Qingming festival (Tomb-Sweeping Day)

The Qingming Festival is an annual Chinese holiday celebrating the Cold Food Day Festival and Grave Sweeping Day. The festival falls on April 4 or 5 each year and is one of China's seven national holidays. The people honor their ancestors by cleaning their graves, burning paper money and incense, and leaving flowers and offerings of food at gravesites. The Qingming Festival, which means “pure brightness” in Chinese, is also a celebration of spring, with participants flying kites and feasting on traditional foods. The modern festival is a joyous occasion, but legend holds that the holiday is based on a tragic event that occurred thousands of years ago during the Zhou dynasty (1050–221 BCE).

Background

China celebrates seven official national holidays each year. The first is New Year’s Day, or Yuándàn, which corresponds to the January 1 New Year’s celebrations of the Gregorian calendar. In China, the day has become a shopping holiday. It is often called International New Year to distinguish it from Chinese New Year, the nation’s most important holiday. The date of Chinese New Year is tied to China’s traditional lunar calendar and changes each year. It typically falls in late January or early February.

Labor Day and International Workers’ Day fall on May 1. The Dragon Boat Festival, also called the Duanwu Festival, falls on the fifth day of the fifth month in the Chinese lunar calendar—typically June in the Gregorian calendar. The festival’s namesake races are said to be held in honor of an ancient poet who committed suicide by drowning after being accused of treason. The poet was beloved by the locals, who rushed to their boats to try to save him.

The Mid-Autumn Festival is a Chinese harvest festival occurring on the fifteenth day of the lunar calendar’s eighth month (between September 8 and October 7). The occasion is known for its festive lanterns and the eating of ceremonial pastries called mooncakes. China also celebrates National Day to commemorate the successful communist revolution and the founding of the People’s Republic of China on October 1, 1949. Most Chinese national holidays are one-day celebrations, although if the holiday falls close to a weekend, the government may extend the festival period from three to five days. The celebration of Chinese New Year always lasts seven or eight days. If the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day fall in the same week, they are combined, and celebrations last seven or eight days.

Overview

The seventh Chinese national holiday is the Qingming Festival, a holiday whose origins date back to the Zhou dynasty. The dynasty, China’s longest, lasted from 1050 to 221 BCE. According to legend, in the seventh century BCE, Prince Wen of the Jin state was exiled from his homeland to avoid falling victim to political intrigue. In exile, Wen was accompanied by numerous attendants who protected and served the young prince. Legends assert that one of those attendants, Jie Zitui, cut flesh from his own leg to feed the hungry boy.

After nineteen years in exile, Wen returned home to take up the rule of the Jin state. He rewarded all his servants who aided him in exile, but Jie Zitui refused any reward and retreated to a remote mountain to live alone. Wen forgot about his former attendant until a year later, when he was overcome with regret for not properly honoring him. He set off to find Jie Zitui, but his former servant would not speak to him. To force him out of the mountain, Wen set fire to the forest, but Jie Zitui still refused to leave, burning to death and grasping an old willow tree.

Wen was devastated and declared the day the Hanshi, or cold food festival. Fires were forbidden on this day, and people could only eat cold food. A year later, Wen returned to the site and found the willow tree still standing. He declared the day after Hanshi to be Qingming Jie, “pure and bright day,” in honor of Jie Zitui. Over the centuries, Hanshi and Qingming Jie combined as one holiday—the Qingming Festival.

The modern Qingming Festival falls on the fifteenth day after the spring equinox. Typically, this date corresponds to April 4 or 5, but it sometimes falls on April 6. The festival’s main purpose is to honor the memory of deceased ancestors. Families gather to visit and clean their relatives’ gravesites, sweeping the tombs, removing weeds, and adding fresh soil if needed. They may burn incense and leave flowers and offerings of the deceased’s favorite food or wine. Some families also burn joss paper that looks like money so their ancestors can buy whatever they want in the afterlife.

The Qingming Festival is also an annual ritual for families to enjoy the spring weather. After ceremonies at a loved one’s gravesite, families have picnics and fly special kites with colored lanterns hanging from the end of the kite or its tail. Superstition holds that letting go of a kite brings good luck and wards off illness.

Many families make special foods for the celebration, which extends to South Korea and Vietnam. Foods differ between regions. Among the traditional cold foods are sweet green rice balls made of rice and vegetables stuffed with bean paste called Qīngtuán. Thin, rope-like strips of deep-fried dough served cold, called Sangza, are also popular. Those who eat warm meals on this day often eat snails, Zitui steamed buns, or thin savory pancakes. In the southeastern Fujian province, eating steamed rice with leaf mustard on this day is believed to prevent skin diseases in the coming year. In the eastern Shandong province, eating spring onion with an omelet is eaten to improve eyesight and brighten the eyes.

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