The Qingming Festival, also known as Tomb-sweeping Day, Ancestors' Day, or Chinese Memorial Day, is a traditional Chinese holiday which falls on April 4-6. The event has a close relationship with agriculture as well as with paying respect to dead relatives, keeping their tombstone clean and swept, reuniting with families for the spring outing, etc. This is a unique occasion when family picnic delight is integrated with tears for the dead.
The most significant custom of Quingming is Tomb sweeping. Chinese people pay respect to their ancestors by traveling to their graves and clearing away weeds, planting willows, repairing gravestones, and bringing the dead person's favorite food and drinks, along with paper similar to money. After this ritual, the burning of all that stuff has to take place .
Now, with the ceremony of cremation prevailing over burying, traditions have been simplified a little bit: no food or sweeping, only flowers and good prayers for revolutionary martyrs and dead relatives.
But things can't be all that sad, when the flowers blossom, trees go green and the sun shines softly. Qingming is also about family reunion and togetherness of people when everyone is enjoying themselves during a spring outing.
Another entertaining day-and-night activity during the Qingming celebration is flying Kites. And if a daytime program is a little bit common, the evening sky full of kites forms an unforgettable performance with small lanterns which are tied to the string that holds a kite, or to the kite itself. People usually cut the rope of the kite to let it fly free. It is believed that this procedure wards off diseases and brings good luck.
The most spectacular celebrations of qingming you'll face Beijing, Chengdu, Qingdao, Wenzhou, Shanghai, Nanchang, and much more.
