Poems about Qingming Festival

[Photo: from IC]

Qingming Festival, also called Tomb-Sweeping Day, is a traditional Chinese festival and the most important ancestor worship event in China. On that day many Chinese will visit their ancestors' tombs to honor their memory. But the ways to memorialize the dead vary from region to region.

This festival began during the Zhou Dynasty (1046BC-256BC) and has a history of 2,500 years. It is also one of the four traditional Chinese festivals including Dragon Boat Festival, Spring Festival and Mid-Autumn Festival.

The customs for Qingming Festival in ancient times included sports activities such as going for a walk, swinging and playing a ball game..

Nowadays, Chinese renovate or clean their ancestors' tombs, burn paper money and offer food as a sacrifice.

But such customs vary from region to region, especially the date, the food and the methods. Moreover, there are many ways to memorialize the dead. 

There are a number of literary works associated with Qingming Festival. 

Here is a well-known ancient Chinese poem descripting Qingming Festival by the poet Du Mu from the Tang Dynasty:

A drizzling rain falls like tears on the Mourning Day;

清明时节雨纷纷，

The mourner’s heart is breaking on his way.

路上行人欲断魂。

Where can a winehouse be found to drown his sadness?

借问酒家何处有？

A cowherd points to Almond Flower Village in the distance.

牧童遥指杏花村。

[The audio clip is from Studio+, produced by CRI]