Ching Ming Festival
April
Ancestor worship is a Chinese tradition dating back thousands of years.
Also known as the Grave-sweeping or Spring Remembrance, Ching Ming ("clear and bright"), is when Chinese families show their respect by visiting the graves of their ancestors to clear away weeds, touch up gravestone inscriptions and make offerings of wine and fruit.
Locals tidy the tombstones and arrange fresh flowers and three glasses of wine before them.
They burn joss sticks and paper objects, in the belief that the dead will receive these "the other side". Paper cars, money, mahjong sets, even cellular phones go up in smoke.
Chinese families also present roast piglets, fruit and other food to the deceased but that doesn't go to waste. The day usually ends with a family feast.
More about Ching Ming Festival:
Ching Ming Festival is one of the 24 segments in Chinese calendar. It normally falls on the 4th or 5th of April because it's depended on the Cold Food Day (105 days after previous year's winter solstice).
In the old days, Ching Ming was celebrated 3 days after the Cold Food Day but Cold Food Day was shorted to one day and then abandoned. So nowadays, Ching Ming and Cold Food Day fall on the same day although no one celebrate Cold Food Day any more. Ching Ming is also known as "Remembrance of Ancestors Day" or 'Grave Sweeping Day'.
On Ching Ming, the whole family will visit their ancestors or relatives' graves. People carry incense sticks, joss sticks and paper offerings like paper money and paper clothes and any other paper accessories.
All paper offerings will be burnt for they believe that the relatives can receive the goods and even 'money' this way.
Some come bringing a bunch of flower, usually, chrysanthemum which is commonly used as a funeral/grave sweeping use flowers.
Food like roasted suckling pig, steamed chicken, fruit and wine are offered during the ceremony. These are usually eaten up after the worshipping.
More info from Chinese Historical and Cultural Project (CHCP)
The date is indicated on the Chinese calendar with the two characters: ching, meaning pure or clean, and ming, meaning brightness. Combined together, Ching Ming means clean and just. This date is also indicated on traditional Japanese calendars, where their culture has a similar observance. In Korean culture, the observance is known as Hansik.
The Ching Ming observance may have had its beginnings as the original religion in China. Ancestor worship is the only native religion to China. All others, including, Buddhism, Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, were imported from outside of China. Confucianism and Taoism originated in China but are philosophies rather than religions. In the philosophy of Confucianism, a form of ancestor worship is incorporated with the virtue of filial piety.
Ching Ming rituals not only include weeding of the area, cleaning of the headstone, and replacing the wilted flowers with fresh ones, but also the lighting of incense and burning of imitation paper money. The burning of the imitation money is for the deceased to use in the afterlife. One year while visiting in China, one of my uncles from Canada even purchased a paper facsimile of a pair of eyeglasses and camera in Hong Kong to burn as part of the offerings; and an aunt in Hong Kong lit a cigarette at the end of a twig to make as an offering.
In addition, food is laid out in front of the headstone as an offering to the spirits of the deceased. The food may include a steamed whole chicken (including the head, which is later twisted off), hard boiled eggs cut in half lengthwise with shell attached, sliced barbecued pork (cha shiu), cut roast pork with crunchy skin attached, and dim sum pastries. In addition, three sets of chopsticks and three Chinese wine cups are arranged above the food and closest to the headstone.
The head of the household usually begins by bowing three times with the wine cup in hand, then pouring the wine on the ground just in front of the headstone. This procedure is usually repeated three times. Each member of the family comes in front of the headstone and bows three times with the right fist held cupped in the left hand. Some families will then eat the food together there at the grave site, similar to having a picnic with their deceased relatives. It is said to bring good luck to eat the food that was offered to the deceased.
In addition, some families will begin by setting off firecrackers to scare off evil spirits and to alert the deceased relatives that they are there to pay their respects.
Today, the responsibility to hang san or ’walk the mountain’ as visiting the cemetary is commonly known, still falls to the eldest son. Today families may be more likely to prefer simplified offerings of only the incense, paper money and flowers.
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