Ching Ming festival, once branded superstition, is revived as holiday

The mainland observes the Ching Ming festival, or grave-sweeping day, today as a public holiday for the first time in its modern history.

The central government decided to cut back the week-long May Day break in November and make national holidays out of three traditional festivals. The others are the Dragon Boat festival in June and the Mid-Autumn Festival in September.

The Ching Ming festival is important to a people who worship their ancestors. But it was not listed as a public holiday when the Communist Party established the People's Republicin 1949. The party considered the festival to be part of a 'rotten' and 'superstitious' old culture.

But calls for the restoration of traditional culture and festivals have gained momentum in recent years. The central government is also eager to revive traditional culture to counter the influence of globalisation and to strengthen national identity.

A recent poll by the Beijing Social Facts and Public Opinion Survey Centre found that about 60 per cent of 1,586 respondents planned to sweep their ancestors' graves today.

The media estimated that more than 10 million residents of Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou would honour their ancestors today.

Many interviewees said they would visit their relatives' graves, tend to them and offer the deceased food, flowers and their favourite items.