The Ching Ming Festival (or Qingming) falls right after Easter this year. I asked my team about their holiday traditions. They don't have many traditions around Easter other than Christian religious traditions. There is no Easter bunny here... :(
Common translations for this holiday are Chinese Memorial Day and Ancestors' Day. So for the Ching Ming Festival, I have been told that many people become grave sweepers. So I had to do some more research.
So it is a day when Chinese people visit the graves or burial grounds of their ancestors. It is an opportunity for celebrants to remember and honor their ancestors at grave sites. Young and old pray before the ancestors, sweep the tombs and offer food, tea, wine, chopsticks, joss paper
accessories, and/or libations to the ancestors. Some people carry willow
branches with them on Qingming or put willow branches on their gates
and/or front doors. They believe that willow branches help ward off the
evil spirit that wanders on Qingming.
Joss paper, as well as other papier-mâché items, are also burned in various Asian funerals, to ensure that the spirit of the deceased has lots of good things in the afterlife.
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