Is it the same day in Tomb-Sweeping Day every year? What day is Tomb-Sweeping Day?

Tomb-Sweeping Day is one of the important "eight major festivals of the year" in China, which usually falls around April 5th of the Gregorian calendar, not necessarily on the same day.

In addition to paying attention to hiking and sweeping graves, Tomb-Sweeping Day also has a series of customs and sports activities, such as banning fire, swinging, cuju, playing polo and inserting willows. In the history of China, it has long been a custom to eat cold food, forbid fire and pay homage to ancestors. After the Tang Dynasty, the Cold Food Festival gradually declined, and Tomb-Sweeping Day's grave-sweeping and ancestor worship became a continuous festival tradition. Even in today's society, before and after Tomb-Sweeping Day, people still have the custom of going to graves to pay homage to their ancestors: uprooting weeds, placing offerings, burning incense and praying in front of graves, burning paper money and gold ingots, or simply offering a bunch of flowers to express their memory of their ancestors.

When I was in Tomb-Sweeping Day, it was the time for spring to return to the earth. People use this advantage to enjoy the scenery of Shan Ye while sweeping graves. Going for an outing is also called a spring outing. In ancient times, it was called spring exploration. It means stepping on the grass, playing in the country and watching the spring.

Tomb-Sweeping Day is a sacrificial festival in China. "Sacrifice" is a festival to mourn ancestors, as opposed to festivals to worship gods and land gods.

The participants in Tomb-Sweeping Day are all the people, from princes and ministers to ordinary people, to pay homage to the dead souls of their ancestors on this festival. Since the Tang Dynasty, the imperial court has given officials a holiday and asked them to go to their hometown to visit their graves. According to the Song Dynasty's Dream of Liang Lu, every time in Tomb-Sweeping Day, "officials go out to the tombs of the suburbs to show respect for the time." The number of grave sweepers is not limited to men and women, and they often go out with their families. In this way, grave-sweeping activities around Tomb-Sweeping Day often become the personal participation of the whole society. Within a few days, the country people came and went, and the scale was extremely prosperous.

References:

Baidu Encyclopedia: Tomb-Sweeping Day