When can I visit my ancestors and sweep the graves?

Sweeping graves to pay tribute to the dead can be done whenever the descendants want.

Besides the Qingming Festival, there are other times when you can visit the graves. In addition to the Qingming Festival there are also the 15th day of the 7th month of the lunar calendar, the Cold Food Festival (105 days after the winter solstice in the summer calendar, and one or two days before the Qingming Festival), the 1st day of the 10th month, the night of New Year's Eve, as well as the Chongyang Festival, all of which have the custom of paying tribute to one's ancestors.

Sweeping the graves is called "thinking of the time of honor" to the ancestors. The custom has a long history.

Ming Dynasty Beijing Scenic Spectaculars: "In March, on Qingming Day, men offer sacrifices to their ancestors, carrying Pusaetha scandens and hanging kozo ingots behind the sedan chair and horse, which are all over the road with a big smile on their faces. Those who worship, pour libations, cry, and weed the graves, burn kozo and put paper money on the graves. If there is no paper money, the grave will be left alone. The first thing you need to do is to get drunk."

In fact, tomb-sweeping has been spread before the Qin Dynasty, but not necessarily on the occasion of Qingming, Qingming tomb-sweeping is a thing after the Qin Dynasty. It didn't become prevalent until the Tang Dynasty.

And many places in the south in the winter solstice tomb-sweeping, such as Shanghai, Hangzhou, Fujian Putian, Dehua, Yongchun, Anxi, Guangdong Chaoshan, Hainan, Kunming and other places, other places in Fujian customs vary, tomb-sweeping time is not uniform.

The whole process of sweeping graves. It includes the process of weeding the graves, clearing the garbage, offering flowers and sacrifices.