A New York visitor to Vancouver placed a garland of roses on the grave of his grandfather. As he turned to leave, he noticed an old Chinese man placing a bowl of rice on a grave nearby. The American smiled.

The Chinese man, noticing this, bowed. “What please you so?” he politely inquired.

“I was just wondering – when do you expect the dead to eat that rice?”

“About the same time,” sighed the Chinese man, “that your dead smell those flowers.”