English and Chinese name of the festival:
Qing Ming Jie (Tomb Sweeping Day)/ Mourning Day/ Ching Ming Festival 清明节

Date of the festival:
104 days after winter solstice (around April 5)

Festival origin:

 
Qinming Festival originated from Hanshi Day (å¯'食节, literally, the day with cold food only), a memorial day for Jie Zitui (介子推). Jie Zitui died in 636 BC. He was one of many followers of Duke Wen of Jin before he became a duke. Once, during Wen's 19 years of exile, when they had no food, it was Jie who prepared meat soup for Wen.

Wen enjoyed it a lot and wondered where Jie had obtained the soup. It turned out Jie had cut a piece of meat from his own thigh to make the soup. Wen was so moved he promised to reward him one day. However, Jie was not the type of person who sought rewards. Instead, he just wanted to help Wen to return to Jin to become duke. Once Wen became duke, Jie resigned and stayed away from him. Duke Wen rewarded the people who helped him in the decades, but for some reason he forgot to reward Jie, who by then had moved into the forest with his mother.

Duke Wen went to the forest, but could not find Jie. Heeding suggestions from his officials, Duke Wen ordered his men to set fire on the forest to force out Jie. However, Jie died in the fire. Filled with remorse, Duke Wen ordered three days without fire in Jie's memory. The county where Jie died is still called Jiexiu (介ä¼', literally "the place Jie rests forever").

Qingming has a tradition stretching back more than 2,500 years. Its origin is credited to the Tang Emperor Xuanzong in AD 732. Wealthy citizens in China were reportedly holding too many extravagant and ostentatiously expensive ceremonies in honor of their ancestors.

Emperor Xuanzong, seeking to curb this practice, declared that respects could be formally paid at ancestors' graves only on Qingming. The observance of Qingming found a firm place in Chinese culture and continued uninterrupted for over two millennia. In 1949, the Communist Party of China repealed the holiday. Observance of Qingming remained suppressed until 2008, when the Party reinstated the holiday.