Today is the Qing Ming Festival in China, Taiwan and Hong Kong.
This festival celebrates Spring and more importantly the appreciation of their departed ones.
During this festival people tend to the headstones and tombs of loved ones with a 'spring clean'.
Sweeping, tidying and decorating whilst paying respects take place on this day as well as offering food, tea, wine, chopsticks, joss paper accessories, and/or libations to the ancestors.
Joss paper is used in deity or ancestor worship as a currency or made into paper versions of objects to be burned and sent to the spirits of the ancestors. It is a way of making sure they have a lot of good things in the afterlife.
Food and drink left for ancestors
The Qingming Festival is a remembrance day with a lot more joy and celebration than one might assume.
