Qingming Festival, which falls on April 5 this year, is a time to pay respects to ancestors and commemorate those who have died.
In this edition of Now and Then, we look at changing trends in Chinese funerals.
Then: Old rituals
In Chinese tradition, a funeral is a complicated and solemn rite. People made preparations for the afterlife in advance, choosing a site for their burial and preparing a coffin and burial clothes. Emperors would spend decades building mausoleums for themselves at tremendous cost.
Since cremation is uncommon, burial is taken seriously in Chinese society. Improper funeral arrangements can wreak ill fortune and disaster on the family of the departed.
To a degree, funeral rites and burial customs are determined by the age of the deceased, cause of death, position in society and marital status.
Rites for an elder must follow a prescribed form befitting a person's status and age and must be carried out even if it means the family goes into debt.
Preparations often begin before death has occurred. When a person is on his/her death bed, a coffin will often have already been ordered from an undertaker who oversees all funeral rites.
Now: A sea change
More Chinese families are opting to bury their loved ones at sea because of an increase in local government subsidies and services for the practice.
In cities such as Beijing and Shanghai, governments offer free sea burials or cash subsidies to families. When sea burial was initiated in the 1990s, few were willing to let go of the remains of their dead but there were more than 1,200 such funerals last year.
In order to encourage sea burials, authorities in charge of Beijing funerals have doubled the grant from 2,000 yuan ($320 dollars) to 4,000 yuan.
Tradition holds that the dead should be buried in earth beside their ancestors, and people visit family tombs on Tomb Sweeping Day.
But a shortage of arable land and other factors led the government to promote more eco-friendly burials and the new policy will allow up to six family members to participate in the ceremony at sea for free. Previously, only two were allowed.
Like the Chinese expression: "A falling leaf returns to its roots," Chinese people have traditionally wished to be buried in their hometown, no matter how much trouble it may cause.
But while more Chinese are opting to bury their loved ones at sea it doesn't necessarily follow that people would take a step much further – space funerals.
