The Ching Ming Festival (清明節) or Tomb Sweeping Day and Clear Brightness Festival is a day to honour one's ancestors at grave sites or columbariums. During this time, one can find the young and old praying before the ancestors, sweeping the tombs and offering food, tea, wine, chopsticks, paper accessories to the ancestors. It is supposed to be an act of filial piety. One reason why it is steadfastly carried out by the Chinese each year is because they strongly believe that the spirits of ancestors will look after the family and thus they will go to great lengths to honour them. As a result Ching Ming is considered as a time of obeisance, rememberance and veneration for departed ancestors and immediate family members. If one makes a special effort to visit the graves and columbariums of departed relatives underscores the time-honoured eastern tradition of respect for elders as well as filial piety.Look out for my posts tomorrow for I will be blogging more about the Ching Ming festival.
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