{"id":6266,"date":"2019-11-10T08:40:29","date_gmt":"2019-11-10T08:40:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chinesemoment.com\/chinese-culture\/qing-ming-jie-tomb-sweeping-day\/"},"modified":"2019-11-10T08:40:29","modified_gmt":"2019-11-10T08:40:29","slug":"qing-ming-jie-tomb-sweeping-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chinesemoment.com\/my\/qing-ming-jie-tomb-sweeping-day\/","title":{"rendered":"\u6e05\u660e\u8282 Tomb Sweeping Day"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Qingmingjie(\u6e05\u660e\u8282 q\u012bng míng jié), known as ‘Tomb Sweeping Day’, falls on April 5th this year.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Qingming Festival literally means ‘clear bright festival’ and it celebrates the rebirth of nature, the beginning of the planting season and other outdoor activities. It’s a traditio<\/em>nal Chinese festival on the 15th day from the vernal equinox. It usually falls on either April 4th, 5th or 6th of the solar calendar. It’s actually one of the few traditio<\/em>nal Chinese holidays that follow the solar calendar.
 
For Chinese people it’s also an im<\/em>portant day to remember and ho<\/em>nour one’s ancestors and visit and maintain their graves. Young and old people pray before their ancestors, sweep and tidy their tombs and offer food, tea, wine, chopsticks or incense. These rites are very im<\/em>portant to most Chinese people.<\/p>\n

Some people also carry willow branches with them during Qingmingjie, or put willow branches on their gates and\/or front doors because they think that these willow branches can help ward off the evil ghosts that wander around during Qingming.<\/p>\n

In some ways ‘Tomb sweeping day’ is not o<\/em>nly a solemn day to remember those who have passed away, but also a day for excursions, outings and renewal. In ancient times people celebrated with singing, dancing, picnics and kite flying and many of these traditions co<\/em>ntinue today. People go on family outings and farmers start their spring ploughing in the countryside. Another popular thing to do is to fly kites. These kites come in all different shapes and sizes with many resembling different animals, dragons and fish.<\/p>\n

The day before Qingming was called ‘Hanshi’ in ancient times. It was created by Chong’er, the Duke Wen of the state of Jin (\u664b\u6587\u516c) during the Spring and Autumn Periods when he accidentally killed his perso<\/em>nal friend and servant Jie Zitui (\u4ecb\u5b50\u63a8) and his mother in a fire in the hope of making Jie Zitui return to him (Chong’er). So during Hanshi, people were not allowed to use fire to heat up their food, thus it was nicknamed ‘the Cold Food Festival’. At that time the Hanshi ‘celebration’ was combined with the Qingming festival, but was later abando<\/em>ned by most people. Nowadays, in some places, people still eat dumplings especially made for the occasion.<\/p>\n

[s\u01ceo mù] <\/span>\u626b\u5893<\/strong> <\/span>sweep a grave <\/span>
[ch\u0101 li\u01d4] <\/span>\u63d2\u67f3<\/strong> <\/span>carry willow
[tà q\u012bng ] <\/span>\u8e0f\u9752<\/strong> <\/span>go outing
[fàng f\u0113ng zh\u0113ng] <\/span>\u653e\u98ce\u7b5d<\/strong> <\/span>fly kites<\/font><\/p>\n<\/div>\n