Qing Ming Jie just ended here in China. The holiday is also known as tomb sweeping day or all souls day. This year the holiday was from monday to wednesday and like most Chinese holidays follows the lunar calendar. The holiday is for remembering past ancestors and relatives.
The first day is know as cold food day. This is because no fire or smoke is allowed and people are supposed to eat cold food all day, nothing hot. All the restaurant and small family owned restaurants in our neighborhood were closed. Just like Spring Festival, the only restaurant you will find that are open are Western fast food places, such as McDonalds, KFC and Pizza Hut. But, if you decide to eat at one of these places, I guarantee you will have a few hours to wait in line!
The rest of the holiday is centered around family. Families go together to the cemetery to sweep the graves and give offerings, such as tea, bai jou, rice wine, fruit, cakes, cookies and paper money and clothing. A few weeks before most meat and veggie markets will have small stalls that are selling lots of incense, paper money, paper clothes and everything else.
People also believe that some evil spirits will be wandering during the holiday. So it is common to see people carrying willow branches with them to the tombs to protect them. Also many people put small willow branches or other greens on their door. My neighbors in Guangzhou, they kept willow branches tied to their outside door for about 2 or 3 weeks for Qing Ming each year. But, most people only for three days to a week.
The other practice to keep evil spirits out of your life and your families life is to light fireworks. This week we have been hearing A LOT of fireworks! Hopefully evil spirits will be staying away from us as well!
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