Dear Friends & Readers,
As we know that this year Qingming Festival is just around the corner. Many chinese people preparing for this festival to come. What festival is this? Well I don’t really good in describing what it is. Well lets put it this way. It is like All souls day.. Chinese people will go pay their respect to their ancestor or people that they love that has pass away. Got some description from Wikipedia..
The Qingming Festival (Traditional Chinese: 清明節; Simplified Chinese: 清明节; pinyin: qīng míng jié), or Ching Ming Festival used in Hong Kong, literally Clear and Bright Festival, is a traditional Chinese festival on the 104th day after the winter solstice (or the 15th day from the Spring Equinox), usually occurring around April 5 of the Gregorian calendar (see Chinese calendar). Every leap year, Qing Ming is on April 4. Astronomically, it is also a solar term (See Qingming). In solar terms, the Qingming festival is on the 1st day of the 5th solar term, which is also named Qingming. Its name denotes a time for people to go outside and enjoy the greenery of springtime (踏青 Tàqīng, “treading on the greenery”), and also to tend to the graves of departed ones. It is an official public holiday in the Republic of China, as well as in Hong Kong and Macau though not in mainland China.
The holiday is also known by a number of other names in the English language:
- All Souls Day (not to be confused with the Roman Catholic holiday, All Souls Day, of the same name)
- Clear Brightness Festival
- Festival for Tending Graves
- Grave Sweeping Day
- Memorial Day
- Tomb Sweeping Day
- Spring Rememberance
Tomb Sweeping Day and Clear Brightness Festival are the most common English translations of ‘Qingming’. Tomb Sweeping Day is used in several English language newspapers published in the Republic of China.
For the Chinese, it is a day to remember and honour one’s ancestors. Young and old pray before the ancestors, sweep the tombs and offer food, tea, wine, chopsticks, (joss) paper acessories, and/or libation to the ancestors. The rites are very important to most Chinese and especially farmers. Some people carry willow branches with them on Qingming, or put willow branches on their gates and/or front doors. They think that willow branches help ward off the evil ghosts that wander on Qingming. Also on Qingming, people go on family outings, start the spring plowing, sing, dance, and Qingming is a time where young couples start courting. Another popular thing to do is fly kites (in shapes of animals, or characters from Chinese opera).
The April Fifth Movement and the Tiananmen Incident were major events involving Qing Ming Jie that took place in the history of the People’s Republic of China. When Premier Zhou Enlai died in 1976, thousands visited him during the festival to pay respect. In the Republic of China, April 4th coincides with the passing of Chiang Kai-shek and the date is designated as a national holiday.
On a note, the overseas Chinese communities in Southeast Asian nations such as Singapore and Malaysia also practice this custom. However the practice is in decline in these regions.
Hanshi, the day before Qing Ming, was created by Chong’er, the Duke Wen of the state of Jin during the Spring and Autumn Period when he accidentally killed his personal friend and servant Jie Zhitui (介之推)(or Jie Zitui) and his mother in a fireblaze in the hope of making him return to him. On Hanshi, people weren’t allowed to use fires to heat up food, thus nicknaming it the Cold Food Festival. Eventually, 300 years ago, the Hanshi ‘celebration’ was combined with the Qing Ming festival… Then abandoned my most people.
Qingming itself was created by the Tang Emperor Xuanzong in 732. Why? Because the Ancient Chinese held way too many expensive, elaborate ancestor-worshipping ceremonies. In a needed effort to lower this expense, Emperor Xuanzong declared that respects could be formally paid at ancestor’s graves only on Qingming.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ching_Ming_Festival]
Posted by benzee 
Posted by benzee 
Posted by benzee 
