KAPA‘A — Gnarled trees and overgrown weeds once engulfed the tombstones and grounds of the Kapa‘a Chinese Cemetery on Apopo Road to the point where it was no longer recognizable to passers-by. But due to the efforts of dozens of
KAPA‘A — Gnarled trees and overgrown weeds once engulfed the tombstones and grounds of the Kapa‘a Chinese Cemetery on Apopo Road to the point where it was no longer recognizable to passers-by.
But due to the efforts of dozens of volunteers over the past two years, the graveyard’s dignity has been restored and last weekend the first traditional Chinese ceremony since the end of World War II was held at the burial site called Ching Ming.
Families and volunteers gathered as kindred spirits on Saturday amidst food, incense and paper money to pay their respects to the generations of Chinese who helped build the foundations of the Kawaihau District.
Ching Ming, the ancient Chinese springtime festival meaning bright and clear, is also known as “grave-sweeping day” where burial grounds are honored and offerings of items such as wine, rice, tea and candles are presented to ancestors at their graves.
“It’s really to pay homage to your ancestors and a Confucius philosophy about respecting your ancestors,” said Michael Ching, of Hanalei, on Wednesday.
Ching prepared offerings consisting of roasted pork, poached chicken and bowls of rice and was instrumental in organizing the ceremony, according to August Yee of Honolulu, who was also integral in arranging the weekend festivities.
“I thought the ceremony was beautiful and was such a connection to the past because we are Americans, but we still have customs; a connection to our roots, our ancestry,” Ching said, although he added that it has become a “lost tradition on Kaua‘i.”
Yee is hopeful that the ceremonies will persist in years to come on the Garden Isle as the labor of many hard-working volunteers continues to keep the burial ground in tact.
“Volunteers had showed up on Saturday to confirm that they want to be involved in restoring the cemetery,” Yee said in a phone interview Wednesday. “We felt this group of volunteers that showed up put in hard work in the hot sun, brought their tools and never asked for a thing.”
Because of a lack of funding, the cemetery had recently been abandoned until residents joined together to help restore the area in May 2007. Over the past two years, a group of volunteers worked for 11 Saturdays to refurbish the neglected 100-year-old graveyard.
There were 33 individuals who initially showed up for the first Saturday “not knowing exactly what to expect,” Yee said. Ever since that day, over 1,200 halekoa trees were removed and over 140 tombstones were reestablished to their upright positions.
John Apana was one volunteer who was “out of the ordinary,” according to Yee.
Apana worked “week after week, by himself, accomplishing a myriad of tasks,” Yee said, including replacing large stones that had fallen out of the altar wall, building a walk ramp leading from the upper road to the graveyard and planting palm trees and grass.
“There are many volunteers whose names should be mentioned,” Yee said in a written statement. “They are the unsung heroes and they have our heartfelt thanks and admiration.”
Susan Pang, a participant at Saturday’s event whose family members have been laid to rest at the cemetery, said, “It was really nice to see the way everybody helped make this happen.”
Mayor Bernard Carvalho Jr. even briefly stopped by on Saturday and expressed his thanks to all the volunteers who dedicated their time and effort toward the rehabilitation of the graveyard.
“Their hard work is truly appreciated,” he said in an e-mail Wednesday. “It was a monumental task, another example of how the people of Kaua‘i work together to accomplish great things. In this case, it was done to honor their friends and family that were laid to rest there.”
• Coco Zickos, business writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 251) or czickos@kauaipubco.com
