qing ming jie « See Betsy (DC)

Living in China for seven months now, I’ve been lucky enough to celebrate many different Chinese holidays. And by celebrate, I mean get the day off work to travel and ponder what the rest of the Chinese populace does on this day.

In August, we have the great Mid-Autumn Day Festival, where families gather to eat mooncakes and gaze at the moon.

In October, the glorious National Holiday where we celebrate the founding of the current Chinese government.

In February comes the mother of all festivals, the Chinese New Year. At least a week long event of fireworks being set off next to your window and loads of feasting.

This past weekend came a Chinese holiday first for me — Qing Ming Festival. And for the life of me, I just couldn’t figure out what this festival was for. However, thanks again to the glorious blogosphere, I was able to uncover the traditional and modern interpretations of this mysterious festival. Apparently, Qing Ming Jie started as a day on which to honor your ancestors. On this day every year, Chinese families would gather together to tend to the graves of departed family members. After sweeping their tomb sites clean, the families would leave food and burnt offerings for their ancestors in the afterlife.

However, with the rapid development of a consumer culture in China has come an upgrade in the offerings old Qing-dynasty Gpas and Gmas are receiving. One Chinese blogger wrote that while the Qing Ming ceremony of ten years ago used to be very simple and understated, this year he saw graves being newly refurbished and “thick-as-arm” candles burned on the tombstones. Most interesting was the change in offerings. While the norm used to be burning paper money, now banknotes alone are not enough to keep the ancestors satisfied. After all, what dead great-grandmother would want to be seen in the after-life without her Blackberry and LV bag?

Here’s his list of this year’s new “must-burns”:

1. Large denomination banknotes