清明节 Tomb-sweeping Day
Hello everybody and welcome back to my blog! 😁 Today we talk about one of the most important National Public Holidays in China, the 清明节 (Qingming Jie), internationally known as Tomb-sweeping Day, or Pure Brightness Day, which is the literal translation of 清明节. The Tomb Sweeping Day takes place on the first day of the fifth solar term of the traditional Chinese lunisolar calendar, which is basically either the 4th or 5th of April. This holiday lasts 3 days, and the working schedule is adjusted in a way that allows everybody to have 3 days off. For example this year it is falling on a Tuesday, so people went to work on Saturday, so then they could have Sunday, Monday and Tuesday free, without losing the working hours of Monday. I know it might be a little confusing and weird, I think the only way to actually explain it is using the Chinese word 调休 (tiaoxiu). There are a couple of traditions connected to this festival. I would say that the main one is for people to use these days to t