Ching Ming Festival 2024, 2025 and 2026
Ching Ming Festival, or Qingming, is a special Chinese day for the remembrance of ancestors.
| Year | Date | Day | Holiday |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 4 Apr | Thu | Ching Ming Festival |
| 2025 | 4 Apr | Fri | Ching Ming Festival |
| 2026 | 5 Apr | Sun | Ching Ming Festival |
| 7 Apr | Tue | The Day Following Ching Ming Festival | |
| Please scroll down to end of page for previous years' dates. | |||
In traditional Chinese, 清明節 falls in the third lunar month of the Chinese calendar, which is usually in the first week of April in the Gregorian calendar. The festival is very ancient, dating back in Chinese history around 2,500 years.
Ching Ming is known by other names also, for example: Festival for Tending Graves, Clear Bright Festival and Tomb Sweeping Day.
These names quite accurately describe the theme of the Ching Ming Festival. It is the day, and often the only day each year, when many families visit the graves and tombs of their ancestors. During the visit, they tidy the headstones, clean away grass and weeds, light incense and make burnt offerings, often of fake money but sometimes of paper effigies resembling valuable items.
Food offerings are also made. The ceremony surrounding these involves the number three. Three bowls are often laid out with a set of chopsticks for each. The head of the family pours out wine on the grave then family members take turns to bow three times each to the headstone with their hands held together in a particular way. Following this, the food is shared together by the family in honour of the ancestor.
Some people are less traditional and do not go to the ancestors’ tombs on Ching Ming. Another tradition for this day is to fly kites and many couples begin their courting on Ching Ming.
It is not only in Hong Kong that Ching Ming is recognised. Chinese people all around the world use this day to remember their family ancestors, whether at a local tomb if there is one, or with a simple day of respect.
Ching Ming is the first of the 24 annual ‘solar terms’ recognised by the lunisolar calendar, being at the 15-degree mark of the path of the sun each year. This is the first point after the vernal equinox.
Previous Years
| Year | Date | Day | Holiday |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 5 Apr | Wed | Ching Ming Festival |
| 2022 | 5 Apr | Tue | Ching Ming Festival |
| 2021 | 4 Apr | Sun | Ching Ming Festival |
| 5 Apr | Mon | The Day Following Ching Ming Festival | |
| 2020 | 4 Apr | Sat | Ching Ming Festival |
| 2019 | 5 Apr | Fri | Ching Ming Festival |
| 2018 | 5 Apr | Thu | Ching Ming Festival |
| 2017 | 4 Apr | Tue | Ching Ming Festival |