#13 What is Tomb-sweeping Day in China? 清明节在中国

大家好！ 很高兴又和你们见面了，我是莫莫老师。今天是MaoMi Chinese的第十三集-清明节在中国-What is Tomb-sweeping Day in China？

现在已经四月了，春天已经来了。你住的地方天气好吗？

四月，中国的很多地方已经很暖和了。每一年的四月五日前后，中国人都在准备一个节日——清明节。

清明节是一个怎么样的节日呢？

每一年的清明节，所有中国人和华人都会纪念他们的祖先，和他们已经去世的家人。

清明节有两千五百年的历史。很久以前，中国的皇帝们会在这一天拜祭他们的祖先。慢慢地，人们也开始这样做。

为什么中国人要纪念他们的祖先呢？因为大部分中国人不信宗教，但是我们相信我们的祖先和去世的家人会在另一个世界，他们会保护我们。

那么中国人在清明节做什么呢？我们会去扫墓。

我们会去我们祖先的墓园，打扫墓园。在很多地方，人们还会烧一些纸钱。

这些不是真的钱，我们烧这些钱给我们的祖先，因为我们觉得他们在另一个世界也要用钱。

听起来很好笑，很好玩，对不对？我小时候，很喜欢清明节，因为我觉得烧纸钱特别好玩。

我的爷爷，在我出生以前就去世了。但是我也相信，他也一直在保护我，在另一个世界，他也在看着我成长。

最后我们来看一看今天的生词吧！

清明节，中国的清明节每年都不太一样，但都是在4月5日前后。

纪念，我们可以说，纪念去世的家人，纪念我们的祖先。清明节是一个纪念祖先的节日。

宗教，世界上有很多宗教，比如基督教，穆斯林教，但是在中国，大部分中国人不信宗教。

保护，我们可以说，我们的祖先在另一个世界保护着我们。我们也可以说，保护孩子是每一个人的责任。

Hello everyone! Very pleased to see you again. This is Teacher Momo. Today we have our 13th episode - What is Tomb-sweeping Day in China

Now it’s already April and Spring is already here. Do you have good weather in the place you live?

In April, there are lots of places getting very warm in China. Every year around 5^th April, Chinese people would prepare for a festival - the Qingming festival (Tomb-sweeping Day).

What kind of festival is Qingming festival?

Every Qingming festival, all Chinese people and overseas Chinese will remember their ancestors and passed-away family members.

The Qingming festival is 2500 years old. A long time ago, Chinese emperors would worship their ancestors on that day. Then gradually, people started to do so.

Why do Chinese people worship their ancestors? Because most Chinese don’t believe in religion but we do believe that our ancestors and passed-away family members will protect us from another world.

So what do Chinese people do during the Qingming festival? We will go to sweep and clean the tombs.

We will go to the graveyard where we buried our ancestors and clean it. In many places, people also burn some paper money.（ghost money）

It is not real money. We burn them to our ancestors because we think that they will need to use money even in another world.

Sounds quote amusing and fun, doesn’t it? When I was little I liked the Qingming festival a lot, because I thought it was really fun to burn paper money.

My granddad (from my dad’s side) passed away before I was born. But I also believe that he is protecting me and watching me growing up even from another world.

Lastly, let’s have a look at the vocabulary we covered today!

Qīngmíng jiē. The date of Qingming festival is slightly different every year, but it’s always around 5^th April.

jì niàn. We can say ‘to commemorate passed-away families’ and ‘commemorate our ancestors’. Qingming festival is a day to commemorate our ancestors.

Religion. There are lots of religions in the world, for example, Christian and Muslim. However, in China, most of Chinese people don’t believe in religion.

To protect. We can say that our ancestors are protecting us from another world. We can also say that it’s everyone’s responsibilities to protect children.