How many days off will Tomb-Sweeping Day have in 2023?

According to the previously issued Notice of General Office of the State Council on Some Holiday Arrangements in 2023, Tomb-Sweeping Day will have holidays on Wednesday and April 5th this year, with holidays of *** 1 day and no rest.

During the Labor Day in Tomb-Sweeping Day and May 1, toll roads such as expressways can pass for free. According to the document "Implementation Plan for Exempting Small Bus Tolls on Major Holidays" issued by the Ministry of Transport, for the four important holidays of Spring Festival, Tomb-Sweeping Day, Labor Day and National Day, the policy of free passage for small bus expressways with less than 7 seats (including 7 seats) will be implemented.

Qingming is one of the 24 solar terms in China. Among the 24 solar terms, Qingming is the only solar term that is both a solar term and a festival. Because the 24 solar terms objectively reflect the changes of temperature, rainfall and phenology throughout the year, ancient working people used them to arrange agricultural activities.

The Development History of Tomb-Sweeping Day

Tomb-Sweeping Day has a long history, which changes with the development of the times. Later, it gradually merged the customs of Cold Food Festival and Shangsi Festival. In ancient times, the north and south of China had different customs. Before the Tang Dynasty, grave sweeping in northern China was mainly held in Cold Food Festival and Cold Clothes Festival.

According to the Book of Rites and other documents, before the Tang Dynasty, there was no provision for Tomb-Sweeping Day to sweep graves in northern China, but in the Tang Dynasty, it became a trend for Tomb-Sweeping Day to sweep graves. The Tang Dynasty was a period of integration of the sacrificial customs of tombs in the north and the south, which followed the sacrificial customs of tombs in the Qingming period and spread to all parts of the country.

After the Tang Dynasty, the Cold Food Festival gradually declined, because it was similar to Tomb-Sweeping Day. During the Song and Yuan Dynasties, Tomb-Sweeping Day's position in all parts of the country rose, and the custom of forbidding fire and cold food was incorporated into the cold food festival.