Qingming Festival 2019-Know about China

The Qingming Festival is an important day to show respect to one's ancestors.

Qingming Festival, also called Tomb Sweeping Day or Pure Brightness in English, usually falls on April 4 or 5. Qingming (清明) is the second of 24 solar terms on the traditional Chinese solar calendar. It is also a time for people to go outside and start enjoying the greenery of spring.

In 2019, the Qingming Festival falls on April 5. The public holiday in China is April 5, 2019. Many people have holiday vacation from April 5 to April 7.

Qingming Festival Facts

■ Chinese: 清明节 Qīngmíng jié / ching-ming jyeah/ 'Pure Bright Festival' ■ Date: April 4 or 5 (start of Qingming, solar term 2) ■ Importance: an important day for showing respect to/worshiping ancestors ■ Celebrations: tomb sweeping and upkeep, food/drink offerings, fire crackers ■ History: over 2,500 years

The Most Important Day of Sacrifice

Some people pay their respects to their ancestors by laying wreaths in the front of the graves.

Qingming Festival is a traditional Chinese festival and an important day of sacrifice for most people (including the Han Chinese and China's 55 other ethnic minorities) to go and sweep tombs and commemorate their ancestors. On this day, tomb sweeping is one of the most important and popular activities to show respect to ancestors.

On May 20, 2006, the festival was listed as one of the first national intangible cultural heritage events.

How Do Chinese Celebrate the Qingming Festival?

There are various activities for Qingming Festival. The most popular ones such as tomb upkeep and repair, spring outings, kite flying, and putting willow branches on gates have been an important part of this festival since the beginning.

People often participate in a sport to ward off the cold and in anticipation of the arrival of spring. The festival integrates both reverence and fun through its customs.

Tomb Sweeping — the Most Important Custom of Qingming Festival

At Qingming, people usually worship their ancestors by burning incense and 'paper money' at their ancestors' grave sites.

People commemorate and show respect to their ancestors by visiting their graves, offering food, tea or wine, burning incense, burning or offering joss paper (representing money), etc. They sweep the tombs, remove weeds, and add fresh soil to the graves. They might stick willow branches, flowers, or plastic plants on the tomb. They pray before their ancestors' graves and beseech them to bless their families. However, the custom has been greatly simplified today, especially in cities, where many people only put flowers to the dead relatives.

Putting Willow Branches on Gates

During the Qingming Festival, some people wear soft willow branches and place the branches on gates and front doors. People believe that this custom will ward off wandering evil spirits during Qingming.

That willows are considered magical is mainly a Buddhist influence. Traditional pictures of the Goddess of Mercy Guanyin often show her seated on a rock with a willow branch in a vase of water at her side. The goddess used this mysterious water and branch to scare away demons.

According to historical records, there is an old saying: "Put willow branches up on gates; drive ghosts away from houses."

Spring Outing

The Qingming Festival is a good time to feel the breath of spring.

Qingming is also called Taqing Festival. Taqing (踏青 /taa-ching/ 'tread green') means a spring outing, when people get out and enjoy the spring blossoms.

The festival usually falls on a day not long before everything turns green in the north, and well into the spring flower season in the south.

It marks the beginning of the season when people spend more time outside as the weather warms up.

Kite Flying

Flying kites is also an important custom enjoyed by many people, young and old, during the Qingming Festival. The uniqueness of kite flying during the Qingming Festival lies in that kites are not only flown during the day but also in the evening.

Little colored lanterns are tied to the kites or to the strings that hold the kites. When kites fly in the evening, the lanterns look like twinkling stars.

In the past, people cut the string to let the kite fly freely. People believe that this custom can bring good luck and eliminate diseases. This is why you might sometimes find paper kites lying on the ground in parks and fields.

Kite flying is popular throughout all of China and you will see people doing it on big squares or in parks throughout the entire country.

Foods for Qingming Festival

Sweet green rice balls are one of the most traditional Qingming foods.

The day before Tomb Sweeping Day was the traditional Chinese Cold Food Day. As time passed, the two festivals were gradually combined into one. On the cold food festival day, people used no fire and only ate cold food. Now people in some places still have the custom of eating cold food on Qingming Festival.

Different places have different foods for Qingming Festival. The traditional Qingming festival foods include sweet green rice balls, peach blossom porridge, crispy cakes, Qingming snails, and eggs. These foods are usually cooked one or two days before the arrival of the Qingming Festival so people can eat and recreate during the holidays.

Sweet Green Rice Balls

Sweet Green Rice Balls (青团 qīngtuán /ching-twann/ 'green dumpling(s)') are a popular Qingming food that are made of a mixture of glutinous rice powder and green vegetable juice and stuffed with sweetened bean paste. Sweet green rice balls are jade-green in color, glutinous in taste, and sweet in aroma.

Qingming Cakes

Qingming cakes are called sazi (撒子sāzi /saa-dzuh/ [phonetic]) or hanju (寒具 hánjù /han-jyoo/ 'cold tools'). They are a crispy fried food that are made of wheat flour or glutinous rice flour, eggs, sesame, onion, salt, and other ingredients.

Among some Chinese ethnic minorities, such as the Uygur in Xinjiang, the Dongxiang in Gansu, the Naxi in Yunnan, and the Hui in Ningxia, sazi is famed for its great variety and many flavors.

Other Qingming Foods

Qingming snails is a dish cooked with snails, onions, ginger, soy sauce, cooking wine, and sugar.

Peach blossom porridge is a kind of porridge cooked with fresh peach blossom and rice.

When Did the Qingming Festival Begin?

The Qingming Festival started in the Zhou Dynasty, and has a history of over 2,500 years.

It originated from the extravagant and ostentatiously expensive ceremonies that many ancient emperors and wealthy officials held in honor of their ancestors. They offered sacrifices to their ancestors and beseeched them to bless the country with prosperity, peace, and good harvests.

In the year 732, Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty, declared that respect could only be paid formally at ancestors' graves on the first day of the Qingming solar term. From then on, sweeping tombs on the first of Qingming gradually became popular with both royal and common families, and the tradition has lasted over a millennia.

Language Tips for Qingming Festival

■清明节 (Qīngmíng Jié /ching-ming jyeh/): Qingming Festival ■扫墓 (sǎomù /saow-moo/): sweep tombs ■祭祖 (jì zǔ /jee dzoo/): worship (sacrifice to) ancestors ■纸钱 (zhǐqián /jrr-chyen/): joss paper — paper made to resemble money and burned as an offering to the dead ■烧香 (shāoxiāng /shaoww-hsyang/): burn joss sticks (incense)