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Tomb Sweeping Day 清明節

Tomb Sweeping Day, an interesting holiday 

What is Tomb Sweeping day? 

Qing Ming festival is a holiday that's meant to commemorate and pay respect to a person's ancestors. On this day families visit the gravesite of their ancestors, and they gather there to honor their ancestors by praying, cleaning the graves, burning incense and remembering those who passed away. 

Tomb Sweeping day, is a holiday that's celebrated 15 days after the Spring Equinox following the Chinese Lunar calendar, or 107 days after winter has begun, which means that this holiday usually falls between April 4th and April 6th. It's important to mention that Tomb Sweeping Day is considered and official holiday in China, in which most people get the day off from work and from school. 

The origin of this holiday

The QingMing Festival grew out of an ancient Chinese festival called 寒食. The Hanshi Festival is also known as the Cool Food Festival. The Hanshi Festival was originally celebrated to commemorate Jie Zitui, a Chinese nobleman of the Spring and Autumn Period (around 771 BC to 476 BC). Jie Zitui was a loyal follower of Duke Wen of Jin. At one point, when the duke was going through hard times, Jie Zitui cut some flesh from his own leg and with it, he prepared a soup for the duke to keep him from starving.
 
By the time the Duke was restored to his throne nineteen years later, he had forgotten about Jie Zitui, but when he remembered, he immediately sent his guards to find him and repay him for his sacrifice. Jie Zitui and his mother had long since moved to another part of the mountain and could not be found. Frustrated, Duke Wen ordered the mountain to be set on fire in order to drive Jie Zutui down. After the fire, the royal guards discovered Jie Zitui and his mother dead. To commemorate Jie, Duke Wen declared that day would become Tomb Sweeping Day, and on that day only cold food could be eaten (Hanshi Festival). This tradition is still upheld today.

How is the QingMing Festival celebrated?

As it was previously mention, one of the main activities is to visit the cemeteries and in there people usually light incense, pray, and they burn paper offerings. 
The reason they burn offerings is to ensure their ancestors’ happiness in the afterlife. These offerings can include rice, liquor, fruits, and flowers. As well, ghost money and zhiza are burned at a small fire in front of the grave. Ghost money (or joss money), is special sheets of paper money bought in bundles, and before burning every sheet must be touched. Zhiza are paper models of belongings the ancestor cherished in life such as cars, houses, jewelry, etc. Whatever is offered or burnt is considered “sent” to the next world for the comfort and enjoyment of the ancestors.

Apart from those activities a lot of families also use this holiday to celebrate life and springtime, some people have picnics in the graveyard and others will simply spend sometime outdoors to enjoy nature while participating in a spring outing known as  踏青 (tàqīng), one of the most popular activities during this time is flying kites. 

Finally, it is important to mention that this particular holiday has its owns special dishes which are all consume cold, because they follow Hanshi festival's traditions. During this time people usually eat: 青团 (qīngtuán), which are round, sticky and slightly sweet green dumplings made with glutinous rice and either barley grass or Chinese mugwort. The dumplings are often stuffed with some sort of filling, such as sweet red bean paste. Another popular dish during this time is 馓子 (sǎnzi). These are deep-fried salty dough twists which are cooked in advance and allowed to cool and dry. Because each crunchy twist is made up of multiple thin strands of dough, each 馓子 (sǎnzi) looks rather like a bunch of spaghetti. They are eaten cold and are often seasoned with sesame seeds.

Sources:

Meredith A. (2022). China's QingMing Festival, Explained. StudyCli. (Retrived: April, 2022.) https://studycli.org/chinese-holidays/qingming-festival/

Munk P. (2022). Tomb Sweepind Day in Taiwan. Community Center Taiwan. (Retrived: April, 2022) https://www.communitycenter.org.tw/tomb-sweeping-day-in-taiwan-what-is-it-and-how-to-celebrate/



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