Qingming Festival (literally "Pure Brightness") is a Chinese traditional holiday for honoring ancestors by visiting family graves. It typically falls around April 4-6 in the Gregorian calendar.
Qingming originated over 2,500 years ago from a memorial for Jie Zitui, a Spring and Autumn period nobleman. The Tang Dynasty formalized it as a national holiday. After 1949 the holiday lapsed in mainland China; it was reinstated as a public holiday in 2008.
Visiting and cleaning ancestral graves (tomb-sweeping). Offering food, incense, and burning joss paper ("hell money"). Family outings — "taqing" (spring walks). Kite-flying. Eating cold food.
Qingtuan — green rice balls made with mugwort. Cold sandwich cakes. Spring vegetables.
1-day public holiday in China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau. Often extended to a 3-day weekend. Highway traffic spikes as families travel to ancestral hometowns. Cemeteries are crowded.