Qing Ming Festival

The Tomb Sweeping Festival, also called Qingming(清明) in Chinese, is an important springtime festival when people visit the gravesites of their ancestors, pay respects to the dead at their tombs and hold memorial ceremonies in honor of their ancestors. This is one of many ways to demonstrate filial piety. As part of honoring the dead, people also spend some time cleaning the gravesite area. They uproot the weeds near the gravesite, plant some new trees, polish the tombstones and decorate it with fresh flowers.

However, it is not just a day for mourning the dead. The festival is celebrated two weeks after the Vernal Equinox(春分), and the dates usually turn out to be the 4th, 5th, or 6th of April. Thus people also go out to celebrate the new season, the onset of warmer weather, the start of spring plowing as well as a family outing. Nowadays, Qingming is not just a day of remembrance; it is also a day to celebrate the coming of spring. With the coming of spring, nature awakens and dresses the world in green. All is new, clean and fresh and therefore, Qingming is also a happy occasion for outdoor activities such as picnicking, tug-of-war, kite-flying, swinging and dancing. This might explain why this festival has been so popular for thousands of years.