It's called the Qingming Festival

[Randy W]

An article about the Chinese perspective from the People's Daily

'Tomb Sweeping Day' distorts Chinese meaning of Qingming

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As Confucius once said: If the names are not correct, language is not in accordance with the truth of things. This is known as the rectification of names, and it could save Qingming, Chunjie (commonly known as Spring Festival), Duanwu (commonly known as Double Fifth or Dragon Boat Festival) and a lot more holidays.

More could be said about socio-cultural originality and the future of global language; here only so much: Nations should compete for their terminologies, just as they compete for everything else.

. . .

The English language is equally challenged when it comes to accurately conveying Chinese ideas. The British call junzi a gentleman, no surprise. The Americans have no gentlemen, so they translate junzi as "the superior man." The Germans have no gentlemen either, and "superior man" is reserved, so they call junzi an "edler" meaning a person of noble blood. To sum up, all Europeans call junzi anything but junzi, which is quite a scandal.

 

Edited April 4, 2021 by Randy W (see edit history)

[Fu Lai]

baba's tomb on Qing Ming

http://www.photouploads.com/images/dscn1656.jpg

Edited April 7, 2013 by Fu Lai (see edit history)

[Randy W]

from Beautiful Guangxi on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/beautifulguangxi/posts/1228801927250908

Beautiful Guangxi added 4 new photos.

2 hrs ·

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Today is the Chinese #QingMingFestival,also known as Tomb-Sweeping Day in English.On this day,tomb sweeping is one of the most important activities to show respect to ancestors

Edited April 4, 2021 by Randy W (see edit history)

[Randy W]

. . . and the SCMP

How China’s history of human sacrifice led to Ching Ming Festival’s paper offerings

Health concerns aside, burning joss paper to honour the dead is much better than what came before - commoners were buried with domesticated animals while the upper classes were entombed with the bodies of their wives, concubines and slaves

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The practice of human sacrifice in China was not exclusive to the earliest dynasties. Although human beings and animals were replaced by clay and, later, paper effigies in the millennium-and-a-half between the Han and Song periods (206BC-AD1279), widows continued to be killed or kill themselves to be buried with their dead husbands.

. . .

The Han Chinese imperial family of the Ming dynasty (1368-1644) had a predilection for forcing widowed wives and concubines to kill themselves and be buried with their husbands. It was only in 1673, when Emperor Kangxi of the Qing dynasty issued a decree banning the practice, that the gruesome tradition was finally put to rest.

Edited April 4, 2021 by Randy W (see edit history)

[Randy W]

. . . and a competing point of view, also from the SCMP

Ching Ming Festival and its ‘free love’ origins – it wasn’t always a day for the dead

Now known as a day for remembering ancestors, it began as a celebration of spring’s arrival before merging with two festivals that shaped its current significance

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However, Qingming has not always been about the dead. It began as a marker of spring and the genesis of life. According to an ancient text, “it is the time when the myriad things emerge and grow, when all things are clean (qing) and bright (ming). Hence, ‘Qingming’.” As one of the 24 solar terms (jieqi) on the traditional Chinese calendar, Qingming was one of the important markers of an agricultural society.

The association with dead ancestors came when Qingming merged with two other festivals: the Hanshi and the Shangsi Festivals. Hanshi (“cold food”), which occurred a couple of days before Qingming, commemorated the fiery death of a loyal retainer of Duke Wen of Jin (697-628BC), a powerful lord during the Spring and Autumn Period. On that day, people were not supposed to start any fires and had to eat cold foods. It was also a time for tidying up the graves of ancestors and making offerings to them.

The Shangsi Festival, which fell on the third day of the third month of the traditional calendar, also involved grave cleaning but it had a very interesting aspect. It was also a day when “free love” was sanctioned. Flirting, trysts, and even carnal relations between unmarried couples were allowed for that one day. By the Tang Dynasty (618-907), the Hanshi, Qingming and Shangsi Festivals were merged into the Qingming Festival in most parts of China, with the main emphasis on remembering and worshipping one’s ancestors.

 

Edited April 4, 2021 by Randy W (see edit history)

[wawster]

Rose and her family went to visit her fathers grave up in the mountains near Lanshan on Sunday. According to Rose, it was a very nice day, and she had a good time conversing with her father about her life with me in the US while they tidied up his grave-site and had a picnic lunch there.

It reminds me of the first QingMing after we had been married. rose was still in China, and I was here int he US while the I-130 was making it's journey. Rose had told me that she discussed our marriage with her father at his grave-site, letting him know that she believed me to be a good man, to be a good member of the family, and that I was pledged to take good care of her. Also according to Rose, her father showed his approval. I never asked her exactly how he showed approval, for fear of making her think I was belittling the experience in some way.

Edited April 4, 2021 by Randy W (see edit history)

[amberjack1234]

You are a good thoughtful man. I do believe that you are a good husband to Rose.

[wawster]

Nah, I'm a curmudgeon

But I'd be a fool to not understand (or try to understand) cultural differences, and how important they are.

Besides, my sweetie is a good woman.....never risk pissing off a good woman if it can be helped.

[Randy W]

Qing Ming (April 5) is combined with San Yue San (April 7) this year

[Randy W]

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Aerial photo taken on April 6, 2019 shows visitors enjoying the spring scenery on the second day of a three-day Qingming Festival national holiday at Dafeng District in Yancheng City, east China's Jiangsu Province. (Photo:Xinhua)

 

Edited April 4, 2021 by Randy W (see edit history)

[tsap seui]

I got to visit my in-laws burial site this past March. I really loved ma and ba. It meant a lot to me to be able to be involved with WenYan in this ritual. WenYan went back (with the crowds) on the holiday's date proper time, but she and one of her brothers took me around March 20th to both see and participate in the ritual.. It was very impressive to me., cleaning the grave site, placing favorite foods, cigs, etc. Then going down to a large outdoor building containing their birthday icons and lighting the symbolic gift fires.

I greatly miss ma and ba. I was lucky to get to meet and get to know them for the blessed precious few years that I did.

Going to China on that "blind date" back in 2006 has become one of the best moves I ever made in my life. I got to become a member of the Li family.

Edited April 4, 2021 by Randy W (see edit history)

[Randy W]

Watch out for the sweat bees! from the NY Times

Four Bees Living in Her Eye, Feeding on Her Tears

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They are typically about a quarter of an inch in length, and rarely sting.

Under the microscope, I slowly pulled them out, one after another,” Dr. Hung Chi-ting, an ophthalmologist at Fooyin University Hospital in Taiwan, said at a news conference broadcast by local media last week.

 

The patient, identified by her last name, He, said that her ordeal began when she felt a sharp pain in her left eye while taking part in an annual tradition of tomb-sweeping. Plucking weeds from a gravestone, she rinsed what she thought was sand from her eyes with some clean water. By the time she returned home hours later, her eye was heavily swollen. Tears and other secretions streamed out.

 

She sought medical help. And under her left eyelid, Dr. Hung found what are colloquially known as sweat bees.

 

The bees, from the halictid family, subsist primarily on pollen and nectar but also need salt produced by human and animal glands, so they feed on sweat and tears. They rarely sting, doing so only when attacked.

 

Many sweat bees are about a quarter of an inch in length, about half the size of a yellowjacket.

 

The tiny pollinator can be found in gardens and grassy areas around the world, but it is very rare for them to fly into eyes. Fooyin University Hospital called the operation to remove the bees from Ms. He’s eye “the first in the world.”

 

When Dr. Hung extracted the bees, they were still alive. Had they ruptured inside Ms. He’s eye, she could have faced serious infection, even losing her vision, he said. The bees had remained intact partly because she had refrained from rubbing her eyes throughout the ordeal.

 

Edited April 4, 2021 by Randy W (see edit history)

[Randy W]

from Discover Guangxi China on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/DiscoverGuangxi/posts/283668389872531

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Another nickname for #QingMingFestival is ”Taqing”（踏青）, which literally means to walk on the green grass, a right time when people get a #spring outing to embrace the #nature.

Pics of a #hanfu enthusiast enjoyed her springtime in the Yangshuo’s Yulong River（遇龙河）.

#travel #culture #LooksChallenge #naturephotography

Photos from RED

[Randy W]

 Discover Guangxi China is at 柳州  Liuzhou .
https://www.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=282380300001340&id=102422654663773

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#BlossomGuangxi Tomb-Sweeping Day or #QingmingFestival（清明节） is approaching. It falls on April 4th this year with people in #China enjoying a three-day holiday. #Spring is a good time to take a tour. Come to Liuzhou to enjoy the views of bauhinia blossoms.

#naturechallenge #LooksChallenge #photographychallenge
photos by 第七共和

[Randy W]

Today is Qingming Festival (Tomb Sweeping Day), a traditional Chinese festival and an important day for most people to commemorate their ancestors.

In the picture you can see one of the traditional food of this day: Sweet Green Rice Balls (青团 qīngtuán)

📷 视觉中国
👉 https://www.chinahighlights.com/festivals/qingming-festival.htm

#China #chinesecalendar #solarterms #chinesefestival

from China Highlights on Facebook 
https://www.facebook.com/ChinaHighlights/posts/10159740341967964

Qingming Festival 2022

Qingming Festival, also called Tomb Sweeping Day or, literally, 'Pure Brightness' Festival in English, is a traditional Chinese festival and an important day for most people (including the Han Chinese and some of China's 55 other ethnic minorities) to go and sweep tombs and commemorate their ancestors. On this day, tomb sweeping is one of the most important and popular activities to show respect to ancestors.

It usually falls on April 4 or 5. In 2022, the Qingming Festival falls on April 5. The public holiday in China is from April 3 to April 5, 2022. 

On May 20, 2006, the festival was listed as one of the first national intangible cultural heritage events. Learn more about death culture in China.