Qing Ming Festival is when Chinese people visit the graves or burial grounds of their ancestors.
Qing Ming has a tradition stretching back more than 2,500 years. Its origin is credited to the Tang Emperor Xuan Zong in AD 732. Wealthy citizens in China were reportedly holding too many extravagant and ostentatiously expensive ceremonies in honor of their ancestors. Emperor Xuan Zong, seeking to curb this practice, declared that respects could be formally paid at ancestors' graves only on Qing Ming. The observance of Qing Ming found a firm place in Chinese culture and continued since Ancient China.
Celebration
“The Qing Ming Festival is an opportunity for celebrants to remember and honor their ancestors at grave sites. Young and old paying respect before their ancestors, sweep/clean the tombs and offer food, tea, wine, joss accessories to the ancestors. The rites have a long tradition in Asia, especially among farmers. Some people carry willow branches with them on Qing Ming or put willow branches on their gates and/or front doors. They believe that willow branches help ward off the negative entities that wander around during Qing Ming period.
On Qing Ming, people go on family outings, start the spring plowing, sing, and dance. Another popular thing to do is to fly kites in the shapes of animals or characters from Chinese opera. Another common practice is to carry flowers instead of burning paper, incense or firecrackers. The Qing Ming Festival in South East Asia or Singapore normally starts early (10 days before and 10 days after the Actual Day, which is being marked on the Calendar on 5 April every year [plus minus 1 day]) by paying respect to distant ancestors from China at home altars or the visiting of the graves of close relatives. Some follow the concept of Filial Piety to the extent of visiting the graves of their ancestors in China.
Traditionally, the family will burn paper money and paper replicas of material goods such as cars, homes, phones and paper servants. In Chinese culture, it is believed that people still need all of those things in the afterlife. Then family members start take turns to kowtow three to nine times (depending on the family adherence to traditional values) before the tomb of the ancestors. The Kowtowing ritual in front of the grave is performed in the order of patriarchal seniority within the family. After the ancestor worship at the grave site, the whole family or the whole clan feast on the food and drink they brought for the worship either at the site or in nearby gardens in the memorial park, signifying family reunion with the ancestors.