While China has over the past 60 or so years transformed from a largely rural agrarian society into an urban manufacturing powerhouse, the Chinese people still hold on firmly to a number of traditions. One of those traditions, the Qing Ming Fesitval (清明节 / Qīngmíng jié), is a time when families pay respect to their deceased relatives by cleaning up their burial grounds, presenting their deceased loved ones with their favorite foods and drinks, and also burning joss paper (金纸 / Jīn zhǐ) in hopes that the deceased will never go hungry or be without money.
For the foreigners (老外 / Lǎowài) that are living here in China, the holiday can be summarized as public holiday (no work!) nestled within a three day weekend. Depending on which day the Qing Ming Festival falls on (technically the 15th day after the Spring Equinox, so usually April 4, 5, or 6) that three day weekend might begin on Thursday and extend through Saturday. What that really means is a really short work week (3 days) followed by a long one (6 days, Sunday through Friday). Ugggh. Working on a Sunday, who are these people?!
So what, you might be asking, am I planning on doing during this festival seeing as I don’t have any nearby ancestral tombs to sweep and I’m not really into the other traditional Qing Ming Festival activity of kite flying? I’ll be partaking in another “traditional” activity of my own: playing cards. A friend in Shanghai is hosting a three-day long poker match which should be pretty epic. Here’s hoping that I win some money instead of losing it faster than burning it like it is joss paper!
