Tomb Sweeping Festival

Tomorrow is Tomb Sweeping Festival. We call it Qingming in Chinese language which means clear and bright. It is the most important festival in spring. During the festival, people visit the gravesites of their ancestors, pay respects to the dead at their tombs and hold memorial ceremonies in honor of their ancestors. This is one of many ways to demonstrate filial piety. As part of honoring the dead, people would also spend some time cleaning the gravesite area. They would uproot the weed near the gravesite, plant some new trees, wipe the tombstones and decorate the tombstone with fresh flowers.
But it is not just a day for mourning the dead. The festival is celebrated two weeks and the dates usually turn out to be the 4th, 5th, or 6th of April, thus people also go out to celebrate the new season, the onset of warmer weather, the start of spring plowing as well as of family outings. Nowadays, Qingming is not just a day of remembrance; it is also a day to celebrate the coming of spring. With the coming of spring, nature wakes up, dressing the world in green. All is new, clean and fresh. Therefore, Qingming is also a happy occasion for outdoor activities, such as picnic, tug-of-war, kite-flying, swinging, dancing, etc. This might be an important reason why this festival has been very popular for thousands of years.