Qingming Festival, let's give it a embrace!
By shirly on 2016-03-24

Next week, we will usher in a 3-day holiday to relax ourselves. That is Qingming Festival, also called Tomb-sweeping Day. From its name, we can get to know that this is a festival to sacrifice and clean the tomb. Qingming Festival lies around 5 April, boasting an important Chinese traditional festival. 

Qingming Festival can be tranced back to Zhou Dynasty (around 2500 years ago). Since on that day, everything on the world becomes neat and bright, (in Chinese, they are "清"(qing) and "明"(ming)), it is called Qingming Festival. The tradition of sweeping the tomb came from the emperors and generals who held memorial ceremony on that day. And during the imitation of ordinary people, this behavior developed into a tradition.

On that day, people go to sweep tombs, and get rid of fire. Besides, they will have some sports like playing on a swing, playing cuju and playing polo. Before dusk, a grey line should be poured in front of the door to prevent the ghost from getting into the house. Therefore, the festival becomes interesting for there is sorrow of mouring the dead but also the happiness of playing sports.

Nowadays, as Qingming festival has been listed as a national holiday, people still have time to sweep tombs and go out for a trip. Although customs may diversifies with the different places, the tomb-sweeping and going-out-for-a-trip is still the main  topic of Qingming Festival. 

So taking the advantage of the coming Qinming Festival, let's out get out side of the room and take a deep breath of the spring!