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Qingming Festival

Time: The 5th according to Chinese Lunar Calendar
Qingming Festival or also known as Tomb Sweeping Day is a traditional Chinese festival on the first day of the fifth solar term. It usually falls in April in the solar calendar. It has become a festival for the Chinese people to commemorate their ancestors. It has evolved into a festival carrying rich culture and profound meaning. After the festival, the temperature usually will rise up and rainfall increases.

Chinese Tradition in Qingming
Chinese people celebrate the Qingming festival in some ways including tomb sweeping, taking a spring outing, and flying kites.

Tomb Sweeping
Recognized as one of the China national holiday, Chinese people will visit the graves or burial grounds of their ancestors in this festival. This is an important day to sacrifice to their ancestors and sweep the tombs of the deceased. During this time, all cemeteries are crowded with people who came to sweep tombs and offer sacrifices.
People will visit the tomb, pray, sweep the tombs and offer food, tea, wine, chopsticks, joss paper accessories, and amount of cold food is also served. People usually will also burn incense and paper money and bow in front of their ancestor memorial tablet. 

Spring Outing
Qingming Festival is not only about the sadness because commemorating people ancestor died, but also the happiness for welcoming spring. People will visit famous and interesting places around the city when the sun shines brightly, trees and grass become green and weather becomes warm. It is a very ideal time to travel with family.

Flying Kites
Besides tomb sweeping and traveling activities, another popular thing to do is to fly kites. There are various shapes of kites that usually being used including shapes of animals or characters from Chinese opera. The unique and special of this festival tradition is when the kites flying high in the sky, people will cut the string and let the kites fly free. It is said that in this way people will also be protected from bad luck and diseases.

The Qingming Festival sees a combination of sadness and happiness. Behind it, we can also see the deep meaning behind this festival for the Chinese people itself.