Qingming Festival or Tomb Sweeping is a festival in China where Chinese people remember their dead family members. This time is both sad and happy as you surely remember that you miss relatives you knew but you are happy that you knew them and that they have gone on to a different place. The celebration occurs 104 days after the winter solstice or 15 days after the spring equinox usually landing around April 4-6 on the Gregorian Calendar. Astronomically it is also a solar term(See Qingming). The Qingming festival falls on the first day of the fifth solar term, named Qingming. Its name denotes a time for people to go outside and enjoy the greenery of springtime (踏青 Tàqīng, "treading on the greenery") and tend to the graves of departed ones.
Qingming has been regularly observed as a statutory public holiday inTaiwan, Hong Kong and Macau. Its observance was reinstated as a nationwide public holiday in mainland China in 2008. This holiday is also observed in Vietnam. Some people carry willow branches with them on Qingming, or put willow branches on their gates and/or front doors. They believe that willow branches help ward off the evil spirit that wanders on Qingming.
This festival is known by sevral names in the west:
All Souls Day (not to be confused with the Roman Catholic holiday, All Souls Day, of the same name) Clear Bright Festival Ancestors Day Festival for Tending Graves Grave Sweeping Day Chinese Memorial Day Tomb Sweeping Day Spring Remembrance
I researched this on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qingming_Festival andhttp://english.cntv.cn/special/qingmingfest/01/index.shtml
Please check out this and other festivals that I have mentioned on my trip in China!
Qingming has been regularly observed as a statutory public holiday inTaiwan, Hong Kong and Macau. Its observance was reinstated as a nationwide public holiday in mainland China in 2008. This holiday is also observed in Vietnam. Some people carry willow branches with them on Qingming, or put willow branches on their gates and/or front doors. They believe that willow branches help ward off the evil spirit that wanders on Qingming.
This festival is known by sevral names in the west:
All Souls Day (not to be confused with the Roman Catholic holiday, All Souls Day, of the same name) Clear Bright Festival Ancestors Day Festival for Tending Graves Grave Sweeping Day Chinese Memorial Day Tomb Sweeping Day Spring Remembrance
I researched this on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qingming_Festival andhttp://english.cntv.cn/special/qingmingfest/01/index.shtml
Please check out this and other festivals that I have mentioned on my trip in China!