Qingming

Remembrance in spring

Qingming (清明) brings remembrance into the spring landscape. Families tend graves and make offerings, while outings, fresh greenery and seasonal foods give the same occasion a second character: care for the dead takes place amid the renewal of living things. Its name means “clear and bright.”

Qingming is both a festival and one of the twenty-four solar terms. The term begins when the Sun reaches ecliptic longitude 15°, following the Spring Equinox. The festival therefore falls in early April, rather than on a fixed lunar date. It is not permanently April 5 and is distinct from the third day of the third lunar month. Families may make their remembrance visits on the day itself or in the surrounding period.

How the festival took shape

Qingming’s customs developed through the coming together of neighbouring spring observances. Cold Food, or Hanshi, included a temporary prohibition on lighting fires, so households prepared food in advance. Grave visits became closely associated with that occasion. During the Tang dynasty, established Cold Food grave-visiting customs received official recognition; their proximity to Qingming helped the two observances grow together.

Spring outings also connected Qingming with the broader season of waterside gatherings and outdoor recreation associated with Shangsi. By the Song period, grave visits, prepared foods and excursions formed a lively spring festival season. As the old fire restriction became less prominent, ancestral remembrance and outings remained central. This development explains why a day associated with mourning also includes sociable meals and enjoyment of spring.

Caring for graves and making offerings

“Grave sweeping,” or saomu, includes the practical care of a burial place. Relatives remove weeds and fallen leaves, clean the grave and attend to its surroundings. Where a burial mound forms part of the grave, adding or repairing its covering of earth may be part of the visit. The work expresses continuing responsibility towards those buried there.

Offerings may include flowers, tea, wine, fruit and cooked dishes, sometimes chosen because the deceased enjoyed them. Families that practise ancestral rites may light incense, bow and burn paper offerings intended for the dead. The acts give remembrance a physical form: the grave is cared for, food is presented and the deceased is addressed as someone still held within family relationships.

After the offerings, relatives may share food and recall the people they have come to honour. Older family members can explain a name or tell a story, giving younger visitors a connection with relatives they never met.

Remembrance can also take place at a columbarium, before an ancestral tablet or through a simple gathering without religious offerings. The physical tasks differ from tending a grave, but the purpose of setting aside time for the dead remains recognisable.

Outings, willow branches and seasonal food

Taqing, literally “treading the green,” means going out to enjoy the spring countryside. A journey to a cemetery outside the settlement could also be an excursion among new leaves and flowers. Walking, picnicking and meeting other families gave the remembrance season a social life beyond the grave.

Kite flying and swinging are among its familiar outdoor activities. Historical customs also include wearing willow sprigs or placing them at doorways. Willow’s fresh growth made it a conspicuous sign of the season, while traditional beliefs gave the branches protective associations.

In Jiangnan, the lower Yangtze region, qingtuan are characteristic seasonal foods. These soft glutinous-rice cakes take their green colour from plants such as mugwort mixed into the dough. Sweet bean paste is a familiar filling, alongside savoury versions. They can be offered, given to others or eaten as a spring snack.

Prepared cakes and other foods recall Qingming’s connection with Cold Food even where no ban on cooking is observed. Their seasonal ingredients also belong to the outing itself: remembering earlier generations and tasting the new season can be parts of the same family day.