Qingming Festival Ⅰ: the Chinese Tomb Sweeping Day

Qingming festival, also known as the Tomb Sweeping Day or ancestor day, which falls annually on April 5, is a day when Chinese around the world remember their dearly departed and take time off to clean up the tombs and place flowers and offerings. Chinese flock to cemeteries during Qingming Festival and honour their dead by offering prayers, food, tea, wine as well as paper replicas of bungalows, flashy cars, technological gadgets and Louis Vuitton bags, for their dead to enjoy in the afterlife.

A Chinese couple cleans the tomb of their deceased family member at a cemetery in Beijing, China. – Photo by AP

A Chinese family gathers to offer prayers to their ancestors in Petaling Jaya, Malaysia. – Photo by Reuters

A woman cries as she hugs the tombstone of her husband at a public cemetery in China. – Photo by Reuters

A boy partakes in a ceremony at a cemetery in Hong Kong. – Photo by AFP

A man carries a bunch of flowers up steep steps at a cemetery in Hong Kong. – Photo by AFP