Qingming Festival aka Tomb Sweeping Day

We are currently observing Qingming Festival otherwise known as Tomb Sweeping Day which is a traditional Chinese festival where people tend to the graves of departed ones. Hence the term "Tomb Sweeping". The Chinese clean off the graves and prepare for the spring/summer. The holiday this year is observed on April 4, 5, and 6 and then the Chinese people go back to work on Sunday the 7th of April.(This is very odd to me that they go back to work on Sunday, but they do.) So technically Bill has off Thursday, Friday and Saturday and needs to go to work on Sunday. He even has a quality meeting scheduled in Shanghai on Sunday. When there are Chinese holidays all the workers head to their home cities, on Wednesday evening Bill experienced the trains being so packed he couldn't get on one until after 8pm. He showed up at the train station to leave Changzhou at 4pm, however he walked in the door around 9pm due to massive amounts of people trying to go home. His theory was that all the people were heading home to celebrate/sweep graves with their families. To be honest I haven't seen any graves here in China, nor do I think I want too. I'm guessing most graves are out in the "hills/country-side" as the cities are just too large without space to put graves. The other day there was an article about how the Chinese are being encouraged to release their loved ones to the sea as the country is running out of space. Last night there were fireworks and a water display near the lake we live by. We're also told people burn paper gifts for the departed but we haven't witnessed that yet. Here's a daytime picture of our view of the lake and some cherry blossoms in our compound. We're going to lay low the rest of the Qingming weekend and relax!