The Significance and Main Activity of Tomb - Sweeping Day
Tomb-Sweeping Day (April 4th or 5th), also known as the Qingming Festival, is a traditional Chinese festival, which typically represents the Chinese culture of respecting ancestors.
The main activities of Qingming Festival are about tomb sweeping, honoring a family’s ancestors by means of tidying gravesites. People show their respect for their relatives who are in the afterlife by visiting the cemetery, refreshing the paint on the gravestone’s lettering and making offerings of food, incense and joss paper. The Chinese believe that ceremonial offerings convey material comforts for the ancestors in the afterlife, which shows people’s good wishes. Food and drink provide basic needs and nourishment, while “hell money” and paper replicas of cars, appliances and electronics offer the luxuries relatives who passed away may lack. Not only is burning joss paper a sign of respect, but it’s believed that the smoke rises into the heavens and the messages are passed on to the ancestors.
The Mourning Atmosphere and Spring - related Aspects of Tomb - Sweeping Day
It often rains, especially in Southern China during Qingming Festival, which deepens people’s mood of mourning for the relatives.
Taking a springtime outing is another activity during Qingming Festival, which provides a refreshing counterbalance to the somber task of tomb sweeping. People can enjoy the spring’s new blossoms, stroll in the countryside, visit the local botanical garden, camp in the neighborhood park or fly a kite in the open field. Additionally, Qingming is a significant indicator for farmers since it, literally meaning “pure” and “bright”, is a period of rejuvenation and growth referred to as a seasonal signpost for plowing and sowing seeds.
