Culture

[Photos] Malaysia’s weird and wonderful Tomb Sweeping Day paper items

In a Covid-themed Tomb Sweeping Day, surgical masks and hand sanitiser are just two of an array of weird and wonderful paper replicas of everyday items that will burned by Malaysia's ethnic Chinese population during this year's festivities

Patrick Lee/AFP

April 1, 2021

Shop owner Jacky Hoi posing for a picture with food items made of paper for sale ahead of the Qingming festival, also known as Tomb Sweeping Day, in Rawang in Malaysia's Selangor state. Photo: Mohd Rasfan/AFP

Paper masks and goggles are among offerings that ethnic Chinese in Malaysia will burn to mark “Tomb Sweeping Day”, hoping their ancestors can use them to fight the coronavirus in the afterlife.

Qingming is one of the most important dates for Chinese communities, and is observed across East and Southeast Asia.

During the festival, which this year falls on Sunday, it is customary for Chinese to offer prayers, sweep their loved ones’ graves and burn paper models of items that could be useful in the afterlife.

These can range from money and shoes to yachts and planes — but the pandemic has led to the addition of virus-themed offerings.

A shop in the town of Rawang, just outside the capital Kuala Lumpur, is selling a set of paper masks with small boxes carrying pictures of goggles, a bottle of hand sanitiser and a thermometer.

“We want our ancestors to realise the importance of wearing a mask during the pandemic, so we introduced this,” store owner Jacky Hoi told AFP, holding a packet containing the items.

A set of items used to prevent the spread of the Covid-19, including face masks and hand sanitiser, all made of paper. Photo: Mohd Rasfan/AFP

He believes the set will prove popular in Muslim-majority Malaysia, where about a quarter of the country’s 32 million inhabitants are ethnic Chinese, as it “will let our ancestors have a chance to fight the pandemic”.

Hoi is missing one important thing — a paper vaccine — something he says that he is yet to come across when ordering the items from China.

Chinese in Malaysia will be observing “Tomb Sweeping Day” for the first time since 2019, as activities related to the festival were cancelled last year due to a virus lockdown.

Rules will be implemented to prevent infections, including a cap on the number of people allowed to take part and a time limit on prayers.

Malaysia was hit by a new Covid-19 wave in recent months. The number of cases has started to decline, although health authorities are still reporting around 1,000 infections and several deaths every day.