Ching Ming Festival: 5 facts about tomb sweeping day, one of the most important in the Chinese calendar

At Ching Ming, Chinese families honour the dead by cleaning their tombs and burning paper money and objects useful in the afterlife, such as cars, as offerings

They use other ways to ward off evil spirits: hanging willow branches, symbols of new life, on doors and gates or weaving wreaths out of them, and flying kites

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Families worship their ancestors on Ching ming, the Chinese tomb sweeping festival at Diamond Hill Cemetery in Hong Kong, where Ching Ming is a public holiday. Photo: Elson Li

Published: 5:45am, 4 Apr 2024Updated: 7:27am, 4 Apr 2024

Ching Ming falls on the 15th day after the spring equinox in the Chinese lunisolar calendar, and is a day for honouring the dead by sweeping their tombs and the burning of paper offerings.

An important festival in the Chinese calendar, the celebration dates back more than 2,500 years to the Zhou Dynasty (1046-256BC) when emperors offered sacrifices to their ancestors to bless their empire with peace and prosperity.

This year Ching Ming falls today. In Hong Kong, it is a public holiday.

Part of the annual ritual of paying homage to the dead is the burning of paper money (joss paper) and paper effigies of material things, from homes and handbags to iPhones and luxury cars; in 2017 a family from the Malaysian island of Penang paid almost US$4,000 for a golden paper Lamborghini sports car.

Paper effigies of luxury food items such as these crab, lobster and durian ones displayed by To Chin-sung, owner of Chun Shing Hong paper offering shop in Sai Ying Pun, Hong Kong, are always popular at Ching Ming. Photo: Dickson Lee

What else do we know about a festival that, at its heart, helps connect the living with the dead?

Ching Ming Festival: 5 facts about tomb sweeping day, one of the most important in the Chinese calendar

1. Coming clean