Ceremony in Observance of Chung Yeung

On Thursday, Oct. 14, dozens of people gathered together at Lincoln Park Golf Course at the Kong Chow structure to observe Chung Yeung, which is a ritual of respect held on the ninth day of the ninth lunar month

Supervisor Connie Chan, CCBA President Ju Chan Chu, Assemblymember Phil Ting and District Attorney Chesa Boudin were among the speakers at the event.

As part of the Chung Yeung Festival (重陽節) , the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association (CCBA) held a traditional ceremony at the Kong Chow Funerary Chapel – which stands as a symbol of Chinese culture and history in San Francisco – at Lincoln Park Golf Course. 

The ceremony included traditional offerings: a flower wreath at the memorial, and Chinese ceremonial gestures and procedures, such as bowing and presentation of incense and burning of sacred paper. 
 
Lincoln Park was once a part of a 200-acre burial ground known as City Cemetery. Historically, the burial of the deceased in the Chinese section of City Cemetery was an occasion for religious rites that included prayer, the burning of incense, food offerings of roast pig and fowl, and the burning of symbolic paper money and clothes for the deceased’s journeys in the afterlife. 

An effort led by District 1 Supervisor Connie Chan is underway to initiate a landmark designation of Lincoln Park “City Cemetery”; more information regarding the history of Lincoln Park and this legislative effort is available here. 

Photos by Michael Durand.