A celebration of spring,[9][10] it falls on the first day of the fifth solar term (also called Qingming) of the traditional Chinese lunisolar calendar.

It became a public holiday in mainland China in 2008, where it is associated with the consumption of qingtuan,[15] green dumplings made of glutinous rice and Chinese mugwort or barley grass.

[8] Amid the Li Ji Unrest, he followed his master Prince Chong'er in 655 BC to exile among the Di tribes and around China.

[8][10] The people of Shanxi subsequently revered Jie as an immortal and avoided lighting fires for as long as a month in the depths of winter, a practice so injurious to children and the elderly that the area's rulers unsuccessfully attempted to ban it for centuries.

Wealthy citizens in China were reportedly holding too many extravagant and ostentatiously expensive ceremonies in honor of their ancestors.

In AD 732, Xuanzong sought to curb this practice by declaring that such respects could be formally paid only once a year, on Qingming.

For thousands of years, the Chinese imperials, nobility, peasantry, and merchants alike have gathered together to remember the lives of the departed, to visit their tombstones to perform Confucian filial piety by tombsweeping, to visit burial grounds, graveyards or in modern urban cities, the city columbaria, to perform groundskeeping and maintenance and to commit to pray for their ancestors in the uniquely Chinese concept of the afterlife and to offer remembrances of their ancestors to living blood relatives, their kith and kin.

They have been preserved especially by the peasantry and are most popular with farmers today, who believe that continued observances will ensure fruitful harvests ahead by appeasing the spirits in the other world.

Historically, people would often sing and dance, and Qingming was a time when young couples traditionally started courting.

[9] Another popular thing to do is to fly kites in the shapes of animals or characters from folk tales or Chinese opera.

[9] Another ritual related to the festival is the cockfight,[21] as well as being available within that historic and cultural context at Kaifeng Millennium City Park (Qingming Riverside Landscape Garden).

[24] The April Fifth Movement and the Tiananmen Incident were major events in Chinese history which occurred on Qingming.

Overseas Chinese normally visit the graves of their recently deceased relatives on the weekend nearest to the actual date.

According to the ancient custom, grave site veneration is only permissible ten days before and after the Qingming Festival.

The Qingming Festival in Malaysia and Singapore normally starts early in the morning by paying respect to distant ancestors from China at home altars.

[10] For example, Buddhism teaches that those who die with guilt are unable to eat in the afterlife, except on the day of the Qingming festival.