The Qing-ming festival is a festival where Chinese people clean off grave stones. It is also known
as "Pure Brightness Day" or "Tomb-sweeping Day"
The festival is held on April 4th or the 5th of April
The Qinq-ming festival is held so people can pay the respect to the dead
This day is supposed to be both a happy day and sad day
People give food,wine,and money but all that is burned in to make sure all the dead people get it
The most important activity is tomb-sweeping sweeping (dust off the tombs). When people are done sweeping off the tombs they put flowers on them to show the dead they still appreciate them. There are other activities such as flying kites, tree planting and going on spring outings.The Qing Ming Festival (also known as the Pure Brightness Festival) is held on the tenth day of the third lunar month. It is a festival that is held in mourning for the dead. Though it is also a day to celebrate the coming of spring.
The Qing Ming Festival originated from the Cold Food (Hanshi) Festival. The Cold Food Festival was a day when people could only eat cold and/or pre-cooked food. The Cold Food Festival was only replaced by the Qing Ming Festival about 300 years ago.
People sweep the graves of their ancestors because it shows respect. There are three steps in the grave sweeping ritual they consist of cleaning the grave, making offerings to ancestors, as well as burning money that is used for ceremonies.
Animation By Lara
To clean the grave one must remove weeds, make repairs, and repaint engravings in the gravestone.
After cleaning the grave people make offerings to ancestors. The offerings can be meat and fruit for Hou Tu (the graveyard's guardian) and incense for the people's ancestors. People also burn ceremonial money. In different parts of China people burn it differently. Sometimes it isn't burnt at all, rather, it is tossed into the air!!! People may also put rocks on yellow, multi-colored, or white ceremonial paper. These rocks and paper are placed on Hou Tu's alter or the gravestone of an ancestor.
Now, in modern times, people may offer fruit or flowers after they sweep the grave.
To celebrate the spring part of this festival people usually go for picnics.
Some people fly kites (they may do it during the night). The reason being that years ago people would fly kites and then let go of the string. It was believed that the kite would fly off with all the bad luck the person had. That is why some people in China consider it bad to pick up a kite since the person picking it up could get bad luck.
The people who fly kites at night attach lanterns to the string. Inside the lanterns are candles. It is a beautiful sight seeing all the kites and lanterns in the sky.
