A Clear and Bright Holy Week

Happy Easter season, everyone. I hope everyone is enjoying mother nature's slow and steady march toward summer. I have to work Sunday, so this will be the first year I'll miss Easter services. This makes me quite sad, but the unhappiness is mitigated by the joy provided by the scoring of a half dozen hot cross buns today at Boomerang Bakery. Boomerang is over in Zhujiang New Town, and is, I believe, run by Australians, judging by all of the staff's accents. They make a dizzying assortment of breads and pastries, as well as pies and sandwiches. I had a pastrami sandwich on multigrain with cheese, lettuce, tomato, and mustard for lunch. It was delightful. I really miss sandwiches.

It's not just Holy week, though. Today is a holiday here in China, too. Today is Tomb Sweeping Day (清明节 Qing Ming Jie). On Tomb Sweeping Day, which is set as 15 days after the equinox, you are meant to go to the countryside, take in the fresh air and new Spring greenery, and pay your respects to your departed ancestors. The Chinese afterlife is an interesting place. For one thing, it is interestingly like the real world in the sense that you still require basic necessities, like food, clothing, and shelter. Luckily, the afterlife economy takes cash. So, as dutiful descendants, your task is to take paper spirit money and other paper-model gifts to the tombs of your ancestors and burn them (which transfers them to the spirit realm, I guess). According to my students, they've seen some interesting paper gifts, ranging from 1-billion-yuan banknotes to a paper BMW to a paper iPad. I guess Steve Jobs is there to help your great-grandparents figure out how to use it.

What that means for me, really, is that we have a messed-up schedule at work this week. You see, when Chinese students have a midweek holiday, they don't get extra days off. If we had a Wednesday holiday in America, the kids would get Saturday through Wednesday off. In China, the kids get Monday through Wednesday off -- but they have to go to school on Saturday and Sunday to make up for the Monday and Tuesday. Alas, this means they can't attend their usual weekend classes at our school, so we move our weekend classes to Monday and Tuesday. To make a long story short, that means that this week I haven't actually had much free time, so there isn't much of interest to relate to you. Rather than bore you with a description of the carrot cake I baked today, I shall just leave you with a "Happy Easter!" and a promise to think if something interesting to tell you about next week.