The Qingming Festival

The Qingming Festival, also known as Qing Qing Festival, March Festival and Ancestral Festival falls at the turn of mid-spring and late spring.

Origin of Qingming Festival

Legend has it that during the Spring and Autumn Period, Chong Er, a duke of Jin, fell into exile and fainted from exhaustion and hunger on his way. One of his loyal courtiers named Jie Zitui cut off the flesh of his leg to make soup for Chong Er, who was later very grateful after being informed. Later, when Chong Er became Duke Wen of Jin, he forgot to reward his ministers. When the Duke of Jin thought about it, he regretted it very much, but he couldn’t get him to come out because he was living in seclusion on Mount Mian. The Duke of Jin burned three sides of Mian Mountain in the hope that Jie Zitui would come out on his own, but after three days of burning, he found Jie Zitui dead under a withered willow with his mother on his back.

To commemorate the death of Jie Zitui, the Duke of Jin set the Day of the fire as the Cold Food Festival and ordered that no fires be built in the whole country. The next year, the Duke of Jin climbed a mountain to pay tribute to Jie Zitui, and the willow tree came back to life.

This is the origin of the Qingming Spring Festival.

In fact, the actual history of Qingming Festival is even older than the legend. It has been proven that Qingming, one of the twenty-four solar terms, originated from the calendar of the ancient agricultural civilisation; while the Qingming rituals originated from the ancestral beliefs and spring rituals of the ancient times. The belief in heaven and earth and the belief in ancestors are the original beliefs of Chinese people, and spring rituals were established long before the Zhou Dynasty.

The two main ritual themes of the Qingming Festival are Tomb sweeping,Ancestor worship and Excursions, which have been passed down in China since ancient times.Qingming, one of the oldest festivals in China, has concentrated and integrated thousands of years of national culture. Nowadays, there are a variety of festive customs around the world; and Shanghai, located in the south of the river with four distinct seasons, has many interesting customs at Qingming.

Customs of Qingming Festival

Eating

Green Dumplings have been a traditional snack in the Jiang Nan region for more than 1000 years. The juice of mugwort is melted into glutinous rice flour and wrapped in a filling of bean paste or lotus seed paste, which, when cooked, is green and fragrant, full of the scent of spring.

Modern times have improved the taste of green dumplings and introduced new flavours such as egg yolk, mango and matcha, giving this traditional dish a new lease of life and making it popular with young people. Green dumplings can often be found on the streets of Qingming Shanghai, and they are also made by long-established local restaurants with a centuries-old heritage, which have pushed the boundaries of new better flavors.

Shen Dacheng：

a well-known old brand in Shanghai, carrying forward the essence of traditional pastries while constantly innovating, with both traditional flavors and new flavors such as matcha and fresh milk.

Address:

No. 1 Food, 600 Handan Road,Yangpu District

Wang Jia Sha：

Green dumplings with authentic green crust, a strong wormwood flavor, and a masterpiece bean paste.

Address:

No. 805 Nanjing West Road, Jing’an District

Xing Hua Lou：

an old shop famous for mooncakes since the early 20th century, salted egg yolk and meat puff green dumplings are their Qingming limit.

Address:

2nd Floor, First Food Yangpu Store, No. 600 Handan Road, Yangpu District

Drink

Qingming is an important watershed for tea output. After April, the temperature warms up, there is plenty of rain and the tea trees are all sprouting. Shanghai holds a tea fair every year, which brings together high-quality tea varieties from all over the country. Drinking spring tea at Qingming will leave your lips and teeth fragrant and your mouth full of flavor.

Biluochun

Biluo brand, Sanwanchang

Tie Guanyin

Bama, Fengshan Anxi Tieguanyin

Xihu Longjing

Tribute Brand, Xihu Brand

Entertainment

It’s a Spring Mini-Holiday, so most people choose to go out and embrace nature, go for a walk in a country park, row a boat, play games with their families and get in the mood for a good spring day in the south of the Yangtze River.

Enjoy the flowers

A hundred flowers bloom on spring, peach, apricot, cherry and rape blossom …… Stroll through the sea of flowers in the National Forest Park to enjoy the beauty and mold your own temperament.

Gongqing National Forest Park

Address:

No. 2000 Junong Road, Yangpu District

Opening hours：

Open all year round, 06:00 am -17:00 daily, admission closes at 17:00

Tickets：

Adults: 15元

Students: 7.5元

Minors aged 6-18 (including 18 years old), full-time undergraduate students and below, with valid documents

Seniors：RMB 12, 60-65 years old and below, with valid documents

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