Chinese Tomb Sweeping Festival

Talk of death and people who have long passed on will be on the lips of every Chinese person on and off the mainland tomorrow.

Citizens of China and Chinese people from around the world will stop and take stock of their heritage tomorrow when they mark the Qing Ming festival better known as ‘Tomb Sweeping Day’ (answers.com/topic/qingming-festival).

If they are able to, Chinese people gather as families and visit their ancestor’s remains. Wine, food and tea is offered; joss sticks and hell money (answers.com/topic/hell-bank-note) is burnt and tombs or graves are cleaned in a bid to make ancestors’ existence as comfortable as possible, and influence them to look favorably on the fortunes of the living members of the family.

While ‘Tomb Sweeping Day’ is a national holiday in China not everybody will be able to spend time with family as many migrant workers can’t get to and from their home towns in the time.

Many similar festivals are held all over Asia with the Bonn festival in Japan and Hansik Festival (answers.com/topic/hansik) in Korea.

Hell money and joss sticks waiting to be offered to a family’s ancestors

Chinavasion staff will be amongst those paying respect to their ancestors tomorrow and as a result those requiring customer support may experience some delays.

Someone will be on-site for emergencies but most enquiries will be answered on Monday when normal working hours resume.