Everything you need to know about the Ching Ming Festival

The Ching Ming Festival (清明節) is also referred to as Tomb-Sweeping Day, or Qingming Festival in Mandarin Chinese pronunciation. It is observed by Chinese people in Hong Kong, Macau, mainland China, Taiwan, and several parts of Southeast Asia such as Singapore, Malaysia, Cambodia, Philippines, Thailand, and more. At its core, Ching Ming is a day of remembrance and paying respects to dearly departed family members, with everyone from emperors to peasantry visiting ancestral tombs.

Ching Ming has its origins in an older celebration from the Spring and Autumn Period (circa 770-481 BCE) called the Hanshi Festival, which literally means Cold Food Festival. According to legend, a man named Jie Zitui followed his master, Duke Wen of Jin, into exile and was so loyal that he even cut off a piece of his thigh to prevent his lord from starving to death. When the duke eventually came into power, Jie was not among the people who were rewarded for their services. Some versions of the tale say he was overlooked and others say he had already retired by then – either way, he never received the rewards he deserved.

In an attempt to find Jie, Duke Wen went to where he was said to reside, and ordered the mountain to be set on fire. Tragically, instead of successfully smoking him out, Jie and his mother ended up perishing in the flames. To mourn the loss of his loyal man, the remorseful duke prohibited lighting any fires on this day – hence the Cold Food Festival.

Because the Hanshi Festival occurred within the same three days as Shangsi, a day of purification, the Tang dynasty Emperor Xuanzhong eventually merged these into the same day of celebration, declaring that it would be a day for honouring ancestors and the dead, as well as celebrating the springtime.

As the name implies, people usually gather to visit the graves or tombs of their family to clean up, offer fresh flowers, make food offerings, and pray in remembrance. This is also a prime time to get more major repairs done, such as to the engravings or tombstones themselves. 

After burning joss sticks and paper offerings, families would often kick back at the grave site and feast together on the food they brought for the worship – the departed family members won’t mind. Since spring weather is pleasant and graves are usually on mountains or higher ground, flying kites is also a traditional Ching Ming activity.

Of course, due to modern space constraints a lot of people have their loved ones buried in columbariums instead, which doesn’t really afford the space for a family picnic or kite-flying, but there’s nothing stopping families from all going out to a meal afterwards and keeping fond memories alive.

In Hong Kong, there aren't really any special Ching Ming dishes apart from what’s popularly bought as food offerings. These typically include roast chicken, char siu, dark leafy greens, rice, fruits like apples and oranges, tea or wine, and even dessert items like egg tarts. 

But in mainland China, qingtuan – or green rice balls – are usually eaten over Ching Ming, particularly around the Jiangnan area. Glutinous rice flour is mixed with pounded mugwort or other grassy plants to give a bright green hue, while the stuffing is either red bean paste or egg yolk and dried meat floss. Fried dough twists called sanzi are also consumed in both northern and southern China, though the size and ingredients differ regionally. The closest thing we have to sanzi in Hong Kong is likely the daan saan (蛋散) or chui ma fa (脆麻花) often found during dim sum.

Both these festivals involve grave sweeping and paying respects to deceased family, so it’s understandable how Ching Ming might be confused with Chung Yeung – but no, they are two separate festivals. 

Ching Ming takes place in the spring, where families traditionally pray for prosperity and a blessed farming season ahead. In contrast, Chung Yeung occurs in autumn, at the end of the growing season, and people would traditionally give thanks for the good harvest and blessings received over the past year.

Yes, it is! As the Ching Ming Festival falls on a Friday this year, we’ll all be enjoying a long weekend.