The Qingming Festival, or Tomb-sweeping Day, falls on Thursday this year. It is a traditional Chinese holiday for people to pay tribute to the deceased and worship ancestors.
Qingming is also one of the 24 solar terms, and the only solar term that is celebrated as a major Chinese festival. It is a time when everything in sight turns clear and bright, so Qingming can be literally translated to "Pure Brightness."
Qingming Festival, or Tomb-sweeping Day, is a traditional Chinese holiday for people to pay tribute to the deceased and worship ancestors. /CFP
The ancient Chinese divided each solar term into three "hou," or three pentads, to describe the regular natural changes they identified. For Qingming, the ancient Chinese noted, "tung trees flower in the first pentad, voles turn to quails in the second pentad, and rainbows appear in the third pentad."
Tung tree flowers usually bloom during April, lasting about one to three weeks. Ancient Chinese people used the fading of the tung tree's flower to describe the sorrow of losing spring.
Tung tree flowers. /CFP
Voles, or field mice, nest underground, and their shade-loving habit means they hide in caves to avoid sunlight and predators. But quails are more active during the Qingming period. These mid-sized birds can be seen foraging in fields and enjoying the sunlight. Ancient Chinese people thought that quails were once voles.
Rainbows are more frequently seen during Qingming. /CFP
During the Qingming solar term, precipitation increases and rainbows are more frequently seen. This phenomenon became the phenology of the third pentad.
As Qingming arrives in the middle of spring, it's also a good time to go on a spring outing and get close to nature.