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Qingming
Clear and bright: the fresh green of April, green rice dumplings, and white and yellow chrysanthemums on family graves.
The colours of Qingming
Qingming means clear and bright, and it falls when spring is fully green. Chinese families visit the graves of their ancestors to sweep them, pull weeds, repaint the characters on the stone, often in red or gold, and lay food and flowers. White and yellow chrysanthemums are the usual flowers, white being the colour of mourning. Paper offerings are burned: yellow and gold paper money, and sometimes paper clothes and houses. The day is also for going out into the new green, called treading the green, and for flying kites. Around Shanghai people eat qingtuan, soft dumplings of rice flour coloured deep green with mugwort or barley grass juice. Willow twigs are hung on doors.
#5B8C3EQingtuan greenRice dumplings coloured with mugwort juice.#A7C957Willow greenNew willow twigs hung at the door.#F7F7F2Mourning whiteWhite chrysanthemums laid on graves.#D9A520Joss goldPaper money burned for the ancestors.Values are fair approximations, not official shades.
Read about the colours
Written by the Rang desk with AI assistance. Background: "Qingming Festival" on Wikipedia. Customs differ from family to family and place to place. If this is your tradition and we have it wrong, tell us.