Chinese remember and honor ancestors during Qingming festival

World Today

China’s Qingming festival is a time for relatives to gather, clean their family tombs, and remember their ancestors. While the festival includes common shared traditions, many Chinese people mark the holiday in different ways. Stanley Lee filed reported this story from east China’s Zhejiang province.

Highlights:

  • At the annual Silk Flower Temple fair in Deqingxin, women wearing traditional clothing walk the streets handing out decorative flowers made of silk. The city is known historically for producing silk, and was one of the key locations on the ancient silk road. In recent years, they have also handed out candy.
  • The parade also features a colorful variety of costumes and performances. The municipal government hopes the event will revive traditional culture in the city.
  • Meanwhile, also in Zhejiang province, residents in Sunshine Village near the the city of Changxinlin make Qingtuan – a form of dumpling common throughout China made from glutinous rice mixed with Chinese mugwort or barley grass. The filling is usually filled with sweet red or black bean paste. Qingtuan is traditionally eaten during the Qingming festival as a tribute to people’s ancestors.
  • The dumplings are very popular, one small shop sells more than 3,000 Qingtuans during the festival.