Qingming is a non-working day in China. On this day, people gather together and visit the tomb of their ancestors. Relatives cleaned tomb soil, arranged headstones and graves, and decorated them with flowers or branches.
Family tombs in China
The Qingming Festival comes with the arrival of warm spring: in many cities, trees blossom, grass turns green, and apple and cherry trees are in blossom. After the grave-sweeping, the family would chose to spend spring time together in the suburbs. Hence the unofficial name of the festival - The Day to Walk on the First Meadow.
Chinese Kite.
Another important qingming tradition is kite flying throughout the day. At night, little lanterns hung from the ropes glow like little stars in the dark.
Group rice balls
What do you eat on Tomb-sweeping Day? A traditional dish is green rice ball. They are made of glutinous rice flour and stuffed with sweet bean paste. Bring the rice balls to a boil in a pot and add the sweet soy sauce
Many Chinese burn burning ghost money, paper model cars, ghost clothes and presenting food offerings. They belief that everything burned would go to the other world to help loved ones who had died. However, officials have repeatedly tried to ban the tradition of burning ghost money.
Senior state officials attended a ceremony to commemorate and honor the country's leaders on Qingming Festival. In 2020, the government paid tribute to the 14 doctors who lost their lives fighting COVID-19. They were awarded the title of "martyr heroes" -- the highest title granted by the Communist Party to citizens who sacrifice their lives for the interests of the country and the people.
Cloud memorials have become especially popular since the new coronavirus. China's Ministry of Civil Affairs reported that 6.95 million cloud memorial services were held in 2022.
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