拼音: qīnɡ mínɡ jié 注音: ㄑㄧㄥ ㄇㄧㄥˊ ㄐㄧㄝˊ
[Chinese] Pure Brightness Day; Pure Brightness Festival; Qingming Festival
The Pure Brightness Festival is one of the 24 seasonal division points in China. It falls in the third lunar month or April 4-6 in the solar calendar. It is the time when the Spring scene is bright and the air is clean – hence, its name. After the festival, the temperature will rise up and the rainfall increases.
It marks the time for Spring plowing and sowing. But the Pure Brightness Festival is not just a seasonal point to guide farm works, it is more of a festival to show people’s remembrance and respect for their ancestors and their love ones who passed away before them. It is the custom that Chinese people offer sacrifices to their ancestors and sweep the graves of the diseased.
At this day, families would go to the countryside to the graves. They sweep the graves, get rid of the weeds, add new earth and offer sacrifices. Swings, flying the kite, fighting the chicken, fighting the grass and so on are some of the traditional activities on this day.
There are some famous poets in Chinese history express the sadness, love, memory, and hope of Chinese people in this special day, resulting the Pure Brightness Festival to become one rich poetic sentiment holiday.