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By Michelle Huang, Felicia Lee, and Alice

He

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Traditional:
Tomb Sweeping
Day All Souls Day

Simplified:

Tomb
Sweeping Day All Souls Day

) Edited
Traditional:
Simplified:

Tomb
Tomb
Sweeping Day All Souls Day Sweeping Day All Souls Day

)
The Meaning of Tomb Sweeping Day
In America, is also known as Tomb Sweeping Day or All Souls
Day. This holiday is usually celebrate from April 4th to April 6th depending on
the year. This year, Tomb Sweeping Day will be celebrated on April 5th. Every
year, people visit their ancestors graveyards and pray in honor of them. In
China, all the adults and children take a day off from their usual work or school
to honor this tradition. At the graveyards, people usually bring food and other
items to honor their ancestors. Because some people are unable to visit their
ancestors graveyards, people often visit parks to plant willow trees. People will
often put a willow branch on their door to ward of evil.

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Tomb Sweeping Days Origin
During the Spring and Autumn seasons, a man named JinWenGong was disliked by his father, resulting
in him leaving his home. JinWenGong had a faithful follower, and during JinWenGongs toughest and poorest
time, cut off his leg for JinWenGong to eat and not starve. However, though JinWenGong was very thankful
towards his follower, JieZhiTui, he soon forgot about him, and failed to actively incorporate him into his daily
life, resuilting in JieZhiTui moving with his mother into a far away mountain. When JinWenGong finally
thought about the past, and how JieZhiTui was such a devoted man, JinWenGong wanted to talk to JieZhiTui,
who refused. JinWenGong decided to listen to JianChengs advice, which was to light the mountain on fire,
which only gave JieZhiTui one choice, to come down to the city. However, JinWenGongs plan failed, and
ended up burning JieZhiTui and his mother to death. JinWenGong regretted his decision in lighting the
mountain on fire, because by doing so, he lost the most supportive and faithful man; thus, he denoted that day
to be Cold Food Festival, and on this day, nobody was allowed to use fire to cook, so people ended up
wrapping cold dishes in a wrap, now called a Chinese burrito.
LiuBang, the new Emperor, wanted to worship his mother, so he went to a cemetery to find her grave.
To his shock, he couldnt locate his mothers grave, because it was too messy there. His solution was to take
yellow pieces of paper and rip them up, letting God use the air to guide the paper to his mothers grave. The
papers landed on a certain grave, letting him know that that grave was his mothers. As a result, he labeled this
day as Tomb Sweeping Day.


Traditional:

Simplified:

Tomb Sweeping Day Traditions

English:
Tomb Sweeping Day traditions include hanging up colorful paper, visiting deceased
relatives burial sites, hiking, swinging, rooster fighting, sticking willow branches in
hats/hair, and Tug of War. Putting up colorful paper and visiting loved ones graves
are to honor ancestors. Hiking in is to appreciate the beautiful springtime scenery.
Rooster fighting and swinging are fun activities, while sticking willow branches in
hats/hair is to repel bad spirits. Tug of War was developed during the Tang
Dynasty, and has become a loved Tomb Sweeping Day tradition today.