Ching Ming Festival
The Ching Ming Festival is also known as “Tomb Sweeping Day” and takes place on the 104th day after the Winter Solstice. This is one of two times out of the year that families visit the graves of their ancestors to make offerings and clean gravesites, the other being the Chung Yeung Festival. The tomb sweeping ceremony includes offering flowers, usually Chrysanthemum, and food, like chicken, roasted pig, fruit, and wine. When the worshipping is finished, those in attendance eat the food that is brought for the ceremony. As Chrysanthemum is the flower of choice for the ceremony, it is not good to give this to Chinese people as a gift during other times of the year.
Ching Ming traditions of paying respect to ancestors date back to more than 2,500 years ago. In 732 AD, Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang dynasty did not approve of the elaborate manner in which wealthy Chinese citizens were honoring the dead. In response to their actions he declared that respect could be paid to ancestors at their graves only on Ching Ming. Since that time, the Ching Ming Festival has remained a yearly tradition for families to pay respect to their dead.
Photographs by themediaslut and mohanbn at www.Flickr.com
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