Every solar calendar April 4th to 5th is the traditional Qingming Festival, one of the most important traditional Chinese festivals and dating back to over 2,500 years. Ancestor worship is the basic theme of Qingming Festival. Moreover it is the time when the beautiful spring and sunshine come and trees and grass start to turn green, the amusement custom like outing and excursion has been passed on from generation to generation. In the just passed Qingming Festival, there is a sense of fashion spotted in this traditional festival.
Play Cuju, draw eggs and make kites etc.
Playing Cuju, drawing eggs, planting willow branches and making kites etc. Residents from Road huhai sub-district office, Shinan District, Qingdao gathered together in Yan Niao Shan Park to experience fashionable 𡥼ingdao folk customs�. They learned about traditional folk culture and felt the fun and novelty of participation by personally making traditional articles, joining the traditional games and watching folk-custom performance.
On the morning of the festival, many residents took their children to the little square in Yan Niao Shan Park where the stage was set up and many items for experiencing traditional Qingming have been prepared including eggs, kites and paper-cut etc. A performance team in Han Chinese clothing has also been invited. Folk customs related to Qingming Festival including planting willow, excursion, playing Cuju and dancing etc. were presented by performance. 𠐓esides ancestor worship, there are so many playable items.� Mr. Yang, a resident, said that he only knew people usually worship their ancestors, have an outing in spring, eat eggs, after joining the activity he realized there were also flying kites and drawing eggs and he felt like coming back to childhood when he saw children paint colors onto egg shells.
Afterwards the residents were divided into different groups and played the traditional Cuju. They also followed folk-custom experts to learn how to make kites. A staff from Road Zhuhai sub-district office, District Shinan said: 𨧻t is very good to let people know about the traditional folk customs. Let our residents embrace the tradition, experience folk customs, promote and develop outstanding family traditions and instructions. We can spend a more meaningful traditional festival.� (Sun Qimeng)
(1. Residents are making kites and drawing their own favorite patterns.
2. In Yan Niao Shan Park, a group of youth in Han Chinese clothing showed the residents the traditional customs including folding a willow branch as a gift when parting with friends, a group of good friends having a spring outing and playing Cuju.)
A fashionable Qingming and lingering charm of folk customs in Qingdao
