On March 17, a reporter from the Beijing Youth Daily learned from the Civil Affairs Bureau that this year’s Qingming festival sweeping service centralized reception day will start on March 18 and end on April 9, a total of 23 days, and is expected to be held on March 25 and 26. April 1st, 2nd, and 5th are the peak days for festival sweeping.
Three modes of sacrifice and sweeping to meet the needs of citizens
According to Zhang Liyou, deputy director of the Social Affairs Management Department of the Beijing Municipal Civil Affairs Bureau, this year the city will continue to implement three modes of memorial service: online memorial service, representative memorial service and on-site memorial service. Window of the Capital and the official website of the Beijing Civil Affairs Bureau set up a special topic of “Online Memorial Service for Qingming Festival in Beijing in 2023” and linked to the official websites of the people’s governments of various districts to provide online memorial services such as messages and flower offerings for the masses. The service topic will be launched at 00:00 on March 15. The public can log in to the official websites of Capital Window, Beijing Civil Affairs Bureau and the people’s governments of various districts, and click on the topic “Online Memorial Service for Qingming Festival in 2023” to remember their ancestors through the Internet.
For the masses who cannot go to the scene to sacrifice and have a need for sacrifice and sweep, provide sacrifice and sweep services on behalf of them. Citizens can use the “Beijing Funeral Service Reservation System” or dial the reservation number to apply for the service of the cemetery to pay homage to their ancestors. After making an appointment to sweep the funeral, the cemetery will provide basic services such as wiping tombstones and presenting flowers for free. Other extended services can be negotiated separately with the cemetery.
For those who really need to go to the scene to conduct memorial sweeps, citizens can log on to the window of the capital, the official website of the Beijing Civil Affairs Bureau, or follow the “Beijing Social Construction and Civil Affairs” WeChat official account to learn about relevant information.
A variety of measures to benefit and facilitate the people provide heart-warming sacrifice and sweeping services
In order to meet the needs of citizens for sacrifice and sweeping, various funeral service agencies have introduced a variety of convenience and heart-warming measures for the people. These include providing convenient services for the elderly and the disabled, providing free offerings of sacrificial flowers, free sacrificial supplies and utensils, providing health first aid services, convenient travel services, new memorial services, and holding themed open days for the public and the media, etc.
At present, the main funeral benefit policy provided by this city is the “Zero, Hundred, Ten Thousand” project to benefit the people. “Zero” refers to the zero consumption of deceased residents with registered permanent residence in the city who choose cremated sea burial or natural burial, including free enjoyment of 6 funeral services including body pick-up, body refrigeration, body plastic surgery, body farewell, body cremation, and ashes storage, as well as free enjoyment of ashes Sea burial and natural burial services; “hundred” means that funeral homes provide citizens with multi-style, multi-material, environmentally friendly, low-cost urns of about 100 yuan; thousand means that funeral homes provide citizens with at least one set of urns within one thousand Funeral services. Including remains transportation, storage, plastic surgery, farewell, cremation, ashes storage and other items, to achieve high-quality services in the whole process; “ten thousand” means that all commercial cemeteries in the city can provide double-cavity or double-cell ashes placement facilities with less than ten thousand yuan , to meet the basic requirements of citizens for the placement of ashes. In addition, the city provides funeral subsidies to residents without funeral subsidies. Eligible residents without funeral subsidies can enjoy a funeral subsidy of 5,000 yuan after applying to the social security office of the sub-district (township) where their household registration is located.
It’s another year of green grass, and the spring breeze blows the sleeves for the Qingming Festival. During the Qingming period this year, the city still advocates a civilized and low-carbon sacrifice. Zhang Liyou said, please observe civilized behavior and rules during the festival. It is strictly forbidden to use open flames, smoke, light incense candles, burn paper, and set off firecrackers. Do not burn incense and paper on the street or in public areas to ensure the safety of the Qingming festival.
Text/Beijing Youth Daily reporter Jiang Ruojing
Editor / Tan Weiping