Ching Ming Festival | Tomb Sweeping Festival

Qingming Festival (清明节 or Qīngmíngjié in pīnyīn), also called Tomb Sweeping Day or Pure Brightness Festival, is an important traditional Chinese holiday. The festival is celebrated both in China and among members of Chinese communities around the world. The main activity that people engage in on this day is cleaning the tombs of their ancestors. Qingming Festival is often referred to as Tomb Sweeping Day in English and this name makes sense considering the fact that tomb sweeping is the most important activity that people engage in on this holiday. In addition to cleaning their ancestors’ tombs and making offerings to the dead, people also go on outings to enjoy nature, fly kites and eat special foods during this time.

In the countryside, Chinese tombs have changed very little over the years. Most are not located in a graveyard. Instead, they are often located in an auspicious place with good 风水 fēng shui, usually on the side of a hill or a mountain.The bodies of the dead are buried in the ground instead of being cremated. Often, all the relatives in one family group will be buried near each other. If a family is not well-off, the tombs may simply be large unmarked mounds of dirt. In wealthier families, there will often be a large earth burial mound with a flat semi-circular area in front of it that has been cemented over.

In the countryside, once the graves are cleared, offerings are usually placed at the foot of the burial mounds or on the semi-circle of cement in front of those graves that have been cemented over. What is left as an offering varies by family and by region. A typical offering in rural Hunan, for example, might consist of a bowl of rice with chopsticks, a plastic cup of the strong Chinese liquor known as 白酒 (báijiǔ), and a chicken head or other piece of meat.In the countryside, once the graves are cleared, offerings are usually placed at the foot of the burial mounds or on the semi-circle of cement in front of those graves that have been cemented over.

Once the offering has been placed in front of the tomb, family members set off firecrackers (鞭炮 biānpào) and burn incense (香 xiāng) and paper hell money (冥钞 míngchāo). Firecrackers are now banned in most cities, so on or around the Qingming Festival, relatives of those who are buried in cities may simply visit the graves, burn some incense, and leave some flowers.