As everyone knows, the Chinese celebrate New Year not on 1 January but on the first day of the lunar New Year. This year Chinese New Year’s Day was 17 February, last Tuesday.
Another important festival in the Chinese calendar is Qīngmíngjié (清明节), Tomb Sweeping Day, a week or two after the Spring Equinox. On Qīngmíngjié in China and among Chinese communities around the world people remember and honor their ancestors by sweeping and tidying ancestral tombs and getting together to eat traditional food and celebrating with friends and relations.
Avoca Mail, Tuesday 6 April 1875, page 2
Some curiosity was excited in Avoca on Sunday morning last by a procession of buggies to the number of six or seven, most of them double seated, and all of them heavily laden with Chinamen, which went down High street in the direction of the cemetery, and shortly afterwards returned in the same order. It appears that Sunday was the day set apart in the Chinese year for the annual visitation to the graves of departed celestials by their surviving country men, and certain ceremonies only known to the pagan mind have to be gone through including the offering: of provisions in the shape of food and drink, but whether to propitiate " Joss," or, as a current belief is, to refresh the carnality which is supposed to exist after death, we are unable to say. We can only know from observation that whatever was done, this curious and decidedly intelligent people were in earnest about it. Most of the Chinamen came from as far as Majorca.
The distance from Avoca to Majorca is 35 km (22 miles).
(1872, September 10). Illustrated Australian News for Home Readers (Melbourne, Vic.), p. 196.
In 1879 the celebrations in early April resulted in a fire at the Avoca cemetery.
Avoca Mail, Tuesday 8 April 1879, page 2
The practice adopted by Chinamen of performing religious rites and ceremonies over the graves of their dead countrymen nearly caused some damage in the Avoca cemetery on Saturday. The Chinamen had come prepared with a good supply of food and drink to sustain the souls of the dear departed, and in the course of the ceremonies had lighted a fire, candles, &c. Probably owing to the high wind the grass caught .fire and spread away rapidly in the direction of the quarters occupied by the Europeans' graves, and it seemed likely that the whole cemetery would be over-run with the fire, in which case much damage would have been done to tombstones, railings, and plants. Fortunately, however, Mr Buhlert and others, with two of the police, saw the smoke and by their exertions the fire was at last extinguished. Most of the Chinamen present at once made off without trying to put out the fire, but one of them, Ah Cow, showed a better spirit and worked manfully in assisting the Europeans. This man afterwards obtained his reward by being arrested on the charge of having lighted the fire, while his less active but equally guilty countrymen made good their escape. After remaining in the lock-up till Monday morning Ah Cow was fined £1 and 10s 6d costs, the amount being subscribed by his friends in the court. The presiding magistrate stated that he had power to fine the accused £100 for the offence, but the trustees did not press for a heavy penalty, and Constable Shanklin, who prosecuted, spoke favorably of the prisoner's exertions to subdue the fire. The Chinamen present in the court, through their interpreter, promised to be more careful in the use of fire for the future.
The following year a funerary oven was built. This is a small red brick structure with an oven opening in one side with a semi-circular head. The top three courses of brickwork are corbelled with the centre course being laid on the diagonal to give a decorative chevron appearance. The curved pyramidal shaped metal roof is capped at the apex with a ball decoration.
Uploaded to Wikimedia Commons by user Peterdownunder CC-BY-SA-3.0
Avoca Mail, Tuesday 27 April 1880, page 2
OPEN COLUMN.
To the Editor of the Avoca Mail.
Sir, — I observe in the last issue of your contemporary an article dealing with what is termed " The Chinese difficulty in a new shape," the said difficulty being apparently a " joss-stick oven" recently erected in our cemetery. I quite agree with the writer that the " horrid red brick abomination" is no ornament to the burial ground, according to outer barbarian notions, but it must not be forgotten that it was chiefly built for utility, and by the express orders of the local magistrate to prevent the ignition of the grass at the Chinese burial ceremonies. The Chinese deserve credit for having obeyed the instructions of the court, and it appears to me that they have taken some trouble to make their " joss-stick oven" as ornamental as their ideas of the beautiful in art would permit them to do. If anyone doubts this let them inspect the structure. It will then be seen that the brick-work has been raised something after the fashion of a pedestal, and perhaps from designs supplied by some of the monuments existing in the cemetery. Then the roof has evidently been a subject of much study, and when the architect finally adopted the plan of the familiar pagodas of his native land he no doubt thought the barbarians would be lost in admiration of its gracefulness, and straightway " take a wrinkle" from it for use in their own buildings. But this was not enough. The brick work had to be further improved with a coat of red coloring, the joints were pricked out with white, and finally the roof was painted with graceful curves, which have placed Hogarth's " line of beauty" altogether in the shade. Now, sir, although the effect may not be all we barbarians desire, some allowance should be made for the evident intention to please, and it may be suggested that if it does not please us the builders should have been favored with our ideas on the subject before the structure was commenced. There is another aspect of the question, however, which is deserving of consideration. The Chinese have had a portion of the cemetery devoted to their use, and they may fancy that they have some sort of proprietorship in it, and some right to do as they please there while they hurt no one else. They do not trespass on the European part of the cemetery, and Europeans have no business to go into their part. If the writer for your contemporary will remember this and act upon it he will be able to keep his fingers out of the pork fat which he so much dislikes. It strikes me that we Britishers have a good many cemeteries in China and other foreign countries, and we have a way of doing as we like in them ; let us then afford John Chinaman the same privilege, and while he takes due precautions against fire and keeps his pagodas and pork fat on the ground set apart for him he should not be interfered with.
I am, &c.,
Q.Z.
(Presumably the earlier article was in the Avoca Free Press which has not yet been digitised.)
Nearly 150 years later the red brick funerary burning tower still stands in the cemetery.
Related posts
- Chinese in Avoca cemetery
- Memorial to the Chinese in the Avoca Cemetery
- Chinese Australian Historical Society. (2025, October 3). Thematic Essay: Burials in Australia. Scattered Legacy. https://www.scatteredlegacy.org.au/essays/burials-in-australia
- Chinese Australian Historical Society. (2025, October 3). Thematic Essay: Burning Towers. Scattered Legacy. https://www.scatteredlegacy.org.au/essays/burning-towers
