Today is Qingming Festival in China

Today, April 5, celebrates Qingming Festival in China. It is also known as the Remembrance of Ancestors Day or Grave-Sweeping Day. Ancestor veneration is extremely important in Chinese culture, and the spirit of this day is much like Memorial Day in the United States, or Dia de Muertos in Mexico.

Quingming rituals not only include weeding of the area around the grave, cleaning of the headstone, and replacing the wilted flowers with fresh ones, but also the lighting of incense and burning of imitation paper money. The burning of the imitation money is for the deceased to use in the afterlife. In addition, food is laid out in front of the headstone as an offering to the spirits of the deceased.

The Qingming Festival has been observed by the Chinese for over 2500 years.