清明英语小知识

Qingming Festival（清明节英语介绍） The Qingming (Pure Brightness) Festival is one of the 24 seasonal division points in China, falling on April 4-6 each year. After the festival, the temperature will rise up and rainfall increases. It is the high time for spring plowing and sowing. But the Qingming Festival is not only a seasonal point to guide farm work, it is more a festival of commemoration. The Qingming Festival sees a combination of sadness and happiness. This is the most important day of sacrifice. Both the Han and minority ethnic groups at this time offer sacrifices to their ancestors and sweep the tombs of the diseased. Also, they will not cook on this day and only cold food is served. The Hanshi (Cold Food) Festival was usually one day before the Qingming Festival. As our ancestors often extended the day to the Qingming, they were later combined. On each Qingming Festival, all cemeteries are crowded with people who came to sweep tombs and offer sacrifices. Traffic on the way to the cemeteries becomes extremely jammed. The customs have been greatly simplified today. After slightly sweeping the tombs, people offer food, flowers and favorites of the dead, then burn incense and paper money and bow before the memorial tablet. In contrast to the sadness of the tomb sweepers, people also enjoy hope of Spring on this day. The Qingming Festival is a time when the sun shines brightly, the trees and grass become green and nature is again lively. Since ancient times, people have followed the custom of Spring outings. At this time tourists are everywhere. People love to fly kites during the Qingming Festival. Kite flying is actually not limited to the Qingming Festival. Its uniqueness lies in that people fly kites not during the day, but also at night. A string of little lanterns tied onto the kite or the thread look like shining stars, and therefore, are called "god's lanterns." The Qingming Festival is also a time to plant trees, for the survival rate of saplings is high and trees grow fast later. In the past, the Qingming Festival was called "Arbor Day". But since 1979, "Arbor Day" was settled as March 12 according to the Gregorian calendar. 清明节 清明是我国的二十四节气之一。由于二十四节气比较客观地反映了一年四季气温、降雨、物候等方面的变化，所以古代劳动人民用它安排农事活动。但是，清明作为节日，与纯粹的节气又有所不同。节气是我国物候变化、时令顺序的标志，而节日则包含着一定的风俗活动和某种纪念意义。因此，这个节日中既有祭扫新坟生别死离的悲酸泪，又有踏青游玩的欢笑声，是一个富有特色的节日。 清明节是我国传统节日，也是最重要的祭祀节日，是祭祖和扫墓的日子。扫墓俗称上坟，祭祀死者的一种活动。汉族和一些少数民族大多都是在清明节扫墓。由于清明与寒食的日子接近，而寒食是民间禁火扫墓的日子，渐渐的，寒食与清明就合二为一了，而寒食既成为清明的别称，也变成为清明时节的一个习俗，清明之日不动烟火，只吃凉的食品。 按照旧的习俗，扫墓时，人们要携带酒食果品、纸钱等物品到墓地，将食物供祭在亲人墓前，再将纸钱焚化，为坟墓培上新土，折几枝嫩绿的新枝插在坟上，然后叩头行礼祭拜，最后吃掉酒食回家。 与清明节扫墓的悲哀相反，人们在这个春光明媚的日子里，也一样是可以享受生活的。 放风筝也是清明时节人们所喜爱的活动。每逢清明时节，人们不仅白天放，夜间也放。夜里在风筝下或风稳拉线上挂上一串串彩色的小灯笼，象闪烁的明星，被称为“神灯”。 清明前后，春阳照临，春阳照临，春雨飞洒，种植树苗成活率高，成长快。因此，自古以来，我国就有清明植树的习惯。有人还把清明节叫作“植树节”。植树风俗一直流传至今。1979年，人大常委会规定，每年三月十二日为我国植树节。这对动员全国各族人民积极开展绿化祖国活动，有着十分重要的意义。

清明节（Tomb-Sweeping Day） 1、Qing Ming Jie（All Souls' Day） Qing Ming is a time to remember the dead and the dearly departed. More important, it is a period to honour and to pay respect to one's deceased ancestors and family members. Because it reinforces the ethic of filial piety, Qing Ming is a major Chinese festival. Literally meaning "clear" (Qing) and "bright" (Ming), this Chinese festival falls in early spring, on the 106th day after the winter solstice. It is a "spring" festival, and it is an occasion for the whole family to leave the home and to sweep the graves of their forebears. Chinese being practical people this sweeping of the graves is given an extended period, that is, 10 days before and after Qing Ming day. Among some dialect groups a whole month is allocated. 清明节是一个纪念祖先的节日。主要的纪念仪式是扫墓，扫墓是慎终追远、郭亲睦邻及行孝的具体表现；基于上述意义，清明节因此成为华人的重要节日。 清明节是在仲春和暮春之交，也就是冬至后的106天。扫墓活动通常是在清明节的前十天或后十天。有些地域的人士的扫墓活动长达一个月。

Ching Ming Festival is one of the 24 segments in Chinese calendar. It normally falls on the 4th or 5th of April because it's depended on the Cold Food Day （105 days after previous year's winter solstice）. In the old days, Ching Ming was celebrated 3 days after the Cold Food Day but Cold Food Day was shorted to one day and then abandoned. So nowadays, Ching Ming and Cold Food Day fall on the same day although no one celebrate Cold Food Day any more. Ching Ming is also known as "Remembrance of Ancestors Day" or 'Grave Sweeping Day'. On Ching Ming, the whole family will visit their ancestors or relatives' graves. I remember when I was little, we had to catch a diesel train to north New Territories to do grave sweeping. As a kid, I always find it scary when the train go through the dark tunnel of the hill. But there is no more diesel trains running in HK now. If you want to see one, you can find it in the Railway museum in Tai Po Market. We have to carry incense sticks, joss sticks and paper offerings like paper money and paper clothes and any other paper accessories, depends how serious your family is with this thing. All paper offerings will be burnt for they believe that the relatives can receive the goods and even 'money' this way. As a kid, I am always asked to carry a bunch of flower. Chrysanthemum is normally chosen so don't give Chrysanthemum to Chinese people as gift coz it's a funeral/grave sweeping use flowers, although some households may find it to display home on normal days. Food like roasted suckling pig, steamed chicken, fruit and wine are offered during the ceremony. Then we will eat it up after the worshipping. There were children in scruffy looking t-shirts offering you a red piece of paper and a stone to put on top of the grave stone. My family never explains to me what it's for but I suppose red always implies luck so maybe it helps to bring good luck to the dead person? In return, you are supposed to give a few dollars to the children to buy this red paper. There were also poor teenagers or adults carrying sickles and offer weeding services around the grave stones. As our family visits the graves twice a year （Ching Ming and Chung Yeung）, we can manage with a pair of scissors! Some superstitious people even carry willow branches with them or hang it on the front door. It's believed that willows help to get rid of evil spirits, when Ching Ming is one of the days that ghosts and spirits wander about.

Qingming festival, also known as the spring outing festival, is the 108th day after the winter solstice. The traditional qingming festival in China, started around the zhou dynasty, has a history of more than 2,500 years.

Influenced by the han culture, China's 24 ethnic minorities, including manchu, hezhen, zhuang, tujia, miao and yao, also have the custom of qingming festival. Grave worship, outing outing is the basic theme.

Qingming started as a name for solar terms and became a festival to commemorate ancestors related to the cold food festival. The day after the cold food festival was set as qingming festival.

Tomb-sweeping day is one of the most important "eight festivals" in China, usually around April 5 of the Gregorian calendar. The qingming festival was originally referred to 15 days after the spring equinox.

In 1935, the government of the republic of China designated April 5 as the national tomb-sweeping day, also known as the national tomb-sweeping day. When tomb-sweeping day arrives, the temperature will rise, which is a good time for spring plowing.

The origin of the qingming festival, it is said that it started from the ancient emperors and generals "tomb offering" ceremony, and later the folk also imitate, on this day to worship ancestors grave, followed by generations and become a fixed custom of the Chinese nation.

On May 20, 2006, the qingming festival declared by the ministry of culture of China was included in the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage list upon the approval of the state council.