How Much Do You Know about Tomb-Sweeping Day

1. the origin of the tomb-sweeping day
2. what is the custom of the tomb-sweeping day
3. what can we do under the coronavirus pandemic

Tomb-Sweeping Day is also known as Qingming Festival by Chinese people, and according to the search results from Google, the Qingming Festival was originally held to commemorate a loyal man living in the Spring and Autumn Period (770 - 476 BC), named Jie Zitui. To save the  lord who was being persecuted, Jie cut a piece of meat from his own leg. The lord came back to his position nineteen years later, and forgot Jie Zitui but later felt ashamed and decided to reward him. However, Jie had blocked himself up in a mountain with his mother. In order to find Jie, the lord ordered that the mountain should be set on fire. Later Jie was found dead with his mother. In order to commemorate Jie, the lord ordered that the day Jie died was Hanshi (Cold Food) Festival - the day that only cold food could be eaten. Since then, the festival has spread to this day.

In order to commemorate the festival, of course, there are a variety of customs. As far as I’m concerned, Qingtuan is one of the highlights of this traditional festival in China, which is a green dumpling made by glutinous rice mixed with Chinese mugwort or barley grass. Usually, it is filled with sweet red or black, but different regions have their own practices.

And the most important thing of this festival for Chinese people is to tomb sweeping, as the name implies, people are required to clean the tomb as well as paying tribute to ancestors during this day. Besides, there is also a chance for people to take part in outdoor activities throughout this vacation, such as spring outing, flying kites.

Unfortunately, people could not go outside for gathering due to the Coronavirus outbreak this year. The government calls for staying at home to prevent against infecting disease. In the case, how do we celebrate this traditional, yet significant festival? Actually, there are several ways to go: 1) Online ancestor worship, people can send their words on websites that are dedicated to commemorating ancestors or the loved ones. 2) Downloading nostalgic music via a 3rd party tool and enjoy being alone. 3) Or you may take advantage of this vacation to work or study if you are a hard-working person.