Qingming Festival
01 · Historical Records
The name Qingming appears in the Huainanzi: "Treatise on Astronomy" and in the Suishi Baiwen in their records of scenery and seasonal phenomena; it is the only one of the twenty-four solar terms that is also a festival. The merging of the Cold Food Festival and Qingming is the most important historical change in this festival: tomb-sweeping rites already existed in the Qin and Han dynasties, and the Cold Food custom of banning fire and sweeping graves is said to have originated with Duke Wen of Jin's mourning for Jie Zitui; in the twentieth year of the Kaiyuan reign, Emperor Xuanzong of Tang issued an edict ordering Cold Food tomb-sweeping, after which the two festivals gradually merged, and the practices of banning fire and eating cold food were transformed into Qingming food customs. Since the Republican era, Qingming has been fixed to around April 5 of the Gregorian calendar, and tomb-sweeping, spring outings, kite-flying, and swinging on swings have all been incorporated, producing today's pattern.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
The Qingming Festival is one of China's important traditional festivals and remains today one of the important festivals of the Chinese nation, including overseas Chinese. In ancient times Qingming was also called the Third Month Festival, and it has a history of more than two thousand years. Qingming falls around April 5 of the Gregorian calendar and was originally one of the twenty-four solar terms. It is observed by the Han throughout the country and in some ethnic minority areas. Of the twenty-four solar terms of the traditional Chinese calendar, only Qingming is both a solar term and a festival. Because the twenty-four solar terms relatively objectively reflect changes in temperature, rainfall, and seasonal phenomena through the four seasons, the working people of antiquity used them to arrange farming activities. The Huainanzi: "Treatise on Astronomy" states: "Fifteen days after the Spring Equinox, when the handle of the Big Dipper points to yi, the clear and bright wind arrives." The Suishi Baiwen states: "All things grow at this time, clean and bright, and so it is called qingming (clear and bright)." When Qingming arrives, temperatures rise and rainfall increases, making it the prime season for spring plowing and sowing; hence the farming proverbs "around Qingming, plant melons and beans" and "for planting trees and forests, no time is better than Qingming," which shows that this solar term is closely tied to agricultural production. However, as a festival, Qingming differs from a pure solar term, for it encompasses rich customary activities. The Qingming Festival is a day for commemorating ancestors; its main ritual activities are ancestor worship and tomb-sweeping, a concrete expression of people's reverence for the departed, their care to honor the dead and remember their origins, their fostering of kinship and clan harmony, and their practice of filial piety. In the Qin and Han eras, tomb sacrifice had already become one of the important ritual activities of the people. Tomb-sweeping was originally part of the Cold Food Festival on the day before Qingming. The Cold Food Festival is said to have originated with Duke Wen of Jin's mourning for Jie Zitui. In the twentieth year of the Kaiyuan reign, Emperor Xuanzong of Tang issued an edict to the realm ordering "Cold Food tomb-sweeping." Later, because the Cold Food Festival and Qingming fell close together, this popular day of fire-bans and grave-sweeping gradually merged with Qingming. Cold Food became both an alternative name for Qingming and a custom of the Qingming season: on that day no fire is lit and only cold food is eaten. Besides the fire ban and tomb-sweeping, there are also spring outings, kite-flying, swinging, and games, and in the Jiangnan region there are silkworm-flower fairs and sacrifices to the silkworm deity. Thus at Qingming there are both the bitter tears of sweeping the ancestral graves and the laughter of spring excursions; it is a festival of distinctive character. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, people in various places have mostly visited the cemeteries of revolutionary martyrs around Qingming to express their remembrance of the martyrs. The cultural significance of the Qingming Festival is extraordinary. It can satisfy people's emotional need to remember their forebears and strengthen family bonds. Through worshipping ancestors one can trace one's roots and draw historical lessons, thereby better educating future generations. Seeking one's roots and worshipping ancestors, and remembering revolutionary martyrs, also unite Chinese at home and abroad in their hearts' devotion to the motherland, enhancing the cohesion of the Chinese nation.
Cold food and the forbidden hearth
No fire is lit for a day or two before the festival; cooked food is eaten cold, a custom that survives the relaxation of the old prohibition.
Tending the graves
Families climb the hill at dawn, repair the mound, burn paper offerings, pour wine and leave flowers; today the rite is also observed at martyrs’ cemeteries.
Willow sprigs and spring outings
Willow branches are broken and hung at the gate, while the same days are given to outings, kites and swings.
Rites for the silkworm
Silkworm-rearing households set an altar to the silkworm deity, paste red paper on the rearing house and gather women for the sericulture procession.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The ways of observing Qingming differ noticeably from place to place: in Jiangnan people often sweep graves in the rain and plant willow branches, and there are silkworm-flower fairs and sacrifices to the silkworm deity; in the north the emphasis is on cold food, swinging, cockfighting, and spring excursions; in Fujian and Taiwan it is called "passing the spring paper," and in the Penghu area of Taiwan there is an old custom of combining grave-sweeping with gathering oysters; in Sichuan, the Shangsi exorcistic rites of former times shared the same origin as the Cold Food Festival and Qingming, so grave-sweeping and waterside exorcism were practiced together. Grave-sweeping is mostly organized collectively by families or village communities: paper is burned before the graves, earth is heaped up, and flowers and wine are offered; after the rites the offerings are gathered up and shared, a closing step common to all regions.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Qingming Festival · Qingming Festival · Qingming Festival.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Qingming has the dual identity of both a solar term and a day of sacrifice, on which the agricultural-time order of the twenty-four solar terms meets the ethics of ancestor worship, which is why its explanatory power in agrarian society far exceeds that of other festivals. Today the scope of grave-sweeping has expanded from clan burial grounds to the cemeteries of revolutionary martyrs, and its objects have shifted from ancestors to martyrs, so the ethical center of gravity of the ritual has moved with them; yet spring outings and open-air recreation still give this day its rare double face.
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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