Make the Qingming Festival safer, better and warmer
It's another year of green grass, and the Qingming season sends condolences. In order to create a safe, civilized and orderly environment for the festival and provide the masses with safer, better and warmer sacrifice services, the Tianjin Civil Affairs Bureau recently held a press conference to introduce the deployment of the Qingming Festival and the warm-hearted service. During this period, Zhu Feng, Secretary of the Party Group and Director of the Tianjin Civil Affairs Bureau, was interviewed by reporters to respond to the city's funeral reform work and the topic of Qingming Festival that citizens are concerned about.
Build a solid bottom line for people's livelihood protection
Reporter: Could you briefly introduce the overall situation of the city's funeral work?
Zhu Feng: Funerals are an important part of the basic public service system. In recent years, under the leadership of the Tianjin Municipal Party Committee and the Municipal Government, the Civil Affairs Bureau has taken the funeral work as an important part of protecting and improving people's livelihood, and in accordance with the work goal of "strengthening the foundation, ranking higher, more accurate, and warmer" and the working method of "opening the door to do civil affairs, and everyone should be an expert", adhere to the leadership of the party, implement responsibility, deepen the funeral reform, and promote the change of customs, forming a work pattern of linkage between the upper and lower levels of the urban area, joint management of departments, and extensive participation of the society.
In practice, we have successively formulated a series of documents such as the implementation opinions on promoting the reform and development of funeral services, the funeral subsidy policy for residents without funeral subsidies, and the land-saving ecological burial reward and subsidy policy, forming a relatively complete funeral management policy system. By 2035, the city will gradually establish a funeral service facility system with clear levels, reasonable layout, optimized structure, complete functions, and covering urban and rural areas. At the same time, the reconstruction and expansion project of the municipal funeral parlor has been completed and put into use, and all districts have actively supported the transformation and upgrading of the facilities and equipment of the district funeral parlor, continued to promote the implementation of standards such as "Funeral Reception Service" and "Farewell Service for the Remains", solidly promoted the work of changing customs and customs, comprehensively improved the city's funeral service capacity, and continuously met the basic funeral service needs of the masses.
The warm-hearted service makes the Qingming Festival more warm
Reporter: In order to cope with the peak of the city's funeral service places, what specific response and safeguard measures have been taken in advocating safe, civilized and green sacrifice and sweeping and diversifying to meet the needs of the masses?
Zhu Feng: The theme of this year's Qingming Festival in the city is "a bouquet of flowers to send relatives and warm service in Qingming". In order to do a good job in the service guarantee of the Qingming Festival and realize the goal of civilized and safe cleaning, under the leadership of the Municipal Party Committee and the Municipal Government, we have set up a special class for the Qingming Festival and sweeping, clarified the responsibilities of relevant departments such as public security, traffic management, fire protection, transportation, and health, and improved the coordination and linkage mechanism to form a work pattern of joint management. On the one hand, we will do a solid job in various services for the Qingming Festival, continue to carry out a series of brand activities of "Qingfeng Action - Urban Civilization and Collective Sacrifice", and drive more citizens to become practitioners of civilized and low-carbon sacrifices; continue to promote full-time and global family memorial services and free online memorial services, so that citizens can log in to the official website of the Civil Affairs Bureau, the WeChat public account of "Tianjin Funeral Service", and the government service terminal of "Jinxinban" to carry out civilized sacrifice and sweep at any time according to their own needs, and upgrade the "Internet + Funeral" Convenient measures to achieve full coverage of the online renewal of ashes of municipal funeral service institutions, and promote the online registration service of ashes scattering in the sea for the first year, and continue to carry out four personalized and warm-hearted agency services of "substitution, sweeping, scattering, and burial". On the other hand, we will actively build a service brand of "sending relatives to civil affairs", continue to promote the "96456" 24-hour service line, and launch and optimize the service brand covering multiple links in the field of funeral services, so as to fully meet the diversified and personalized funeral service needs of the masses, and let the citizens continue to have a new sense of gain through accurate and heart-warming services.
In terms of ensuring the safety, civilization and orderliness of the Qingming Festival sweeping activities, we have further strengthened the management of the funeral supplies market and the special rectification of outstanding problems. The Civil Affairs Bureau has successively issued the "Notice on Doing a Good Job in the 2024 Qingming Festival Sacrifice and Sweeping Work" and the "Notice on Carrying out the 2024 Qingming Funeral Law Enforcement Work", convened the city's Qingming Festival Sacrifice and Sweeping Work Mobilization and Deployment Meeting, arranged the Qingming Festival Sweeping related work, grasped the service guarantee, and clarified the requirements for standardizing the funeral service market order, carried out law enforcement inspections of the funeral market, investigated and dealt with the manufacture and sale of feudal superstitious funeral supplies, and effectively regulated the funeral market order. At the same time, we will go deep into the front line of all funeral service units, supervise all funeral service institutions in all districts, strengthen the safety management of sacrifices and sweeps, resolutely prevent major safety accidents, continue to maintain the special rectification effect in the funeral field, and constantly standardize the order of the funeral industry. During this period, the Civil Affairs Bureau, together with the Municipal Market Supervision Commission, together with the Wuqing District Civil Affairs Bureau, the Market Supervision and Administration Bureau, and the Yangugang Town Government, formed a joint inspection team at the city, district, and town levels, focusing on carrying out joint law enforcement inspections on various types of wholesale markets.
Advocate a new trend of civilized, green and ecological funeral
Reporter: In your opinion, how to make the Qingming Festival promote the change of funeral customs, so as to achieve the high-quality development of China's excellent funeral culture?
Zhu Feng: With the changes of the times, the customs and forms of the Qingming Festival have continued to evolve, and the connotation has also been expanded, and it is closely connected with modern life. To build a funeral service system that is compatible with Chinese-style modernization and realize the high-quality development of China's excellent funeral culture, it is necessary to strengthen the protection and inheritance of funeral culture, inherit and develop the traditional virtues of filial piety and family affection, and pursue the future with caution, advocate a new trend of civilized, green and ecological funeral, combine funeral culture with modern technology, continuously enrich the content and form of funeral culture in the new era, and promote the modernization of funeral culture. In the activity of "Qingfeng Action - Urban Civilization and Collective Sacrifice", we not only spread the culture of respecting the elders and honoring the ancestors of the Chinese nation, but also carried forward the spirit of volunteer service, which was praised and recognized by the participating masses through the introduction of the traditional culture of the Qingming Festival by professionals, the recitation of poems by community volunteers, and the form of scientific civilization sacrifice by the staff. Through the family memorial service guide video produced by our bureau, citizens can choose different times and places to organize family members to remember their ancestors together.
At the same time, we have deepened the reform of funeral customs, guided the masses to practice the concept of ecological burial, and established a new style of funeral civilization. To implement land-saving ecological burial, the Civil Affairs Bureau has successively revised the "Measures for the Distribution of Funeral Subsidies for Residents Without Funeral Subsidies in Tianjin", formulated the "Implementation Measures for the Reward and Subsidy of Land-saving Ecological Burial in Tianjin (Trial)" and other documents, and rewarded the undertakers who meet the conditions for rewards and subsidies or choose land-saving ecological burial after the cremation of the deceased's remains. At present, the scope of the city's land-saving ecological burial rewards and subsidies covers the whole cycle of funeral activities, from good endings to good farewells and finally to good disposal, encouraging and driving more citizens to participate in land-saving ecological burial activities.
Operation Breeze
Urban Civilization Collective Celebration 20 Years Series of Activities
Since 2005, the Tianjin Civil Affairs Bureau and Tianjin Radio and Television Station have cooperated to co-create a series of activities called "Qingfeng Action - Urban Civilization Collective Sacrifice", which is now in its 20th year. Over the years, the form of activities has gradually expanded from the collective sacrifice ceremony with the funeral home as the main field to the campus, community, army, construction site, sea, etc., and the civilized sacrifice has been continuously innovated and developed, and has been recognized and praised by more and more citizens.
Operation Breeze enters the campus
On March 28, Tianjin Funeral Management Office and Zhou Enlai School of Government of Nankai University jointly held the theme activity of "Qingfeng Action Enters the Campus - Recalling the Martyrs Inheriting the Red Gene and Inheriting the New Chapter of Qingfeng Spectrum Civilization in the Past Ten Years". More than 100 people from Tianjin Funeral Management Office, Tianjin Radio and Television Station, and Zhou Enlai School of Government of Nankai University participated in the event.
During the event, the staff of the municipal funeral department issued an initiative on the new style of civilized sacrifice, and encouraged the students to actively help carry forward the practice of changing customs and green funerals, serving and dedicating, and leading the new style. The representative of Zhou Enlai School of Government delivered a speech, calling on young people to carry forward the new style of civilization with voluntary actions, understand the ideals of their ancestors, think about the meaning of life, and shoulder the mission of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation with the practical struggle of youth.
The Enlai Spirit Exhibition and Performance Troupe of Nankai University brought the original drama "Mountains and Rivers Don't Forget, This Memory of Enlai" to express its reverence for Premier Zhou Enlai and the memory of the revolutionary ancestors. The representative of the Youth League branch of the 2022 undergraduate administrative management class gave a lecture on the theme of "Recalling the Spirit of the Long March and Feeling the Power of Life", sharing his thoughts on the meaning of life from the perspective of the Marxist outlook on life.
Operation Breeze into the community
Since March 20, under the guidance of the Social Work Department of the Tianjin Municipal Party Committee and the Tianjin Municipal Civilization Office, sponsored by the Tianjin Civil Affairs Bureau, and undertaken by the Tianjin Funeral Management Office, Tianjin Economic Broadcasting, the Civil Affairs Bureau of the six districts of the city and the four districts around the city, as well as some communities, 10 on-site activities of municipal community civilization sacrifice and sweeping have been organized to blow the new wind of civilization into the community.
Linquan Community, Heping District, "Qingming Festival for Martyrs, Civilization First"
This event invited two teachers from the Tianjin Yan'an Spiritual Research Association. One is Mr. Hu Haiming, who told the residents the story of his father Hu Defa's participation in the Red Army, and told the spirit of the Red Army's Long March in the form of pictures and texts. The other is Gu Mei, a teacher, who told the story of her mother's participation in the Anti-Japanese War against all odds. The families of the two descendants of the revolution are now actively responding to the call of the state to change customs, pay tribute to their relatives in a civilized manner, and pay tribute to their relatives with flowers.
Jingwu Town, Xiqing District
"Inheriting Traditional Chinese Culture and Advocating Civilization, Green and Qingming"
Jingwu Town, Xiqing District, the hometown of Huo Yuanjia, a modern national hero and famous patriotic martial artist, has empowered the new Jingwu spirit of "patriotism, self-cultivation, responsibility, and serving the people" to the construction of civilized rural customs, helping rural revitalization, and constantly radiating vitality and vitality. At the event site, resident representatives from Jingwu Town brought Baduan Jinjian Qigong performance, the original allegro work "Changing the Wind and Customs to See Jingwu", and the on-site recitation of "Qingming Thinking of Heroes", etc., through a variety of traditional Chinese culture and green and environmentally friendly program forms to remember the martyrs and remember their deceased relatives.
Yunlongli Community, Nankai District
"Practice the new fashion of sacrificing and sweeping and strive to be a civilized person in the community"
Representatives of Yunlongli community residents innovatively choreographed a "Qingming" dance, through simple dance movements combined with warm melodies, to express their thoughts for their deceased relatives, and also hope that through this form of dance communication, more people can join the team of civilized sacrifices. Many resident representatives at the scene wrote down their thoughts on their deceased relatives in origami and made paper cranes and pasted them on the memorial wall, expressing their emotions in their hearts in this civilized and warm way, and saying that they would cherish their current life more in the future, and actively participate in the action of civilized sacrifices, bid farewell to bad habits with practical actions, and jointly practice the fashion of civilized sacrifices.
Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei ashes scattering activities set sail in the sea
On March 31, the 2024 Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei ashes scattering event was held in Bohai Bay, Tianjin, Tianjin, and Hebei Province, jointly sponsored by the civil affairs departments of Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei Province.
At 10 o'clock in the morning, the sailing ceremony was held at the Tianjin International Cruise Home Port Terminal. At the event, the ceremonial staff looked solemn and lined up neatly to present flower baskets to the deceased who were sleeping in the sea. Representatives of the family shared their family memories and remembered their deceased relatives with deep affection. The public memorial recited the memorial text and sang the praises of the selfless love of the deceased in the sea burial. With the lighting of the lamppost and the sound of the whistle, the 2024 ashes scattering activity officially set sail, and family members from the three places prayed for the deceased together to express their endless thoughts for their loved ones.
With the sea breeze blowing and the seagulls chirping, the "State Guest No. 9" special ship carrying 35 ashes of the deceased slowly sailed towards Bohai Bay. The cabin is warm and peaceful, solemn. At the sea burial ceremony, the ceremonial staff presented flower baskets and all paid silent tribute. In the mournful memorial speech, the family of the deceased reminisced about the past and remembered their relatives. After the ship arrived at the designated sea area, the family members boarded the deck in an orderly manner under the guidance of the staff and gently scattered the ashes of their loved ones into the blue water. Accompanied by the falling petals, the deceased buried at sea sleeps in the embrace of the vast ocean, and returns to nature. The family members were in tears and wrote messages on the prayer cards to express their grief in their hearts. At the end of the event, all the staff prayed for the deceased, and the sailing ceremony ended successfully.
Since 1990, the city has opened the ashes scattering service, in addition to Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei, the "Sleep of the Sea" service brand has covered more than a dozen provinces and municipalities such as Shandong, Henan, Anhui, Shaanxi, Gansu, Shanxi, Mongolia, Tibet and Xin, and has successfully held 459 ashes scattering activities, with a total of more than 26,000 ashes. In accordance with the relevant provisions of the "Implementation Measures for the Reward and Subsidy of Land-saving Ecological Burial in Tianjin (Trial)", the undertaker who meets the conditions for the award and subsidy can also apply for the award and subsidy, which has driven more people to participate in the land-saving ecological burial activities and effectively promoted the change of funeral customs.
Source: Tianjin Daily