Friday, March 27, 2009

Qing Ming Festival



Qing Ming Festival (清明节) which is usually known as the Tomb/Grave Sweeping Day in English, falls on 4th April (or the 9th day of the 3rd lunar month) this year. It is another Chinese festival celebrated by many Chinese, especially Taoists and Buddhists to remember their ancestors. Although the festival falls on 4th April 2009, many Chinese started paying respect to their ancestors at cemeteries or columbaria from 20th March. (i.e. the Chinese celebrate the festival from 20th March till 4th April).

Every year, we visit Mount Vernon Columbarium to pay respect to my ancestors.

Notice displayed at the Columbarium during Qing Ming Festival

As only vegetarian food can be offered, my chef prepare some vegetarian dishes like vegetarian noodles, vegetarian meat and vegetarian dumplings (kuehs) and also bought some vegetarian BBQ meat (char siew) buns.

Vegetarian BBQ Meat Buns




21 comments:

Anonymous said...

During this 2 weekends, the temples are going to be so jammed packed!
It's party time for the ancestors as what my niece says.

Ebie said...

I love the bao, wanna share some?

Anya said...

That looks very nice !!!
I would like to enjoy and celebrate it with you ;)

Food For Tots said...

Usually we will try to go to the columbarium as early as possible. Otherwise, it will be packed with people.

Jama said...

What do you do with the food? just leave them there or bring it back afterwards and eat them?

maiylah said...

that looks delicious! do you get to eat them, too?

♥♥ Willa ♥♥ said...

I love those meat buns, in the Philippines, we called it Siopao :D
I hope you have time to visit my entry here and here. It's my first time to have two entries.

Superman said...

I just did my visit to my grandpa grave on last Saturday...

eastcoastlife said...

Yes, busy visiting ancestors and making offerings. The cemeteries are packed. :P

Jenn said...

That vegetarian char siu bun looks so yummy! To think that it's not even meat! Thanks for the info. As a Christian all my life, I know practically nothing about Buddhism or Taoism. :-)

Vanniedosa said...

in the PI we call those siopao :) yumm

Kero said...

Yummy! I tasted one like this but with meat and egg inside. I think they call it siopao. come visit my entry here http://kcelebration.blogspot.com/search/label/weekend%20snapshot

Enchie said...

I gotta hand it to you, I learned something today :) I so into vegetarian dishes, especially when it comes to Chinese cooking.

marites said...

we call it siopao here in the Philippines and i find it so yummy:)

Hazel said...

Qing Ming...I remember that! I used to go with my then husband to visit his dad's grave during Qing Ming. His mom would prepare loads of food and the family would eat the day away. Thailand's chinese population celebrates a similar festival date with yours. Thanks for sharing your snapshots.

Lynn said...

Veggie meat buns I should try one of these days. They aren't available in neighborhood supermarkets.

Carver said...

That sounds like a good tradition.

Indrani said...

Great food shots!

arielle said...

They look yummy, though made of vegetables... because usually if it's veggies, not so tasty.

Heart of Rachel said...

Thank you for sharing about this interesting tradition. It's a good way to honor the departed.

MommaWannabe said...

I haven't had the chance to try a vegetarian bun...is it good?