Qingming Festival: Honoring Ancestors, Welcoming Spring

There is one Chinese public holiday that is also one of the twenty-four solar terms, and that is Qingming (清明) — "Clear and Bright." Falling on April 4 or 5, it is the day families tidy the graves of their ancestors, offer food and burn paper money, and then walk out into the spring to fly kites and enjoy the new green. It is a festival that holds grief and delight in the same hand, which is precisely why the Tang poet Du Mu's line — "A drizzling rain falls like tears on the Mourning Day" — has stayed alive for more than a thousand years.

A Festival Built From Three

Qingming as we know it is a fusion. Its deepest layer is the Cold Food Festival (Hanshi), which commemorates a loyal official named Jie Zitui of the Spring and Autumn period (770–476 BC). The story goes that Jie cut flesh from his own thigh to feed his starving lord, Chong'er, during a long exile. When Chong'er became ruler and forgot him, Jie withdrew into the Mianshan mountains with his mother. The prince, trying to force him out, ordered the mountain set ablaze; Jie and his mother died clinging to a charred willow. In remorse, the prince forbade fire for three days, so people ate only cold food — hence the name. Over the Tang and Song dynasties this somber day merged with Qingming, which followed right after.

A third festival, the Shangsi Festival on the third day of the third lunar month — a day of riverside bathing and outings to wash away the old year — also fed into Qingming. By the Ming and Qing dynasties, Hanshi and Shangsi had largely faded, and Qingming stood as the major spring event. In 732 AD, Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang formally fixed tomb-sweeping as the proper observance, ending the custom of holding ancestral rites every couple of weeks.

"The customs of Tomb-Sweeping Day can be summarized into two traditions: first, to perform funeral rituals for the deceased and offer sacrifices to ancestors; second, to get close to nature and cherish life." — Xiao Fang, professor of folklore at Beijing Normal University.

The Central Rite: Sweeping the Tomb

The heart of Qingming is sao mu (扫墓), sweeping the grave. Families travel to the cemetery, clear weeds, wipe the headstone, lay fresh flowers or food, and burn joss paper — "ghost money" meant to provide for the deceased in the afterlife. They bow or kowtow. Those who cannot reach the grave may face its direction from a hillside or riverbank and perform the rite there.

In recent years the custom has modernized. Many cities restrict open burning for fire and air-quality reasons, and a growing number of families leave flowers instead of paper, or post online tributes. The impulse — to show the dead they are not forgotten — has not changed.

Foods of the Season

Because Qingming absorbed the Cold Food tradition, its signature foods are eaten cold or steamed.

• Qingtuan (青团). The most beloved: glutinous rice dough colored green with mugwort or barley grass, wrapped around sweet red bean or sesame paste. Popular across the Jiangnan region around Shanghai and Suzhou.
• Zitui buns. In Shanxi, swallow-shaped steamed buns with dates recall Jie Zitui.
• Boiled eggs. In some areas eggs are painted or carved, a playful echo of spring renewal.

Spring Outings and Play

Qingming is not only sorrow. The warming weather makes it the classic day for ta qing (踏青), "treading the green" — a countryside walk to welcome spring. Traditional pastimes include:

• Kite flying. Kites are sent up as a way to send good wishes to departed loved ones and to the season itself.
• Cuju. An ancient ball game resembling football, played for fun and fitness.
• Swinging and willow-planting. Willow branches, the first tree to bud, are worn or hung on doors to dispel evil and invite new life.

The pairing is the festival's quiet wisdom: you tend the dead in the morning and laugh in the sunshine in the afternoon. Mourning and living are not opposites but companions.

A Statutory Holiday Again

Qingming was granted National Intangible Cultural Heritage status in 2006 and became a statutory public holiday in 2008, with the break extended to three days in 2009. Around the holiday, Beijing's Subway and long-distance buses swell as families head to cemeteries such as Babaoshan. The day is counted among the four great traditional festivals alongside the Spring Festival, Dragon Boat and Mid-Autumn.

Visiting Around Qingming

If you are in China in early April, expect crowds at transport hubs and a particular hush at graveyards in the morning, giving way to picnics and park visits by midday. The countryside south of the Yangtze — Suzhou's canals, Hangzhou's West Lake — is at its freshest then. Pack for rain; the "qingming rain" of Du Mu's poem is a real climatological feature, not just poetry.

Sources and Further Reading

• China Daily, "Brushing up on history of Tomb Sweeping Day" (2021) and CulturePedia entry.
• China.org.cn, "Qingming Festival" and Global Times, "Qingming: millennial-old festival" (2024).
• China Today, "Qingming Festival" (2016) on the Cold Food and Shangsi fusion.
• Chinese Social Sciences Today, "Qingming: remembering the passed and welcoming the future."

This article draws on Chinese state and cultural publications. Regional Qingming customs differ considerably; the Jie Zitui legend is the best-known origin story but is itself a piece of living folklore.