The Origin of Tomb-Sweeping Day (Brief Introduction)

Tomb-Sweeping Day, also known as the outing festival, is celebrated at the turn of mid-spring and late spring. Tomb-Sweeping Day is a traditional major Spring Festival. It is a fine tradition left by the Chinese nation for thousands of years to sweep graves and remember our ancestors. It is not only conducive to promoting filial piety, awakening family memories, but also conducive to promoting the cohesion and identity of family members and even the nation.

The historical development of Tomb-Sweeping Day has rich cultural connotations. Due to different regional cultures, the content or details of customs vary from place to place in China. Although festival activities vary from place to place, sweeping graves to worship ancestors and going out for an outing are the same basic customs.

Together with Spring Festival, Dragon Boat Festival and Mid-Autumn Festival, it is called the four traditional festivals in China. Tomb-Sweeping Day is a day for China people to worship their ancestors and sweep graves. In some places, there are traditional activities, such as hiking, swinging, cuju, flying kites and inserting willows.

The Cold Food Festival happened to be the day before Tomb-Sweeping Day. During the Qin and Han Dynasties, the custom of sweeping graves to worship ancestors became increasingly prosperous, and people often extended the time of sweeping graves from the Cold Food Festival to Tomb-Sweeping Day.

With the passage of time, Tomb-Sweeping Day gradually rose from being attached to the Cold Food Festival to replacing it. These two festivals are combined into one, which is what we call Tomb-Sweeping Day today.