😳 The most UNEXPECTED Chinese festival in history - Qingming Festival 清明節

was on April 4th, which happens to coincide with Easter, something that is said to happen only once in a few hundred years. Woah woah woah, why are you telling me this old news? It's already passed! Come on guys, you should know by now we go in-depth with these videos. The 15 days after Qingming are all part of the Qingming season. When we talk about the Qingming festival, we usually think it's about visiting graves Heck, the English translation is Tomb Sweeping Festival. Actually, the ancient Qingming festival had a lot of fun activities. Tomb sweeping is actually a later custom, it has nothing to do with the original meaning of the festival. The direct translation of Qingming is clear and bright. It comes from which means the sky is clear and the earth is bright. Qingming means that from this day onward, all things will start to grow. Everything is clean and all is bright and clear. It's like spring when everything comes to life. So how can such a beautiful day be associated with tomb sweeping? To answer this, we have to go way back in history, before the Mid-Tang dynasty. People did not sweep the tomb on this day. Instead, they would go ta qing or dab qing, step on the green grass, i.e. go for a walk in the great outdoors, or what white people call hiking. They would dang qiu qian, or in Cantonese, dang qing cao. It's funny that it's the opposite in Cantonese. Anyways, that means go swinging. Yes, like at the park. Another popular activity would be to fang feng zheng, fly kites. Speaking of kites, ancient Chinese kites are much more interesting than the ones we have now. The original kites were made of wood, and they're called mu yuan, mo yun. These wooden kites were used as communication tools during wars. It could even carry gunpowder and be used as weapons. Mind blown. When paper technology improved and became less expensive, people started to make paper kites called zhi yuan, ji yun. They were made for kids. Some people also tied a bamboo flute to the top of the kite. When the kite flies, the wind blows through the flute and would make a sound of a Chinese zither, gu zheng, gu zhang. I actually attempted to learn the gu zheng back in the day and still have one at my parents' home. Anyway, so this type of kite, feng zheng, feng zhang, directly translates to a wind zither. And even though kites nowadays don't make sounds, it is still called feng zheng. In the Tang Dynasty, people stopped using paper kites for communications. I guess they now have carry pigeons. So kites became a form of amusement and a symbol for good luck. There's a saying that flying a kite is like letting go of bad luck. If the kite's string breaks and the kite flies away, then the bad luck flies away with it. So don't be sad if you ever lose your kite. Traditional kites have auspicious motives and meanings, such as long feng cheng xiang, long feng cheng chang. Dragon and phoenix brings prosperity. Bai dian nao chun, bak diep nao chun, hundreds of butterflies celebrate spring. Ma gu xian shou, ma gu xian shou, ma gu offers longevity. Nian nian you yu, lian nian you yu, having fish in the successive years. I'm sure you've heard of this one before, and I've talked about it in our Chinese New Year greeting episode. Bats are also popular because bian fu, pin feng, sounds like bian fu, pin feng, all around fortune. Kites were pretty fly back then, huh? Get it? Because of this, flying kites during Qingming is very much in line with the original meaning of the festival itself. Another important activity during Qingming Festival is ji zu xian, bai jiu xin, ancestor worship. Besides your own ancestors, people would also worship the Yellow Emperor, since all Chinese people are descendants of the Yellow Emperor. People will also pray to the heaven and earth for good weather, feng tiao yu shun, feng tiao yu shun, and a plentiful harvest, wu gu feng deng, wu gu feng deng. So, how did the customs of sweeping tombs at Qingming come about? We need to look at han shi jie, han shi jie, the cold food festival. Cold food means no fire, and only cold or pre-cooked food can be eaten. According to legend, this custom originated in the spring and autumn period when someone plotted to kill the emperor's oldest son, Chong'er. Chong'er's loyal servant, Jie Zhi Cui, did everything he could to help Chong'er escape. Jie Zhi Cui even cut off his own flesh to feed Chong'er when he was on the brink of starvation. That's like next-level loyalty. Just a little disclaimer, Chong'er didn't know this, but only found out afterwards. More than 10 years later, Chong'er finally returned to his country and became the Duke Wen of Jin, the ruler of Jin state. He rewarded each person who had helped him during his exile. But he forgot Jie Zhi Cui. When the duke finally remembered his loyal servant, he tried to find him. But Jie and his mother had moved to the mountains to live in seclusion. The duke and his ministers searched all over the mountain. One of the ministers suggested setting the mountain on fire to drive Jie out. This is just one of those bad ideas you read about in history. The fire burned for three days and three nights, but Jie still didn't show up. After the fire died down, people found the body of Jie holding his mother under a willow tree. The duke was so sad and remorseful. He dedicated the day when the mountain was set on fire as the cold food festival. On this day, people were forbidden to use fire and had to eat cold food to commemorate Jie Zhi Cui. Hundreds of years later, during the Tang dynasty, Emperor Xuanzong noticed that officials would take time off to visit the tombs in their hometowns, which delayed their official duties. So the emperor set a four-day holiday during the cold food festival where people could use this time to go home and visit the tombs. Then it became custom to go tomb sweeping during the cold food festival. The cold food festival mostly overlaps with Qingming on the lunar calendar. People slowly attach less importance to the cold food and more to Qingming. This is why nowadays people think that Qingming festival is all about sweeping tombs. I wonder how many of these historical stories have been lost throughout the years. If you like this video, please give it a thumbs up and let me know if you want to hear more of these origin stories. Oh, that was hard. Jie Zhi Cui.