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Submitted: 10/15/22 • Approved: 10/17/22 • Last Updated: 10/20/22 • R171318-G0-S3
Chinese Funerary Traditions at the Salem Pioneer Cemetery
If you walk about 200 feet to the northwest of this box, you will arrive at the remnants of an alter that Chinese residents who lived in Salem used in the remembrance of the dead around the turn of the twentieth century.
Suie Lai Sun, the son of George Lai Sun, the "Mayor" of Chinatown around this time, described using the concrete table during Qing Ming, similar to the American tradition of Memorial Day.
In the Chinese section (of the cemetery) there was a large slab, raised to make a table. At the back was a raised portion filled with dirt: next to it was an open oven.
The Chinese incense ... were lighted, and set into the burner.
Then the men knelt and recited prayers for the dead. Rising, they folded each specially shaped paper around a narrow strip of paper in an intricate manner, bowed three times, lighted the paper from the candles, bowed again, and tossed the burning paper into the oven.
Contributed on 10/15/22 by patriciacarson3
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Record #: 171318