Chinese Festivals

Ching Ming

The Ching Ming Festival is known as Grave-Sweeping Day and is nominally observed on April 5th of each year. In following with traditional Chinese culture, this annual festival allows people to pay their respects to their ancestors and their recently departed loved ones in several grand gestures of giving and offering. Ancestor worship is still prevalent in Asian culture so the festival is carried out with the utmost respect by many people of Chinese descent around the Asia pacific and the world.

Every Ching Ming festival, Chinese cemeteries around the world are filled with people whom come to 'sweep' and clean the tombs and cemeteries of their ancestors. The actual date of the festival is indicated on the Chinese calendar with the two Chinese characters: ching, meaning 'pure' or 'clean', and ming, meaning 'brightness'. Combined together, Ching Ming means clean and just and is appropriate for the Spring day whereby graves are given their annual 'cleaning'.

The origins of the Ching Ming festival were perceived to have their beginnings in the concept of ancestor worship which is seen as the main 'religion’ in China. Confucianism and Taoism originated in China but are seen as well known and respected philosophies rather than religions. Confucianism, a form of ancestor worship is incorporated with the virtues of filial piety whereby honoring your parents and family is seen as the utmost importance. Ching Ming allows for the current generation of family to honor their past members whom laid the social and in some terms financial foundations for the family today.

The main idea behind Ching Ming is a virtual cleaning of the grave site in general respect for the deceased. The most routine Ching Ming rituals include the weeding of the grave area, thorough cleaning of the headstone, replacing the past wilted flowers with fresh ones. There is also the lighting of incense and burning of imitation paper money for 'use' in the past life. In several countries in the Asia pacific, the festival is seen as a family day and usually whole families spend the entire day grave sweeping and afterwards they have a large meal.

To both appease and feed the spirits of the deceased; food is laid out in front of the headstone as an offering to the spirits of the deceased. The main staple foods for the day include a steamed whole chicken (including the head, which is later twisted off), hard boiled eggs cut in half lengthwise with shell attached, sliced barbecued pork ( cha shiu), cut roast pork with crunchy skin attached, and dim sum pastries. In addition, three sets of chopsticks and three Chinese wine cups are arranged above the food and closest to the headstone.

In following with tradition, the head of the household usually begins by bowing three times with the wine cup in hand, then pouring the wine on the ground just in front of the headstone. This procedure is usually repeated three times. Each member of the family comes in front of the headstone and bows three times with the right fist held cupped in the left hand. Some families will then eat the food together there at the grave site, similar to having a picnic with their deceased relatives. It is said to bring good luck to eat the food that was offered to the deceased.

All the graves sites will be consumed by a 'smoky atmosphere' as the burning incense will be bellowing in the air from the literally thousands of people whom flock to the sites. To warn off evil spirits, superstitious people carry willow branches with them as it is believed that willows rid the area of evil spirits as on Ching Ming it is believed that sometimes restless ghosts and spirits wander about.

In some instances, families will begin the ceremony by setting off firecrackers to scare off evil spirits and to alert the deceased relatives that they are there to pay their respects. Today, the responsibility to hang san or 'walk the mountain' as visiting the cemetery is commonly known, still falls to the eldest son. Today families may be more likely to prefer simplified offerings of only the incense, paper money and flowers.