Qing Ming Jie Qing Ming Festival Tomb Sweeping Day

Qing Ming Jie is Qing Ming Festival – Qīng Míng Jié 清明節|清明节 in Chinese. It is also wildly known as Tomb Sweeping Day in the Chinese community.  This day always falls on the third lunar month, the date on the western calendar is April 5.

For world culture exploration, you can compare the similarities and differences between the following world festivals:

• Chinese Qing Ming Jie 清明節 | 清明节

• Day of the Dead (Dia de Muertos)

• All Saints Day

• Halloween 萬聖節 | 万圣节

• Chinese Hungry Ghost Festival 鬼月中元節 | 鬼月中元节

• Japanese Obon お盆 or Bon 盆

One important cultural fact that I want to point out about Qing Ming Jie (Qing Ming Festival) is that Chinese people DO NOT say “Happy Qing Ming Festival (Qīng Míng Jié kuài lè)”  This is a day to commemorate the passing of their loved ones and their ancestors.  It is considered a dignified and solemn occasion.  

Geography

• People in China and Taiwan observe the Qing Ming Festival.

• Qing Ming Jie is a public holiday in China and Taiwan.

• Many Chinese communities all over the world follow the tradition of the Qing Ming Festival.

Expressions to Know

• Qing Ming Festival – Qīng míng jié 清明節

• Qing Ming Tomb Sweeping – qīng míng sǎo mù 清明掃墓

• Cemetery – mù yuán 墓園

• During the Qing Ming Festival, (families) go to the cemetery to clean up family members’ tombs. 清明節到墓園掃墓 

A Poem for Thought

On the day of Qing Ming it rained and rained, people walking on the road showed their deep sorrow.

Qīng míng shí jié yǔ fēn fēn, lù shàng xíng rén yù duàn hún.

清明時節雨紛紛，路上行人欲斷魂。

借問酒家何處有，牧童遙指杏花村。

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Tradition

• Chinese people usually avoid going to cemeteries.

• However, during the Qing Ming Festival, you can see heavy traffic or even traffic jams on the way to cemeteries.

• The Qing Ming Festival is the time of the year people visit cemeteries to clean up the tombs of their ancestors and loved ones.

• Qing Ming means “clean and bright.”  During the festival, families clean up their families’ tombs, retouch headstone inscriptions, and worship the ancestors by lighting up incense, burning paper money for ancestors to use in the afterlife, and displaying fruit, food, and flowers for ancestors to “enjoy”.  Families will take the fruit and food home to eat later.

• In recent years, in addition to paper money,  families might also burn paper mansions, paper laptops, paper phones, and even paper luxury cars as offerings to their ancestors.

Origin

Qing Ming Festival originated from Hán shí jié 寒食節|寒食节, also known as the Hán Shí Festival, or Cold Food Festival.  The Hán Shí Festival was in memory of Jiè zhī tuī 介子推, a nobleman who served Jìn Wén Gōng 晉文公, Duke Wen of Jin, during his exile in the Chinese Spring and Autumn Period known as Chūn qiū shí dài 春秋時代|春秋时代 (7BC-4BC).

The story was that when Duke Wen of Jin held power after all the hardship he went through with the loyal and devoted Jiè zhī tuī 介子推 on his side, the Duke did not award Jie.  Jie retired from the political scene and lived in the deep forest with his mother.  The Duke ordered the forest to be set on fire to force Jie to come out of hiding – however, it instead killed him and his mother.  When it was found that Jie had died, Duke Wen commemorated Jie every year, and these yearly commemorations eventually became the Cold Food Festival, Qing Ming Festival.

One dish that people eat on Cold Food Festival (or Qing Ming Festival) is the Chinese Spring Crepe-chūn bǐng (春餅|春饼), which is also called chūn juǎn (春捲｜春卷) or rùn bǐng (潤餅｜润饼).  These crepes are wrapped in thin wraps with cold fillings.  Do you see the relation to the Cold Food Festival?

Introduction to Qing Ming Festival Video Stories

Qing Ming Festival – audio in Mandarin, subtitle in simplified Chinese