The Tomb-sweeping Day

The Tomb-sweeping Day is one of the 24 solar terms in the lunar calendar. The date of this day is 106 days after the winter solstice, in other words, is on April 5th. (But this day would be on April 4th if that year is a leap year.) The book Huai-nan-tsu records that this day everything is clear, and the plants are starting to blossom. This is why the Tomb-sweeping Day called Ching-Ming in Chinese.

The Tomb-sweeping Day is a very important day for the Chinese and the Taiwanese. Everyone should visit the tomb where the ancestors were buried. Then we start to clean the tomb, put some sacrifices, and worship the ancestors, etc. The meaning of sweeping tomb is to commemorate the ancestors because of their achievements. We should never forget them.

However, the live in the present days becomes busier then before, so some people decide not to visit the tomb because of their work. I think this may not be a good choice. Visiting the tomb must be much more important then one's work.