Background of Ching Ming Festival

Ching Ming is a Chinese rite marking the beginning of spring that is focused on ancestor worship. On this day, people visit gravesites and make offerings to the souls of their deceased relatives. In english, we call it a Ching Ming Festival, Grave-Sweeping Day, Clear and Bright Festival. Ching Ming is held on the 106th day after winter solstice, and usually occurs on April 4 or 5.

It may be appropriate to offer an e-mail acknowledgment of this date, but a greeting may not be necessary.

Ching Ming is a major public festival that is generally treated as an official holiday in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. It is considered unlucky to conduct business on this day, and as a result many businesses will be closed and business leaders unavailable. Government agencies, banks and schools are generally closed. Traffic may be heavy and public transportation crowded, especially in areas near cemeteries. The transit system provides extra service to accommodate the crowds. You should expect delays on public transport and on roadways.

Background Description

On Ching Ming (or Qing Ming), celebrants traditionally visit ancestral graves, where special rites are held and offerings are made in honor of ancestors. This event occurs in the spring; Chung Yeung is a counterpart observance in the fall. Such events are related to the Chinese tradition of receiving blessings from previous generations when undertaking a new venture. Ching Ming unfolds in a picnic-like atmosphere and is considered a time for happy communion with ancestors rather than a somber occasion.

Visiting the cemetery is referred to as hang san (walking the mountain). A series of activities learing the gravesite of dirt and debris, weeding around the site, and repainting inscriptions on the gravestone re together referred to as “sweeping” the grave. Wine and a variety of foods may be placed around the gravesite (along with appropriate tableware such as glasses and chopsticks) as offerings to the spirit of the deceased. Eating the food that was offered to the deceased is considered good luck. Paper money is burned for use in the afterlife, candles are lit, and family members bow and kneel in respect. Many of today’s offerings may be simple, consisting of incense, paper money and flowers. Families may also set off firecrackers to drive evil spirits away from the gravesite.

For Chinese immigrant communities, Ching Ming is observed as a traditional and cultural ritual rather than a religious practice. In the United States, Ching Ming is most commonly observed in the state of Hawaii.

How will people spend China’s 1st Qingming Festival holiday?

The upcoming Qingming Festival on Friday will be the first time that a Chinese solar term festival has become a national holiday.

The festival is known as tomb-sweeping day. But apart from tomb sweeping, modern Chinese are left a little bewildered as to how tomark their first holiday for the 2,500-year-old Qingming Festival. Many hope the first Qingming Festival holiday would help restore along-lost joyous sentiment to the solemn tomb-sweeping day.

“Qingming, literally meaning Pure Bright, is celebrated by bothHan and minority ethnic groups. It is the time when sun shines brightly, trees and grass become green and the nature is again lively, ” said Professor Xi Zhiqun from the Capital Normal University in Beijing.

He is among Chinese folk customs experts committed to helping young people retrieve long-lost ways of celebrating the traditional festival day by chanting ancient funeral orations, re-enacting ancient rituals of worship of the earth and flying kites.

The first-ever “Qingming Poem Party”, sponsored by the Beijing municipal government, was unveiled Tuesday at the Beijing International Sculpture Park, gathering an audience of more than 2,000.

Over 30 professional poem-speakers, along with 400 pupils recited nearly 30 Chinese traditional and modern poems and prose with themes ranging from spring to revolution. They received wavesof applauses from tourists in the park, many of whom chanted voluntarily along the way.

Another scene at the Temple of Agricultural Ancestors in Beijing: a crowd of hundreds of students formed every day chanting prayers and performing ancient rituals of worshipping nature under the guidance of folk-customs experts a week before the festival.

Professor Xi believed that by designating the Qingming Festival as a national holiday, the government would help revive traditional springtime exercises such as playing on swings, and some long-lost cultural values of the festival, such as paying tribute to mother nature.

A woman who took with her three-year-old granddaughter to the poem party felt fortunate to find such a civilized way to celebrate Qingming.

“No parents want to take their children to a foul atmosphere at a graveyard where the smoke of incense and paper money permeates in the air,” said the 65-year-old woman, named Wang Guizhen

For decades, the Qingming Festival has only been only used by filial Chinese to tend the graves of the dead. When sweeping tombs,people offer food, flowers and favorite items to the dead, then burn incense and paper money and bow before memorial tablet.

“It normally took us 20 days to clear away all the garbage left by tomb sweepers after every Qingming Festival. Presenting sacrifice and burning paper money and other paper sacrifices is a practice that is hard to get rid of,” said a worker with the Banshan Public Cemetery in Hangzhou, capital of east China’s Zhejiang Province.

The cemetery receives 80,000 tomb-sweepers at Qingming Festival every year.

Despite years of efforts calling for more civilized behavior when tomb-sweeping, such as a virtual fete on the Internet, the number of tomb sweepers is not in decline. This year there will be more as the festival has now become a holiday.

Earlier this week, Jiao Meiyan, spokeswoman with the National Meteorological Bureau warned of a strong possibility of fire disasters around Qingming, because of dry weather and a travel peak on the newly designated national holiday.

The National Headquarters of Forest-Fire Prevention, the State Forestry Administration, and the Ministry of Civil Affairs have also decided to make a joint effort to be on guard against forest fires around Qingming.

Apr 3~5, 2010 Ching Ming Festival

Ching Ming Festival (Tomb Sweeping Festival) of 2010 at Apr 5. From Apr 3~5,  China  has holiday during this three 3 days.

Ching Ming – a Grave-Sweeping Day
Ching Ming festival is also known as the Grave-sweeping or Spring Remembrance Day celebrated on April- 5. It is an ancestor worship festival native to China. Ching means ‘clear’ and Ming means ‘bright’, it is the day when Chinese families show their respect by visiting the graves of their ancestors, clear away weeds, touch up gravestone inscriptions and make offerings of wine and fruit.

Commemorating the Ancestors
The Chinese believe in cultural harmony and had due respect for their elders as well as for their ancestors. The young ones are taught to pray to their ancestors. Young people accompany their parents to the gravesite and assist their parents in the purification ceremony of the grave. The “willow” is regarded as the symbol of ‘light and enemy of darkness’ in Chinese culture, therefore on this day, the willow twigs and branches are hung on doorways to throw away the evil spirits. The Chinese believe that if you don’t hang the willow, then you will born as a ‘yellow dog’ in your next life!

Ching-Ming Ceremony
Ching Ming rituals not only include cleaning of the grave but also include many other ceremonies.
The money is lightened for the deceased to use in his after life. In addition to this, food is laid out in front of the headstone that includes –a steamed whole chicken, hard boiled eggs, sliced barbecued pork, cut roast pork with crunchy skin attached and the dim sum pastries. Besides these the 3-sets of chopsticks and 3 Chinese wine cups are arranged above the food to be used by the deceased.
The family head usually performs the ceremony, he bows 3 times with the wine cup in hand in front of the grave and then he pours the wine on the ground just in front of the headstone. The procedure is normally repeated 3- times. Each member of the family comes in front of the headstone and bows three times, families often eat the food there at the grave site, as if having a picnic with their deceased relatives. Chinese have a strong notion that by doing this, it will bring good luck in the family.

Related Article:

• How will people spend China’s 1st Qingming Festival holiday?
• Background of Ching Ming Festival
• 2010 Chinese traditional festival holidays

Ching Ming Festival

Ching Ming or Qingming, meaning clear and bright, is the day for mourning the dead, a day for Chinese families to visit our ancestors graves. It falls in early April every year and corresponds with the onset of warmer weather, the start of spring, and of family outings. This is a one-day holiday in Hong Kong for the descendants to “sweep the graves” of their ancestors. It is not a solemn occasion, but rather, a time for happy communion with the family members to show respect to their ancestors.

To “sweep the graves” means to clear the graves of all the leaves and weeds and repaint the inscriptions on it. The Chinese believe that too many leaves surrounding the graves disturb the spirit of the ancestors. Then food such as fruit, rice, wine, chicken, pork, cakes etc., the favorite food of the ancestors, will be put around the grave for the spirit of the ancestors. The Chinese believe that the dead ancestors are not eating well in their afterlife. Giving them their favorite food not only shows respect for them but also brings the descendants good life and health. The Chinese believe that the spirit has power to fulfil wishes. The food is not wasted as after prayers they will be brought back and shared among the descendants. The Chinese believe that eating them brings good health. Also, paper money is burned, candles are lit and the whole family kneels to pay respect. The Chinese also believes that paper money can be consumed in heaven or hell.

In ancient China, Qingming was by no means the only time when sacrifices were made to ancestors. In fact, such ceremonies were held very frequently, about every two weeks, in addition to other important holidays and festivals. The ceremonies were so elaborate and expensive that later in 732A.D., Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty declared that respects would be formally paid at the tombs of ancestors only on the day of Qingming in order to reduce the expenses. This is a custom that continues to this date.

Qingming is not just a day of remembrance, it is also a day to celebrate the coming of spring, often by going out for a picnic. With the coming of spring, nature wakes up, dressing the world with green grass. Everything is new, clean and fresh.