RT Office to Resume After Qingming Festival

RT Office will be Closed for Qingming Festival

RT office in China will be closed on April 5, 2023, in observance of the Qingming festival. Staff will resume work on April 6.

Qingming Festival, also called Tomb Sweeping Day or, literally, ‘Pure Brightness’ Festival in English, is a traditional Chinese festival and an important day for most people (including the Han Chinese and some of China’s 55 other ethnic minorities) to go and sweep tombs and commemorate their ancestors. On this day, tomb-sweeping is one of the most important and popular activities to show respect to ancestors.

There are various activities for Qingming Festival. The most popular ones such as tomb upkeep and repair, spring outings, kite flying, and putting willow branches on gates have been an important part of this festival since the beginning.

The day before Tomb Sweeping Day was the traditional Chinese Cold Food Day. As time passed, the two festivals were gradually combined into one. On the day of the Cold Food Festival, people used no fire and only ate cold food. Now people in some places still have the custom of eating cold food on the Qingming Festival.

People often participate in a sport to ward off the cold and in anticipation of the arrival of spring. The festival integrates both reverence and fun through its customs.

On May 20, 2006, the festival was listed as one of the first national intangible cultural heritage events.