The Qingming Festival, the traditional tomb-sweeping day, falls on either April 4th or 5th each year in China as a national holiday. Various regions will hold sacrifice rites according to the local customs during the holiday. The sacrifice rites include main worship and to remember ancestors and relatives those who passed away.
There are two forms of sacrifice rites, tomb-sweeping and ancestral temple event. The most common form is tomb-sweeping and it could be close to worship the dead and better show the filial piety. The relatives will meet to the graveyard and make a sacrifice ceremony on the day.
The other form, “ancestral temple event” is that clans get together in the ancestral temple to hold ceremonials and have dinners. It is also a good way to unite the clansmen.
Families will also pray for the living’s health and happiness by cleaning familial grave sites, burning incenses, imitated paper moneys, and offering rich sacrifices and so on.
Ms. Rachel fu