The tomb sweeping day is one of the traditional festivals in China. On April 5th, people start to visit their ancestors’ tombs. Generally speaking, people will bring  home-made food, some fake money and paper-made mansions to their ancestors. When they start to honour their ancestors, they  light up candles and incense, and put some flowers around the tombs. The most important thing is to put the home-made food in front of the tombs. The food is also known as a sacrifice, it is usually made up of chicken, fish and some pork. It’s a symbol of the offspring’s respect to the ancestors. People believe that their forbears will share the food with them. The children dedicate the food and money to their forbears in order to show their love and how much they care. The young offspring will go down on their knees and pray for their ancestors. They can say their wishes in front of the tombs and the ancestors will make their dreams come true.

In some provinces of China, people use different activities to commemorate this day, such as, going on a spring-outing, swinging, tree planting and making special food. One special food is Ay Tsao rice balls. It looks like Tang-yuan, but its colour is green. To make it you need to mix the ay tsao juice with the rice powder, then make it into small balls. Then the Ay Tsao rice ball is done. People believe that eating ay tsao rice balls can get rid of the bad luck and everything will go smoothly. These activities are a sign that people should look to the future and embrace the hope; for something more, we do hope our ancestors rest in peace.

Written and translated by ZhaoJun