross and shield to identify their knives — a symbol still used today.

When Karl Elsener’s mother died in 1909, he named his company “Victoria” in her memory. In 1921 the company started using newly invented stainless steel to make the Swiss Army Knife. Stainless steel is known as “inox,” short for the French term acre inoxydable. Victoria and inox were combined to create Victorinox — the name of the company today. 

Elsener called his knife the “Soldier’s Knife” and made a lightweight version with a few more tools called the “Officer’s and Sports Knife.” Handymen around the world discovered them and began carrying them in their pockets. But it wasn’t until World War II, when American GIs dubbed it the Swiss Army Knife, that the tool got the name we use today.
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On Christmas morning of 1975, at least 1.3 million people became the proud owners of a Pet Rock. The Pet Rock was a craze that rivaled things like the Hula-Hoop and was even less explainable. Newsweek called the fad “one of the most ridiculously successful marketing schemes ever.” What this fad consisted of was a rock — a plain, ordinary, egg shaped rock like you could dig up in almost any back yard. But during the Christmas season of 1975, more than a million people paid $3.95 for such a rock. 

The genius of the idea was in the packaging. Each Pet Rock came in a cardboard carrying case, complete with air holes, tenderly nestled on a bed of nesting straw. But the masterstroke of the marketing scheme was the accompanying manual on the care, feeding and house training of Pet Rocks. The 32-page booklet described how to teach your new pet basic commands such as “Stay,” “Sit,” and “Play Dead.” The rocks learned these tricks quickly, but more complicated commands such as “Come” required extraordinary patience on the part of the trainer. One entry in the manual read, “If, when you remove the rock from its box it appears to be excited, place it on some old newspapers. The rock will know what the paper is for and will require no further instruction. It will remain on the paper until you remove it.”

So who came up with such a brilliant idea and how did he think of it? The man behind the scheme was Gary Dahl — often described as a marketing genius and a swindler or con man. Mr. Dahl’s brainstorm came to him in a bar in his home town of Los Gatos in Northern California. At the time, he was a freelance copywriter (he said that was another word for being broke.) One night in the bar, the talk turned to pets and complaints about troublesome animals. During that conversation, Dahl announced that his pet caused him no such trouble. He explained that he had a pet rock. After making the statement, he realized he just might be on to something with pet rocks.
He recruited a couple of investors and visited a building-supply store and bought a load of smooth Mexican beach stones for about a penny apiece.

Pet Rocks were the must-have gift of the 1975 Christmas season, but they rapidly went the way of all fads. Even though Mr. Dahl trademarked the name, there was nothing to stop someone from putting a rock in a box and selling it — and many did. 

In the year 2000, attempts to recreate the magic of the Pet Rock, or take it a step further, with Rock Concerts or Rock Families (some had google eyes glued onto the rocks) all pretty much fell flat. The Pet Rocks were packaged and sold with very minimal changes to the original design. One interesting omission in the manual included with the 2000 revision of the Pet Rocks was the “Attack” command. The 1975 manual told owners when confronted by a mugger, they should “Reach into your pocket or purse and extract your pet rock. Shout the command “attack” and bash the mugger’s head in.” Obviously that type of language and action was considered unacceptable by the year 2000. 

None of the revived sales strategies worked … Pet Rocks enjoyed their 15 minutes of fame in 1975, but since that initial, legendary success all attempts to re-market Pet Rocks have failed.
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Yesterday, I mentioned that something was out of “whack.”  I realized that I use that term on occasion and maybe sometimes I use it when I should probably be using another phrase or expression. 
I have a power washer that I’ve had a number of years — it still works fine, but a lot of the time I have to give it a good “whack” to get the motor started. Once it’s running, everything works fine.

I looked whack up in the dictionary and came away with a number of definitions indicating that whack can be used in ways I’ve never thought of before. Here’s some of the entries from the dictionary:  a: to strike with a smart or resounding blow; b: to cut with or as of with a whack: chop; c: to get the better of: d: defeat; slang: murder, kill; e: a critical attack; f: portion, share; g: condition, state: h: an opportunity to do something; i: a single action or occasion; j: out of proper order or shape.

I usually use whack when I hit something or something doesn’t seem right or work right. 

My extensive research found that “whack” as a verb first appeared in the early 18th century, meaning “to beat or strike sharply and vigorously.” it was probably formed as an imitation of the sound that such a blow would make. As a noun, “whack” started out meaning a kind of blow, but soon developed a whole range of secondary meanings. One of the meanings, mentioned in the dictionary indicated that whack became to be used to mean “a portion, or one’s share” — that started as slang in the criminal underworld meaning “a share of the proceeds of a crime.”

Later it became popular to describe a person, or one of his/her body parts as “out of whack.” Then of course, the phrase was applied to mechanical devices. I think that’s the most popular use today…. almost every gizmo we have goes kablooey at some point, and we say it’s “out os whack.”

I found one reference to the “out of whack”  terminology originating from the chopping or splitting of wood…. supposedly the original word whack or thwack meant a blow — when you are chopping wood you want to keep putting one chop right in the same spot as the previous ones or you simply make lots of little chips — if you were missing the mark, not quite right, you were out of whack.
Anyhow, I think it’s an interesting word and an an interesting phrase. I know, I have too much time on my hands…..
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I’ve often said that the world was getting too complicated for me…. yesterday there was a fire in a building in Utah — that prevented my blog from being updated. We are not alone has never been more true, and apparently we can’t even function being alone. Anyhow, here’s what you would have read yesterday… if — there hadn’t been a fire in Utah.

One year in the early 70s, we were in Hong Kong over Easter. Almost the entire city was closed for most of the weeks preceding and following Easter. It was even hard to find a place to eat, outside of some hotels. I thought this was interesting, especially since the population isn’t primarily “Christian.” 

We refer to Easter Monday around here, but it isn’t considered anything special — almost all stores are open… but people in more than eighty countries of the world celebrate the day after Easter as a holiday..

A little of my extensive research revealed that Easter Monday stands as the last remnant of a once much longer season of post-Easter festivities. In the early Middle Ages people treated the entire week following Easter as a holiday. People tended to their religious devotions in the week before Easter and celebrated with feasts, parties, games, relaxation, and attendance at religious services in the week after.

By the thirteenth century this two-week period had shortened and shifted to the latter half of Holy Week and the ten days following Easter. These last two days, the second Monday and Tuesday after Easter somehow acquired the mysterious name of Hocktide. In 1552 Parliament passed a law restricting post-Easter festivities to the Monday and Tuesday directly following Easter. This practice lasted until the 19th century, when lawmakers further reduced rejoicing to the Monday following Easter, known as Easter Monday. 

In the US, there are only a few activities celebrated on Easter Monday — probably the most famous one is the White House Easter Egg Roll, held on Easter Monday. Claire took our kids there on some years.

Easter Monday was formerly regarded as unlucky and was known as Black Monday (White Monday in Greece.) For some reason, Monday itself was generally considered unlucky… maybe because it meant returning to school for many school children after the Easter break.

I hope everyone had a nice Easter and Easter Monday isn’t unlucky for you… and be glad you’re not in Hong Kong if you’re hungry.
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Today, of course, is Easter — but it’s also a special day in Chinese culture. Both faithful readers know that I/we celebrate a lot of Chinese holidays — not because either of us have any particular ties to China, but because they’re interesting and almost all seeped in tradition.

Today, is one of those interesting Chinese holidays. Every year on the 15th day after the Spring Equinox, Chinese people celebrate Qīngmíng jié — the Tomb Sweeping Festival. This year it happens to fall on Easter — April 4.

It is said that the Qīngmíng Festival was originally held to commemorate a loyal man living in the Spring and Autumn Period (770 – 476 BC,) named Jié Zitui. Jié cut a piece of meat from his own leg in order to save his hungry lord who was forced to go into exile when the crown was in jeopardy. The lord came back to his position nineteen years later, and forgot Jié Zitui. But later he felt ashamed and decided to reward him. However, Jié had locked himself up in a mountain with his mother. In order to find Jié, the lord ordered that the mountain should be set on fire. Later Jié was found dead with his mother. In order to commemorate Jié, the lord ordered that the day Jié died was Hanshi (Cold Food) Festival — the day that only cold food could be eaten. 

The second year, when the lord went to the mountain to sacrifice to Jié, he found the willows revived, so he gave instructions that the day after Hanshi Festival was to be Qīngmíng Festival. Later, the two festivals were combined as one.

The Qīngmíng Festival is a time for a number of different activities — one of the main ones being tomb sweeping. Others include taking a spring outing and flying kites. Some customs have been lost over the years like wearing willow branches on the head. The festival is a combination of sadness and happiness. 

But of all the activities, tomb sweeping is regarded as the most important custom in the Qīngmíng Festival. Cleaning the tomb and paying respect to the dead person with offerings are the two important parts of remembering past relatives. Weeds around the tomb are cleared away and fresh soil is added. The dead person’s favorite food and wine are taken to sacrifice to them, along with paper resembling money, that is burned in the hope that the deceased are not lacking in the afterlife. In return for this it is believed that ancestors will bless their living family members and help them have a prosperous year in the temporal world. At the end of the entire ceremony all the family members gather around the tomb and throw up colored papers in the air to heaven for blessing.

Of course, the modern world has effected the way the Qīngmíng Festival is celebrated today… the modern version has gotten more materialistic. Paper goods in the form of cars, smart phones, iPads and other technological gadgets are made especially for this occasion, but people still ask for wealth and luck in return. And today, people that live too far from their ancestors tombs are now able to send flowers, candles or food through the Internet.

So even though in many places, the festival has been modernized, it’s still not only a day for remembering and honoring the departed, but also a day to be spent with family outdoors or traveling in the colors of spring after a long, gray winter.
Happy Easter — and — Qīngmíng.
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