Evergreen Cemetery
261 Evergreen Street
Santa Cruz, CA 95060
Free - Volunteer Opportunity
Join the MAH's Evergreen restoration team on a community workday to celebrate and honor the Chinese cultural holiday Qingming.
Qingming Festival, also called Tomb Sweeping Day or, literally, ‘Pure Brightness’ Festival in English, is a traditional Chinese festival and an important day for most people (including the Han Chinese and some of China's 55 other ethnic minorities) to go and sweep tombs and commemorate their ancestors. On this day, tomb-sweeping is one of the most important and popular activities to show respect to ancestors. Volunteer items that will be provided: gloves, trash bags, brooms, brushes for tomb cleaning, cleaning solutions, and more!
“Nuestros ancestros cuentan la historia de dónde venimos; nuestros fantasmas nos enseñan cómo avanzar.”
Tessa Hulls — Artista
This event is open to the public. We will start with a workday, cleaning and beautifying Evergreen Cemetery. Around 11:45 am, we will gather around the Chinese Memorial Gate and hold a small ceremony. Feel free to bring your own gloves and tools, but we will also have plenty to share.
This is an outdoor event and we encourage participants to maintain physical distance and wear a mask.
The Qingming Festival
The Qingming Festival is a traditional Chinese festival observed by the Han Chinese of mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand and by the Chitty of Malaysia and Singapore. It falls on the first day of the fifth solar term of the traditional Chinese lunisolar calendar. This year's celebration falls on April 1st, 2022. During Qingming, Chinese families visit the tombs of their ancestors to clean the gravesites, pray to their ancestors and make ritual offerings.
Join the Evergreen Cemetery Committee every Friday from 9:30am-12:30pm to help with basic gardening like pulling weeds and clearing walkways, all while discovering Santa Cruz County History.
