"In order to save unnecessary ex-Pense and to stamp out superstitious practices, the people are hereby for-to observe Ching-ming the (Pure Brightness). This is the gist of a proclamation which has been issued by Mfr. Lan Chun, the Shanghai District, Magistrate.
Ching-ming is a festival according to the lunar calendar and, in former Gays, it was observed as a holiday by the people throughout the country who, on this day (which corresponds to the western Easter), visited the tombs of their dead re-natives to offer sacrifices in the form of food, wine and paper money, in order to save the spirits of their dead relatives from going to Hades and to ensure them better treatment in: the lower regions.
The Magistrate's order said that, though the burning of—papes money- during Ching-mung was) practised with all good intentions [the practice was.superstitious and one which, under the revolutionary 'government, should "be suppressed. Moreover, the expense involved was
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.