Qing Ming Jie—Tomb Sweeping Festival and the Spring Tea Harvest

“Up the River During Qing Ming” scroll painting from National Palace Museum of Taiwan’s exhibit

清明节 Qing Ming Jie (Tomb Sweeping Festival) Celebrated in China Today. photo credit

One of the biggest dates in the tea harvest calendar is upon us: 清明节, Qing Ming Jie or Tomb Sweeping Festival marking the beginning of the Spring tea harvest.

Since tea is a natural and seasonal plant, in China spring is the main tea harvest season especially for green teas. The highest quality premium green and white teas, are only picked and harvested in the spring in the course of a few weeks.

Qing Ming Jie Explained

Traditionally Qing Ming Jie is the day you honor your ancestors and deceased relatives by visiting their graves and attending to the tomb. The holiday shares a lot in spirit with the Mexican holiday Dia de los Muertos and traditions honoring the deceased.

Usually the family with gather together, visit their family burial grounds and graves and, as the name suggests, sweep the tombstone, burn paper money, as well as maybe bring flowers and offerings of fruit or food.

visiting family tombs during Qing Ming Jie (Tomb Sweeping Festival) photo credit

As you may know, a lot of Chinese culture and tradition revolves around honoring your ancestors and elders. Many Chinese homes have photos of deceased ancestors with daily offerings in front of the photos seeking guidance and protection.

So a holiday dedicated to honoring and paying respect to ancestors’ graves is a natural part of the Chinese holiday calendar.  Paintings (such as the ones above from Taiwan’s Palace Museum) and literature have referenced Qingming in Chinese culture since the Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD).

“Up the River During Qing Ming” from the National Palace Museum of Taiwan’s exhibit

What does Qing Ming Jie have to do with Tea?

I understand that tomb sweeping and tea don’t exactly have the clearest intuitive connection. Well it is really more about how a cultural holiday (清明节 Qing Ming Jie) marks the harvest season (spring) than it is about ancestors and tea drinking.

Since the Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD) Qing Ming Jie, determined by the traditional Chinese lunisolar calendar, has fallen on April 4 or 5 in the Gregorian calendar (the now accepted world calendar).

tea bushes ready for spring harvest

Yes, Chinese New Year is also interchangeable with “Spring Festival” and is a celebration among many other things about the coming of spring.  Key word there is the “coming of spring” whereas Qing Ming Jie is the holiday that sort of reminds you Spring is here!

Spring is the biggest and most highly anticipated tea harvesting season in China, so any holiday that marks the season of the biggest tea harvest indirectly becomes tea related.

pre-Qing Ming harvest of tea leaves for Longjing green tea near Hangzhou. Used with permission © 2016 Valeria Incoletti.

Pre-Qing Ming Jie 明前 Teas

Chinese tea aficionados are so attentive to seasonal freshness that the earlier in the tea picking season are more prized. In the springtime especially, we’re talking week to week sometimes day to day, the earlier the more valuable.

The standard marker of “early Spring” (aka most rare, prized, and valuable) teas are the ones that are picked pre-Qing Ming Jie. There is even an official category of 明前 “Pre-Qing Ming” early-spring teas for the most discerning tea drinkers ready to lay down the cash for some fancy tea.

pre-Qing Ming harvest of tea leaves for Longjing green tea near Hangzhou. Used with permission © 2016 Valeria Incoletti.

The type of green tea, that the Qing Ming Jie marker is most widely used in conjunction with marketing and branding of premium crops is Longjing green tea from Zhejiang Province.

Discover the Natural Flavors of a Tea Harvest

Similar to wine and other natural products, tea is affected by many factors including climate, weather, and growing conditions. (A tea’s terroir as discussed here) A tea’s natural taste will vary from harvest to harvest.

Now that Qing Ming Jie is here, you have a chance to sip a freshly harvested tea and experience what springtime in China tastes like.

freshly picked pre-Qing Ming (明前) tea leaves. Used with permission © 2016 Valeria Incoletti.