Today in China was a holiday, so I was out of school. The holiday is Sweeping Out the Tombs Day. You're supposed to go to your ancestors' tombs and clean them on this day. I guess it's kind of like Dia de los Muertos for Latinos. Anyway, in addition to cleaning the tombs, paper money for the next world is burned en masse on the sidewalks for the dead to be wealthy in whatever lies beyond. I personally hope everything is free where I'm headed.

Also, today I watched the flag-lowering ceremony in Tian'anmen Square. At the end of the day the PRC flag is lowered by a squadron of army men. They take the flag off the flagpole, put it on a smaller, portable pole, and march it into the gates of the Forbidden City. The flag never stops flying, actually. It just moves. I find this interesting as compared to flag tradition in the States, where Old Glory is meticulously folded and put away each evening. In China the dust is whipped off the tails of the flag and it keeps on flying into the night. I have no idea what these symbolic differences show us about the mindsets of the two countries. You can do that work.

I purchased a stamp with my name on it today. It has my name in English and Chinese on it. The stone is a couple inches square, and the top is a tiger. Now I can do official things in China; I can put a big red stamp on papers.

T