Upcoming Holidays: Tomb-Sweeping, Thai New Year, and Easter

Some major holidays are coming up in three of our students' countries, so let’s take a look at what they are. As usual, we’ll also provide you with questions you can ask to spark discussion as well as relevant vocabulary (bolded) your students might find interesting.

Tomb-Sweeping Day in Taiwan

Tomb-Sweeping Day is a national holiday that falls on April 4th every year. As the name suggests, it’s customary for people to visit their ancestors’ graves and tidy them up on this day (or the weekends leading up to it).

• Does your family do any tomb-sweeping? What do you do at the tomb?
• When people talk about ‘tomb-sweeping,’ whose tombs are they referring to? Do you actually visit the tombs of all your ancestors? 
• What’s your favorite part of tomb-sweeping? What’s your least favorite part?
• How is COVID affecting your families’ plans for tomb-sweeping day this year?

In addition to tidying up gravesites, families also make sure to provide for their ancestors. This involves making offerings in the form of food and drinks as well as “spirit money.” This comes from the belief that the ancestral spirits need to have food and money in the afterlife.

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• What kinds of offerings does your family make? Does someone from your family prepare them or are they purchased? 
• What happens to the offerings after the tomb-sweeping rituals? Do people eat them?
• Does the paper money have to be in any specific currency?
• Besides food and money, are there any other things you can offer to the ancestors?

However, gravesites are not the only places where people lay their ancestors to rest. For a variety of reasons, more families choose to keep the ashes of the deceased in columbariums. Many of these are privately run, though there are public ones as well that are much more affordable.

here are also many who choose more eco-friendly options. The most popular type is the “tree burial,” where the ashes of the deceased are buried in a mound where a tree is planted. As a plus, tree burials are free.

• What do you think are the pros and cons of each type of burial? Why do you think more and more people choose to have their ashes kept in columbariums or buried with trees?

There are a lot more interesting aspects of this topic your student can share with you, so we’ll let them take it from here!

The New Year in Thailand

In Thailand, each new year starts with a splash! The traditional Thai New Year is officially April 13th to 15th and is perhaps best known for being the biggest water fight in the world. You can get a feel for the festive atmosphere in the following video:

There are a few reasons people splash each other in water. For one, this custom is believed to wash away any bad luck that may be lingering from the year before. Plus, the New Year is the hottest time of year, so the water helps people cool off.

• Can you walk into the streets during the New Year without getting soaked? Are there any rules about who gets splashed with water or is everyone fair game?
• Can you tell me why people splash water at each other during the New Year? Does the water symbolize anything?
• Is the water purified in any special way?

In addition to purifying themselves with water, people also do spring cleaning and wear new clothes.

• I hear that the Thai New Year is coming up. Will you be cleaning your home in preparation? 
• Do you buy new clothes for the New Year? Will you wear traditional clothing during the New Year?
• Have the “at-home” aspects of the holiday become more important in light of the pandemic?

The holiday has some religious origins, which are still noticeable today. Many people visit temples and offer food to monks in a practice known as “making merit.” In many parts of the country, Buddha statues are paraded through the streets and splashed with water as well.

• I read that during Songkran, people offer food to monks. Can you explain the reasons for this tradition? And is there special food prepared for the monks?
• Can you tell me about why Buddha statues are also splashed with water?

At its heart though, the Thai New Year is an occasion for Thais from all over the country to reunite with their families. Each family has different ways of observing this festival, as does each part of the country, so make sure to ask your student about these traditions too!

• What kinds of New Year traditions does your family have?
• Can you tell me about how people in different parts of Thailand celebrate the traditional New Year? 
• What kinds of events are held in your town or city?

Easter in South Korea

Easter is on a different day each year, and this time it falls on Sunday, April 4th (aka today!). 

While it’s not a public holiday in South Korea, Christians make up nearly a third of the population, so politicians make sure to show up at Easter mass to leave an impression on voters.

So you might hear some Korean students mention it!

• How popular is Easter in your country? Can you tell me about how Easter is celebrated there? 
• Are there also Easter bunnies and Easter egg hunts like in many Western countries? (Related: New Zealand Says Easter Bunny Is Essential Worker)

👋 That’s it for now!

We hope this post will help you have enjoyable conversations with your students. Happy tutoring!