It is the time when the Chinese clean the graves of their ancestors. For 10 days either side of the date they visit the cemeteries. It is a very noisy time as they let off fire crackers. This year these started on 26 March, and often just before sunrise.
The weekend before and after there is a major traffic jam leading to the huge Kwong Tong cemetery near me. On the Saturday before, at the end of March, the traffic jam started before dawn, around 6.45 am and was solid for more than 3 hours. Luckily I went to Thailand after that weekend so missed the rest of the festival.
As well as the firecrackers and the grave cleaning, the Chinese burn paper offerings. This means there is a lot of smoke in cemetery, which was already hot and dry and hazy due to the lack of rain.
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