Several years ago, China has three golden weeks every year. Those are week-long national holidays that wreak havoc to the whole country. Everyone must go somewhere; all tourist spots busted in seams; transportation system ground to halt; international transactions disrupted. So the government changed that and distributed the holidays around year to smaller chunks. Qing Ming and several traditional festivals are now officially observed. So nice to see them restored.
Unbeknown to many, the Chinese traditional calendar is actually solar/lunar. For example, the Chinese New Year is the 2nd new moon after the winter solstice, a classic solar/lunar construction. Chinese calendar is also purely astronomical, unlike western Gregorian calendar that is partially a political by-product, in the form of a short February and odd number of days for each month. Chinese divide a solar year into 24 even periods. Qing Ming is 14 days after the spring equinox. By this time, the growing season has just started. People clean up their slates and get ready for the busy summer. Chinese decided that this is a good day to visit their ancestors’ burial site.
It is an outing, a light exercise, and a show of respect to the ancestors. Several years ago, I had such adventure with my siblings to my great grand mother’s tomb. We brought manual gardening tools, incenses, some pastries, and paper “monies.” It was a rigorous hike. We cleared out the weeds and tidied up the surrounding. The we offered the foods, lit the incenses, and burned those special monies that will become her spending currency wherever she is. We read the tombstone, admired her longevity, and traced her offspring whose names were inscribed. The party chatted to the smokes and incenses. We hiked back in good spirit and enjoyed a nice meal after.
Almost every Chinese know the famous poem on Qing Ming about a restaurant called Xing Hua Cun (æ花æ‘). It’s the time to have a little homesick. Several drinks will be the perfect poetic mood if there is also a light drizzle.