Shiimii

• Okinawan: 清明祭, しーみー (shiimii)

Shiimii is a traditional Ryukyuan custom in which families visit and clean the graves of their ancestors. Taking place around the beginning of the third lunar month, it is one of the major observances on the traditional Ryukyuan calendar.

Derived from a practice originating in China, shiimii is practiced quite widely in central and southern Okinawa Island, but only by a small portion of the population in northern Okinawa, and in the Miyako and Yaeyama Islands. Mochi, sweets, fruits, pork, and other foods are brought in tiered picnic boxes to the family gravesite, where saké and other offerings are made to the ancestors, and then the family partakes of the rest in a picnic at the gravesite. Like family dinners on special occasions in traditions elsewhere in the world, this is for many people a cherished time spent with family.

References

• "Shiimii," Okinawa Compact Encyclopedia, Ryukyu Shimpo, 1 March 2003.