Let's learn about Ching Ming festival (also known as Tomb Sweeping Festival) from China plus welcome 8 new partners from The Netherlands

I was back from Europe for a few days, and lucky me, I had a 3 days public holiday when I am back in Shanghai now. When everybody decide to travel for a short trip, I decided to rest at home and write a feature article to share with you all about our festival - Tomb Sweeping Festival from China. April 5th marked the beginning of the 2019 Tomb Sweeping festival. It is not only an important day for showing respect to one’s ancestors but also a time to go out and enjoy the coming of Spring. As I always think "Understanding about culture" is important, hence I hope to help you all to know more about the originality I come from.

Background of Tomb Sweeping Festival

The festival’s traditions go back to over 2500 years in history practiced by Han Chinese, Chitty of Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, as well as Thailand and since 2008, it became a public holiday in China. Surprisingly, the current Tomb Sweeping festival in China is said to be a combination or originated from the Hanshi festival (寒食节）which commemorates a famous official by the name of Jie Zitui. The story of Jie Zitui starts with political parties fighting for power with Jie Zitui saving the life of the Duke Chong’er, who eventually took over the throne after 19 years of hiding in Jing.

Jie Zhitui (fl. 7th century bc), also known as Jie Zitui, was a Han aristocrat who served the Jin prince Chong'er during the Spring and Autumn Period of Chinese history. After Chong’er’s ascension, Jie Zitui stayed away from his King who was in search of him to reward him for saving his life. Fustrated to find Jie, the King ordered the burning of the forest where Jie and his mother were said to be in order to drive them out. Much to his surprise, Jie and his mother burned to death and the King, full of regret and sorrow, decided to ban the lighting of fires for 3 days. From this day forward, people began to worship Jie on the day of his death which is right before the Tomb Sweeping festival. That day, people would not cook food with flames and would rather eat cold foods, hence the name, Cold Meal festival (寒食节）.

What Do We Eat During This Festival?

In mainland China, the holiday is associated with the consumption of QINGTUAN, green dumplings made of glutinous rice and Chinese mugwort or barley grass. A similar confection called caozaiguo or shuchuguo, made with Jersey cudweed, is consumed in Taiwan.

And also I remembered my dad and my aunts always prepare a lot of pork, chicken and breads while we were going to my grandparents tomb, after burning those paper things, we can start eating the offerings.

During this time, Chinese people would pay respects to their ancestors by engaging in activities such as tomb sweeping, maintenance, kite flying, and putting willow branches on gates. Burning incense, burning of joss sticks and joss paper, offering food or drink to the ancestors are also some activities seen that are also practiced in many east Asian countries such as South Korea and Japan.

Travel Patterns During the Holiday These Years

The Tomb Sweeping festival, is a time when masses of Chinese people return or travel with their families. Data from 2017 showed that more than half the people decided to take around 3 days off following the holiday. The tourism generated brought about 39 billion RMB into the Chinese localities. The transportation systems most frequented were, car and train while the main mode of tourism was family tours, spring excursions, and finally road trips.

Compared to 2017, 2018 showed a shift in travelers. About 100 million domestic trips happening which was and 8% increase from the previous year. The generated revenue was also increased to 42.1 billion RMB. Alternatively, while many travelers still engaged in scenic or nature travel, a growing segment of Chinese travelers chose to visit the graves of martyrs and memorial sites from the revolution in China. Shanghai was marked as one of the most family friendly locations and was also the top travel location for the 3 days. Other locations within China that were most popular were, Guangzhou, followed by Beijing, Nanjing, Shenzhen, Hangzhou, Suzhou, Wuhan, Chengdu, and Chongqing.

While domestic travel booms, Chinese tourists also look outward to spend their short holiday. Of the most visited locations, Japan, South East Asia, Australia, and New Zealand were the most visited countries during the Tomb Sweeping festival.

With an increasing trend of micro travel in which people may take a trip on the weekend for the length of a day. Travel will soon become an integrated part of life.

Sources: China Daily, Xinhua Net, Travel China Guide, China Odyssey Tour, China Highlights, People's Daily, ECNS, The State Council of the People's Republic of China, Top China Travel

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