Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/04/04
By: Chiu Chun-chin and Elizabeth Hsu
Taipei, April 4 (CNA) Nearly 8,000 people from the same clan packed their ancestral shrine 
in the northern Taiwan municipal city of Taoyuan Monday to take part in a group ceremony during the Tomb-Sweeping Festival to worship their ancestors.
The worshipers, who all share the same surname of Yeh (葉), traveled from around Taiwan and other countries, including the United States, Canada, New Zealand and Australia, to the Yeh Family Ancestral Shrine in Xinwu District on the annual holiday to honor ancestors at their graves.
The gathering marked the largest tomb-sweeping group in Taoyuan in this year’s Tomb Sweeping Festival, which is observed in early April each year as a time for families to gather together and ceremonially clean their family tombs.
According to the Yeh Clan Association, their lineage goes back to Yeh Chun-jih (葉春日), who traveled by boat from China to Taiwan in 1735, when the mainland was ruled by Qing Dynasty. [FULL STORY]
