Qingming Holiday (Tomb Sweeping)

This last weekend, April 4-6, was Tomb Sweeping Holiday in China. It is not so much a holiday that is celebrated as much as it is a holiday of mourning. The standard procedure is to visit the grave sites of one’s relatives and “sweep” them. They are cleaned and decorated with flowers and other adornments. Also, families will burn offerings to their deceased relatives. Paper money, paper clothes, and other flammable items are set ablaze to warm their dead ancestors and to provide for them wherever they may be. The grave site is the preferred location for this ritual, but if that is not possible then the offerings will be burnt even on the street corner. It is mostly of time of mourning and a time of little hope. It is opportune timing when juxtaposed against Easter which is on the calendar 7 days later.