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 travel back to their hometowns to visit and remember their ancestors. Sadly most people could not go back in the last two years because of the pandemic and the strict traveling restrictions. These days are also marked as the beginning of spring, so people generally enjoy having outdoor activities.

Talking about food, there is a very peculiar snack called 青团, also known as “green rice ball”. It is made of glutinous rice mixed with some Chinese plants and it is filled with black or red bean paste. It is only available in this period because of the specific plants that are used, and it can actually have different fillings, but the ones mentioned above are the traditional ones.

The 清明节 is a really old tradition, it is said to have its origin more than 2500 years ago, dating back to Zhou Dynasty. At that time it was believed that the more abundant the offers for their ancestors were, the more prosperous the country would be.

That’s not all, there is also a legend about the Tomb-sweeping Day and its origin, the legend of Jie Zitui.

Jie Zitui was a man that lived between 770 and 476 bc. In order to save his starving king, who was exiled, he decides to cut a piece of his leg and feed his king with that, to give him the strength to start a rebellion and retake his land. The monarch succeeds in his mission and conquers back his land, but forgets about Jie Zitui for years until one day the king decides that he wants to thank him and reward him for his efforts. The problem is that the brave man is now living up in a  mountain, in a forest with his mother, and the king can’t find him. The monarch does not give up and decides to force Jie Zitui outside the forest by burning it all down. Does the king’s plan work? Not really, the man could never make it out of the forest, and he sadly died in the fire. One year passes and the king goes back to the mountain to honor the man that saved him, and leaves offers in his honor, this encouraged people to do the same with their ancestors, laying the cornerstone of one of the most important Chinese festivals.

In Italy, we have a similar celebration called the "Day of the Dead." During this day we celebrate our ancestors and visit their tombs, where we generally put new colorful flowers

How about you? Do you have a similar celebration? Let me know in the comments!👇