By: Theresa Tu
The annual Qingming Festival just recently passed. Qingming, Spring Festival, Mid-Autumn Festival, and Dragon Boat Festival are collectively known as China’s four major festivals. The Qingming Festival is a traditional Chinese festival on the the first day of the fifth solar term of the traditional chinese lunisolar calendar. It is the 15th day from the Spring Equinox and lies on either April 4, 5, or 6 of the Gregorian calendar. This year’s Qingming Festival is on April 4th.
During the Qingming Festival, people usually celebrate by going on outings, flying kites, venerating ancestors by sweeping their graves, and more. Ancestral worship is one of the most important aspects of Qingming Festival, so important that it is also sometimes known as the Tomb-Sweeping Festival in English.
The traditional Qingming Festival began in the Zhou Dynasty and holds more than 2,500 years of history. Although there are many legends about Qingming Festival, the origin of the Qingming Festival reportedly began in the ancient emperor’s tomb-sweeping ceremony. The common people later adopted this tradition and has become a fixed custom of the Chinese people.
