The Origin of Tomb Sweeping Day

Tomb Sweeping Day is a unique Chinese festival. It is called Qingming Jie (清明节) in Chinese.

It is the most important day for people to offer sacrifice to ancestors. It started from the Zhou Dynasty, with a history of over 2500 years.

Qingming is firstly, one of the 24 solar terms of Chinese agriculture. When Qingming comes, the weather temperature is rising and rainfall goes up. As an agricultural solar sign, it is a good time for Chinese spring ploughing and planting.

Qingming Festival entails many rituals, chief among them is usually a day out spent visiting and tidying ancestors’ graves (hence the name Tomb Sweeping Day) as well as placing lilies and chrysanthemums, flowers usually associated with death. Families also offer food and burn incense in honor of those who have passed. You may also see families burning paper money, often at the side of the road at night, which are offerings to the dead so that they too can buy whatever their heart desires in the afterlife. Also hoping their ancestors to protect them and to help them with the difficulties they are facing.

Qingming Festival is very close to Chinese Cold Food Day when Chinese people make no fire, eat cold food and go out to sweep ancestor’s tombs. Then Qingming and Cold Food day join together as a special traditional day. Things to do on Cold Food Day became a custom of Qingming, later Tomb-sweeping Day.

What is Cold Food Day

It is said that there was severe royalty succession fight in Jin Sates during the Spring and Autumn Period. A prince named Chong’er survived and escaped. One day, Chong’er was starved on his way. One of his follower called Jiezhitui secretly cut down a piece of flesh from his thigh and cooked into food, which survived the prince.

Photo: Chong’er

Years later, Chong’er became apowerful king of Jin Sates. His followers were greatly awarded and honored but he forgot Jiezhitui. When others referred to Jiezhitui, Chong’er remembered and immediately sent someone to invited Jiezhitui and conferred a title. Jiezhitui refusedseveral times. Then the king decided to invite personally. Jiezhitu heard the news and refused to see the king, so he hid in a mountain together with his aged mother. Chong’er wanted to force Jiezhitui out to see him by firing the mountain. But there was still no result after three days and nights’ firing. Chong’er and his people eventually found two dead bodies – Jiezhitui and his mother in a cave under a willow tree in the mountain. The king buried Jiezhitui and his mother decently and built a grand tomb there. Later on, the king made a decisionto make no fire and eat cold food on the day. Since then Cold Food Day and itscustoms were spread.

Photo: Jiezhitui

Things to do on Tomb sweeping Day

Except for tomb sweeping, lots of activities such as spring outing, an event usually that would usually involve enjoying April’s perfect spring air, except the chances of doing so are increasingly slim. A popular family activity is kite-flying and it is customary to fly a kite with colored lanterns tied to the end. There is a superstition that if you let go of the kite, it will ward off diseases and bring good luck.swing, spring outing, tree planting, kite flying and leave willow leavesinserting are held to exercise people who make no fire and is against the”Cold” at that time. Moreover, these exercising can lighten sadatmosphere on Tomb-sweeping Day.

Sweet Green Rice Balls (QingTuan青团), a range of “Cold Food” are made from sticky rice and wheat and only people in south of China eat it. It is a must-have offering at ancestral rituals in the south of the Yangtze River. The custom of making sweet green rice balls dates back to the Zhou Dynasty over 2,000 years ago. One or two days before the Qingming Festival were designated as “cold food days”, during which hot cooking is banned.