Chongmyong is a traditional East Asian holiday centered on ancestral rites when families visit graves, burn incense and share food and drink in remembrance of their loved ones. Yet this year on April 5 – coinciding with Easter as the West celebrated the risen Jesus – that ritual has largely vanished in North Korea as authorities ordered the systematic removal of graves from hillsides and forests, quietly draining one of the country’s last traditional holidays of its meaning.
GRIEVING ancestors IN PRIVATE
North Korea’s grave removal campaign has effectively stripped one of the country’s remaining traditional festivals of its emotional and social core. Sources in North Pyongan province reported that in Phihyon and Chonma counties, the hillsides were strikingly empty this past Chongmyong. Compared to previous years where families from across the country would be permitted by the state to travel, hike together and spend hours visiting tombs, this rare family reunion has largely disappeared, leaving only sparse visits from those who still dare to show up.
For context, since becoming a public holiday in 2010, Kim Jong-un’s administration has ordered the removal of graves from hillsides and forests near the Chinese border in recent years, citing land management, reforestation and “beautification” as justifications. Households that failed to obey tight deadlines were warned that the authorities would exhume the graves themselves. Under that pressure, most families chose to dig up their ancestors’ remains and have them cremated, surrendering the physical site that once anchored their memories. A handful of graves remain scattered here and there, but those who still visit do so quickly, making brief offerings before leaving to avoid drawing official attention.
Beyond the ritual itself, the loss of Chongmyong affects the very fabric of family life. The holiday has long served as one of the few occasions when relatives living in different parts of the country could reunite and exchange news, but now “even that kind of holiday is gone, the connections we had left feel like they’re drying up too. With the graves removed, there’s no reason to gather anymore,” said one of the sources. Others described a deeper pain that cuts community-level ties that have persisted years under one of the world’s most restrictive political systems.
SUPERSTITION AND CRACKDOWN ON THE MOURNING
In some regions of South Hwanghae province, the dismantling of ancestral customs has taken a more sinister turn. A baseless rumor has spread in rural areas that “disaster will strike your family if you don’t move your ancestor’s grave by the end of the year,” fueling anxiety and confusion among mostly agricultural communities. The rumor has caused people who had already scheduled tomb relocations to delay their work, while others who heard the claim have begun flocking to fortune tellers, convinced that their hardships stem from bad luck or “unfavorable” grave placement.
The Ministry of State Security has reacted with alarm, treating the rumor as a threat to ideological control. Declaring it “anti-socialist behavior,” the ministry launched a sweeping crackdown under the banner of a “group to wipe out superstition,” working alongside local police units to hunt down anyone who spreads or believes the rumor. The crackdown has targeted fortune tellers near marketplaces, shamans and middlemen involved in tomb relocation, arresting individuals deemed “anti-socialist elements” on the grounds that superstition is “the beginning of the counterrevolution.”
Families already reeling from the loss of ancestral sites now also live under the watchful eye of security forces, who may harass even unrelated people as part of the ideological purge. For ordinary North Koreans, this adds insult to injury: the physical erasure of graves and the psychological erasure of the rituals that once gave them comfort, identity and a sense of continuity with their ancestors. The greater unintended consequence is the unfortunate discouraging of time with family and friends in what is infamously the world’s most oppressive country.
