Tomb Sweeping Festival in Taiwan

When is the Tomb Sweeping Day? ... The festival takes place on April 5 of the western calendar. It is a national holiday in Taiwan and nearly everybody gets the ... SkiptoprimarynavigationSkiptomaincontentSkiptoprimarysidebarMENUMENUHomeWhat’sNewAboutTaiwan FactsAboutTaiwanIsTaiwanaCountry?Culture AncientChineseThingsTaiwaneseCultureLanguageMartialArtsMusic FestivalsFood Snacks&FastFoodGuide TravelInfo 17BestRoadTripsinTaiwanAccommodationTransportation TransportinTaiwanHighSpeedRailTrainBusRentaCarScooter&MotorcycleHitchhiking HikingGuideScooter/MotorcycleTravelSurfinginTaiwanNightlifeinTaiwanVisatoTaiwanImportantLinks! 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TableofContents WhatisQingmingJie?WhenistheTombSweepingDay?OriginsoftheChineseTombSweepingFestivalBannedinChina,encouragedinTaiwan!Let’sclean!GhostMoneyandTombSweepingTombSweepingChineseFestivalforTravelers WhatisQingmingJie? TombSweepingFestivalisoneofthemostimportantofthe Chinesetraditionalholidays,especiallywhenitcomestoancestralworship.AnyoneremotelyfamiliarwithtraditionsinChinesecultureknowsthateldersandancestorsareofultimateimportance,and QingmingJie putsthemincentralfocus. Note:QingmingJie isalsosometimesspelled ChingMingJie. Thefamilytomb,inthebeautifulmountainsofCentralTaiwan WhenistheTombSweepingDay? ThefestivaltakesplaceonApril5ofthewesterncalendar.ItisanationalholidayinTaiwanandnearlyeverybodygetsthedayoffforit.Itisoneoftheoldestholidaysontheplanetthatisstillpracticedtoday. OriginsoftheChineseTombSweepingFestival ThelegendsthatleadtotheTombSweepingFestival‘soriginsdateasfarbackas2,500years.Maybethat’sbecausetherulesaresimpleandmeaningful,butwhoknows. Clickheretofollowusonfacebook! Gettingreadytobaibai(pray)fortheancestors. QingmingJie’s originsactuallyseemtoopposetheancestraltraditioninaway.Supposedly,TangDynastyemperorXuanzongcouldn’tstandthefactthathisconstituentswereconstantlypayingrespecttotheirancestorsratherthandoingthingsofthemoreproductivevariety.Therefore,helimitedthemtoonlyonedayofworship,namely,TombSweepingDay. Cleaningatombishardwork!Timeforawell-deservedteabreak. BannedinChina,encouragedinTaiwan! Amongthemorepolitically-minded,theTombSweepingHolidayisasourceofprideforTaiwan.InitsefforttodepleteChinaofitsculturalhistory,theCommunistPartyofChinabannedtheChineseTombSweepingFestivalfornearlyfourdecades,startingfromtheparty’stakeoverofthecountryin1949.Itspracticewasfinallyreinstatedin2008.Taiwaneseproudlystatethattheyhavemaintainedtheirtraditionsinspiteofmodernizationanddictatorship. FoodofferingsandflowersareplacedonthegroundinfrontofthegravesandstatuesofChinesegods. Let’sclean! Therelationshipbetweentombsandancestorsisclearenough,butwhataboutthesweeping?ForTombSweepingDay,afamilymustvisitthegravesoftheirancestorsandmakesuretheyareinproperorder.Chinesegravesareoftenlargeandelaborateandthereforerequireagoodbitofmaintenance. Me,totallyexhaustedanddehydratedaftertomb“sweeping”!AndIthoughtshovelingsnowwashard… On QingmingJie,Taiwaneseheadtoagraveyard,makesuretheirpreviousgenerations’tombsaresweptclearofanyfunguses,insectsorotherwiseunpleasantthings.Weedsareuprooted,underbrushisbrushedaside.Also,theyofferuptraditionalChinesefoods,liquoror“ghostmoney”oranythingelsethattheythinktheirancestorsmightdesireorneedintheafterlife. GhostMoneyandTombSweeping TombSweepingFestivalbringsoutapeculiartypeofentrepreneur,whomakesabuckbyselling josspaper accessoriesforfairlyextremepricesforthoselookingtomaketheirancestors’comfortable. Theycouldincludejosspaperversionsofcars,airconditioners,eventothepointthatyoucanbuyyour60-years-gonegreatgrandfatheranafterlife-appropriateiPhone.Theseitemsgetprintedonjosspaperandburned(justasisdonewithghostmoney),thussendingthemontothenextworld. Josspaper,readytobeburned ManyfamiliesinTaiwanturn Qingming intosomethingofamini-vacation.Mostofthegraveyardslieoutsideofcitycentersnearmountainousareas,makingforanicelongweekendwheretheycangoforapicnic,ahikeinthehills,or Somepeople’sashesare“stored”inhuge“cemeterytowers”insteadofbeingburriedintheground.WevisitedsomeofRuby’sancestorsatoneofthosetowers.Wetypedanumberatacomputer,andsomeblackandwhitepicturesappearedonaTV.Wesatfor30minutesstaringatthescreen,andleftwhenthetimewasup. TombSweepingChineseFestivalforTravelers Fortravelers,there’snotalottotakeadvantagehere(suchasthebeautyofthe LanternFestival),butit’sneverwrongtotakepartinsomething2millenniaold. Bagsofghostmoneypilledoutsideacemeterytower Returnfrom ChineseTombSweepingFestivalto ChineseFestivalsinTaiwan. BacktoTop PrimarySidebarSearchthiswebsite Hello,I’mUgo I’mtheweirdobehindthissite.I’vebeenlivinginTaiwansince2000,sobasicallyI’vespenthalfmylifehere.IhaveabigpassionforeverythingFormosaandI’vebeenworkingonthiswebsitesince2008tosharethebeautyofTaiwanwiththeworld!Readmoreaboutme. Readaboutmypreciousbaby:PizzaRock,acompanyIstartedin2011. 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