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The Feast Qingming (清明节 – the feast of the deaths) tomb April 4. That day, the Chinese go to the cemetery to do homage to the near defunct. The "Qing" word means "clarity", and "Ming" means brilliant. The feast announces the arrival of the spring and the exit of people after a long hivernage.

The previous day of Qingming is called Hanshi (cold food in French). This name has its origin in a historic anécdote:  During the Period of the Springs and Autonmes, to the 7th century, the Duke Xiao, the monarch of the state of Jin, fed the intention to deprive having it right of the prince heir Shen Sheng, his eldest son, to the profit of Li Ji, the child of hi favorite concubine. Later, Shen Sheng has been murdered, and the second son Chong’er ran away, having learned that the same leaves would fall to him.

The fugitive and his setting lived in wandering during 19 years. Without fire nor place. One day, he was to agony after several days of famine. One of his faithful topics, Jie Zitui, appropriated a piece of flesh on his own leg and served it to his master, who got quickly over his extreme weakness. In 636 J.C ave., Chong’er finally succeeded to go up on the throne, with the official title of the Duke Wen of the state of Jin. On the following day of his enthronement, he rewarded his continuation of time, without recalling itself yet the offering of Jie Zitui. This one, the broken heart, left the country. When the Duke remembered the fidelity of Jie later, he sent people to his research. Having learned his home, the Duke surrendered of it in person to ask him to forgive his carelessness and to return in the ducal palace. But Jie refused its offer and retired in the depths of the mountains, so that no one found it more. Some civil servants proposed the duke to fire the mountainous region to force Jie to take some and to assure him a comfortable life. The proposition has been accepted. One put fire in the mountains. The fire lasted three days. Jie Zitui has been found there, back to back to a big tree and structural on the back his mother. But they died all two.

Greatly sorry, the Duke enacted the construction of a monastery to the memory of his most faithful topic and the interdiction to light fire to the birthday of his death. The whole country had to eat the cold food that day that was called after "Hanshi."

Besides, one went the same day to the tomb of Jie Zitui to return him homage. It is only under the Dynasty of the Qings, 300 years ago about, that the custom to consume the cold meal on the day of "Hansi" has been supplanted by the tradition of Qingming, the one to offer some sacrifices to the forebears.

In the ancient China, Qingming was not the only day to make the sacrifice. The ceremonies of this kind were frequently held, at the rate of once by fifteen, without counting the other cults. Otherwise, the ritual of these ceremonies was as complex as expensive. Under the Dynasty of the Tang, in 732 after J.C. the Xuanzong empéreur, in order to reduce the ritual expenses, enacted that the ceremony to the memory of the forebears didn’t take place that the day of Qingming and in the cemetery. This custom always keeps itself. In this opportunity, the descendants sweep the dead leaves, remove bad herbs and put all in order around the tombs. So Qingming is called him also the day of big cleaning. Around the Feast of the Deaths, the Pekinese affluent in Babaoshan, the biggest cemetery of the city, to do homage to their near defunct.
The Feast Qingming (the feast of the deaths) tomb April 4. That day, the Chinese go to the cemetery to do homage to the near defunct. The "Qing" word means "clarity", and "Ming" means brilliant. The feast announces the arrival of the spring and the exit of people after a long hivernage.

The previous day of Qingming is called Hanshi (cold food in French). This name has its origin in a historic anécdote:  During the Period of the Springs and Autonmes, to the 7th century, the Duke Xiao, the monarch of the state of Jin, fed the intention to deprive having it right of the prince heir Shen Sheng, his eldest son, to the profit of Li Ji, the child of his favorite concubine. Later, Shen Sheng has been murdered, and the second son Chong’er ran away, having learned that the same leaves would fall to him.

The fugitive and his setting lived in wandering during 19 years. Without fire nor place. One day, he was to agony after several days of famine. One of his faithful topics, Jie Zitui, appropriated a piece of flesh on his own leg and served it to his master, who got quickly over his extreme weakness. In 636 J.C ave., Chong’er finally succeeded to go up on the throne, with the official title of the Duke Wen of the state of Jin. On the following day of his enthronement, he rewarded his continuation of time, without recalling itself yet the offering of Jie Zitui. This one, the broken heart, left the country. When the Duke remembered the fidelity of Jie later, he sent people to his research. Having learned his home, the Duke surrendered of it in person to ask him to forgive his carelessness and to return in the ducal palace. But Jie refused its offer and retired in the depths of the mountains, so that no one found it more. Some civil servants proposed the duke to fire the mountainous region to force Jie to take some and to assure him a comfortable life. The proposition has been accepted. One put fire in the mountains. The fire lasted three days. Jie Zitui has been found there, back to back to a big tree and structural on the back his mother. But they died all two.

Greatly sorry, the Duke enacted the construction of a monastery to the memory of his most faithful topic and the interdiction to light fire to the birthday of his death. The whole country had to eat the cold food that day that was called after "Hanshi."

Besides, one went the same day to the tomb of Jie Zitui to return him homage. It is only under the Dynasty of the Qings, 300 years ago about, that the custom to consume the cold meal on the day of "Hansi" has been supplanted by the tradition of Qingming, the one to offer some sacrifices to the forebears.

In the ancient China, Qingming was not the only day to make the sacrifice. The ceremonies of this kind were frequently held, at the rate of once by fifteen, without counting the other cults. Otherwise, the ritual of these ceremonies was as complex as expensive. Under the Dynasty of the Tang, in 732 after J.C. the Xuanzong empéreur, in order to reduce the ritual expenses, enacted that the ceremony to the memory of the forebears didn’t take place that the day of Qingming and in the cemetery. This custom always keeps itself. In this opportunity, the descendants sweep the dead leaves, remove bad herbs and put all in order around the tombs. So Qingming is called him also the day of big cleaning. Around the Feast of the Deaths, the Pekinese affluent in Babaoshan, the biggest cemetery of the city, to do homage to their near defunct.

Qingming is not only the day of cult, but also the sign annonciateur of the spring. A lot of poets under the Tang dedicated some verses to Qingming. Let’s mention in example the poem of Han Hong:

    * The kittens bloom profusely through the capital, * A meaningful scene of the vernal landscape.
    * Under the breath of wind of is the day of the cold food, * The weeping willows bend themselves in the imperial court.
    * When the night falls mildly, * The candlesticks ignite in the Palace Han.
    * Toward the five big houses of the nobles, * flies off smoke silvered of the candles.

Qingming was also one of the favorite topics of the Chinese traditional paintings. Under the Song, Zhang Zeduan made a famous picture, title "Qingming Shanghetour (Scene of life along the stream the day of Qingming." This painting on silk (5.5-m long on 0.25-m large), one of the most precious of China, is in perfect conservation in the Museum of the Imperial Palace (Mentions it Forbidden Crimson) in Beijing. She represents a panoramic view of the social life of the time:  a road to intense circulation very close to the river, of the fairs on the fields, of the villages full of life, of the alleys crammed of people of various professions and various age,:  civil servants, merchants, soldiers, literate and carriers, as well as men, women, young and old. The picture totals about 500 people and about twenty beasts, without counting some vehicles, chairs to carriers, bridges and boats. He illustrates in a living way the festivities and the animation of the social life of then the day of Qingming.

The spring is the season of the kite, notably in the north of China, where he makes a lot of wind. The launching of this contraption is in vogue around Qingming. The kite could be invented there are more than 2000 years by a legendary woodworker named Read Proclamation. He was made primitively of wood, under the name of Propelled Yuan ("Propelled" means wood and "Yuan", "sparrow hawk"). This group of words means "sparrow hawk of wood." Later, he was called "Zhi Yuan", because the paper (that is pronounced "Zhi" in Chinese) has been used instead wood in the manufacture. The kite was not solely at the time an entertainment. He has been used to ends militiaires. The archives mention gigantic kites capable to carry a man in air, intended to observe the enemy’s movements. 1 500 years ago, the Wudi empéreur used this contraption fly to throw some calls to the help, whereas he was besieged by hostile troops in Nanjing.

Under the Tang, one attached to the kite a thin plates bamboo, that vibrated to the breath of wind, producing the purr, a sound similar to the one of the Zheng, a Chinese musical instrument of time. Of or comes his name Chinese "Feng Zheng" (the group of words means "Zheng to wind").

Under the Qings, one frequently released the string when the kite took a high altitude, in the hope that the contraption left with the bad luck and the illnesses. On the other hand, the one that collected the abandoned kite could harvest the misfortune.

The fans liked the casting in the night. They hung to the string of small lanterns colored with lit in candles. The sky of night is sprinkled of "multicolored stars", when a dozen of kites hovered together in air.

Every spring, some Pekinese throw on the Place de Tiananmen of the kites of shapes and various measurements. The biggest is the dragon or the centipede of hundred-meter long, composed of hundred sections. The festival of the kite of Weifang, province of the Shandong (is China) attracts every year of the thousands of competitors and tourists come of all corners of the world.