What is the Qingming Festival?

April 4th every year is the Qingming Festival in China.

 

This day is also a legal holiday in China. It is usually connected with the weekend of this week and has three days of rest. Of course, all Florescence staff can be found at any time even during the holidays. Here are some introductions to China’s Qingming Festival, sourced from the Internet.

 

What is the Qingming Festival

Woman praying at a grave.
(©kumikomini/Canva)

Have you ever heard of the Qingming (say “ching-ming”) Festival? It’s also known as Grave Sweeping Day. It is a special Chinese festival that honours family ancestors and has been celebrated for over 2,500 years. 

Did you know Qingming is two festivals put together? It is the Chinese Cold Food Day Festival and Grave Sweeping Day.

The festival is celebrated during the first week of April, based on the traditional Chinese lunisolar calendar (a calendar using both the phases and positions of the moon and the sun to determine the date). The next festival will be on April 4th, 2024.

What is Qingming?

Assortment of rice, meat dishes and soup in front of a grave.

Offerings made by a grave. (©Tuayai/Canva)

During Qingming, people go to the graves of their ancestors to pay their respects. They clean the gravesite, share a meal, make offerings and burn joss paper (paper that looks like money).

Green sweet rice balls with a filling.

Sweet green rice balls with filling. (©dashu83 via Canva.com)

Traditionally, cold foods were eaten during Qingming. But today some people include a mixture of warm and cold foods during the festival.

Classic cold food dishes are sweet green rice balls and Sanzi (say “san-ze”). Sanzi are thin strands of dough that look like spaghetti.

A classic warm food dish would be snails that are either cooked with soy sauce or deep fried.

The story behind the festival

Drawing of one hand handing soup to another hand.

(©gingernatyart, ©baddesigner, ©wannafang, ©pikgura, ©Craftery Co./Canva)

This festival is based on an ancient story of Duke Wen and Jie Zitui.

As most of the stories go

Jie saved the Prince from starving to death. He made a soup from his flesh, saving the Prince! The Prince promised that he would reward Jie. 
When the Prince became Duke Wen he forgot about Jie’s reward. He was ashamed and wanted to reward Jie with a job. But Jie didn’t want the job. So he hid with his mother in the forest.”
Unable to find Jie, the Duke started a fire to get him out of hiding. Sadly, Jie and his mother did not survive the fire. The Duke was saddened. Out of respect made a grave for Jie and his mother under a burnt willow tree.

Green luscious willow tree.

(©DebraLee Wiseberg/Canva)
A year later, the Duke returned to visit Jie’s grave. He saw that the burnt willow tree had regrown into a healthy tree. The Duke was amazed! He made a rule that on that day no fire will be used for cooking.

This created the Cold Food Festival which transformed into what Qingming is today.

More than a day of reflection

Group of children flying a rainbow kite.

(©pixelshot/Canva)

Qingming is more than a time to reflect and honour our ancestors. It also marks the beginning of spring.

After paying respects and cleaning the grave, it is encouraged for people and families to spend more time outdoors.

The festival is a time to be out in nature. A popular and fun activity is flying kites. It is believed that if you cut the string of a kite and let it fly away it will take all of your bad luck with it.

Post time: Apr-07-2024