Jenny Lao-Phillips
‘Tis the season to be jolly… and I’m not talking about Christmas. The best season for us “Macaoians” should be this spring season. Why? It is not that the rain and humidity are anything likable, but the number of holidays this season amounts to more than the rest of the year. Let’s count, we have the Spring Festival a.k.a. Chinese New Year, followed by the Easter break, and then next Monday comes Ching Ming Festival 清明節, giving us another long weekend.
Well, some may say that Ching Ming Festival, also known as Tomb-sweeping Day, is not a jolly kind of festival. But that’s where we have the concept of the festival wrong. It is not only a day for tomb-sweeping and ancestor worship; it is actually a day to show our ancestors that the family is happy and living well. Therefore, Ching Ming activities traditionally also include: Taqing 踏青 – outing or hiking; Cuju 蹴鞠 – kickball or ancient Chinese football; and Dang Qiu Qian 盪秋千 – playing on a swing. Basically, it is a time for family to go out and enjoy themselves, and to visit their ancestors’ tombs together. That sounds jolly enough, right? So, how did this festival begin?
Like many long traditions, there are numerous versions, but one certainty is that the customs on Ching Ming Festival that we are practicing now relate to the three days of Cold Food Festival 寒食節, which is only practiced by a few nowadays. The Cold Food Festival begins two days before Ching Ming Festival, or 105 days after the Winter Festival, and is called the Cold Food Festival because fire was not allowed to be lit over those few days.
One theory about the festival is that it commemorates during the spring and autumn period a loyal official, Jie Zi Tui, who was killed during a forest fire, which would explain why no fire is allowed to be lit during those days. Another theory dates back to the ancient times when different wood was used to start fires in different seasons. So before people changed to the “spring wood”, there were a few days when fire was not allowed to be lit. As there was no fire, there was no cooking, so families would prepare cold food earlier in those days, thus the name Cold Food Festival. During this mid-spring festival, families would go out together for healthy sports such as hiking, kicking ball, playing on swings and tree-planting.
So, how does the Cold Food Festival relate to Ching Ming? The main relationship is the timing. Ching Ming lies on the day after the Cold Food Festival. After three days of no fire, Ching Ming is the day when families reignite fire at home with wicker or Elmwood. As they could only light fire on that day, they would burn offerings to their ancestors at their tomb. At the time of the Tang Dynasty, Ching Ming was seldom referred to as it was considered part of the Cold Food Festival. By the Ming Dynasty, the reference to the Cold Food Festival became obsolete, and only Ching Ming Festival was celebrated by way of tomb-sweeping, an outing and other outdoor activities that used to be practiced during the Cold Food Festival.
Regardless of whether it is Ching Ming or Cold Food, it is a mid-spring celebration, and according to the “Liji Yueling”, “The Book of Rites”, it is a time to give thanks to the ancestors and to life. It is also a time to fall in love. So, aside from being with families, it is a time for romance, making Ching Ming Festival not merely a day for sweeping ancestors’ tombs but a festival for love.
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