What day is Qingming Festival? What day is Qingming Festival 2025 in the solar calendar?

What is Qingming Festival?

Thanh Minh Festival is one of the most important festivals in Vietnamese culture, clearly demonstrating the nation's moral of "When drinking water, remember its source". This is the time when descendants turn to their roots, expressing their respect to their ancestors through meaningful memorial rituals.

What date is Qingming Festival in 2025?

Qingming Festival does not have a fixed date every year due to its dependence on the solar cycle, but it usually ranges from April 4 to April 5 of the solar calendar. This is an occasion for descendants to demonstrate the morality of "remembering the source of water when drinking" through the following activities:

Tomb sweeping, cleaning the ancestors' graves

Offer incense and worship with respect

Family reunion, remembering our roots together

In the system of 24 solar terms, Thanh Minh ranks 5th, after Lap Xuan, Vu Thuy, Kinh Trap and Xuan Phan. This solar term marks the time when the weather completely changes to spring, trees sprout and grow, creating favorable conditions for outdoor activities such as visiting graves.

Origin and meaning of Qingming Festival

Origin of Qingming Festival

According to research by cultural experts, the origin of Qingming Festival comes from the 24 solar terms system in the ancient Eastern calendar. The word "Qingming" (清明) means "clear", reflecting the characteristics of cool weather and clear sky of spring.

Astronomically, this is the 5th solar term of the year, starting when the Sun is at 15° longitude (usually on April 4-5). According to researcher Nguyen Hung Vi, this term appears 45 days after Lap Xuan and 105 days after Dong Chi, marking the time when the weather is at its freshest in spring.

Evolution of Qingming Festival:

Originally just an astronomical term

Gradually becoming an important holiday associated with the custom of visiting graves

In Vietnam, it is localized as a day to demonstrate the morality of "remembering the source of water when drinking"

In particular, in ancient culture, there still exists the Thanh Dap Festival (grass-trampling festival) - a spring festival where young men and women go out together in spring. Although it is no longer popular in Vietnam today, its traces are still preserved through the immortal verses in the Tale of Kieu: "Thanh minh in the third lunar month/The ceremony is to visit graves, the festival is to walk in the spring".

In 2025, Thanh Minh Festival will fall on April 4th (March 7th, lunar calendar). From a purely solar term, Thanh Minh has become a unique cultural beauty, expressing the profound philosophy of Vietnamese people about gratitude and looking back to their roots.

The meaning of Qingming Festival

Thanh Minh Festival has a profound meaning in the spiritual life of Vietnamese people, it is an occasion for descendants to express their filial piety to their ancestors. According to Dr. Nguyen Anh Hong (Academy of Journalism and Communication), this is an important gratitude ritual, demonstrating the morality of "eating the fruit, remembering the one who planted the tree" which is deeply ingrained in the national subconscious. Three core values ​​make up the meaning of Thanh Minh Festival:

Family values: No matter how busy they are, family members still arrange to return to their hometown to reunite, visit the graves, clean and decorate the resting place of their grandparents. Well-cared graves are a message of gratitude between generations.

Humanistic lesson: Not only stopping at worship, Thanh Minh Festival reminds us to respect and love our parents while they are still alive. As the ancients taught: "The meaning of filial piety cannot be left untaught" - filial piety cannot be left untaught.

Community spirit: The most beautiful feature of Qingming Festival is the custom of taking care of even unclaimed graves. This action clearly demonstrates the philosophy of "mutual love", spreading humanistic values ​​in society.

Traditional customs on Qingming Festival 2025

Thanh Minh Festival 2025 (April 4th) is an occasion for Vietnamese people to practice beautiful customs, demonstrating the morality of "remembering the source of water when drinking". On this day, families often visit graves together - cleaning and repairing their ancestors' graves, sweeping dry leaves, pulling weeds and repainting tombstones to show their respect. Many people also choose to bring fresh flowers, especially yellow chrysanthemums - the flower symbolizing filial piety, to decorate the resting place of the deceased.

After visiting the graves, families often prepare a meal at home with traditional dishes such as sticky rice with gac fruit, boiled chicken, bamboo shoot soup and seasonal fruits. In particular, many people do not forget to burn incense for unclaimed graves, showing the spirit of mutual love. In 2025, the trend of combining grave visiting with spring picnics is becoming more and more popular, helping family members have time to connect with each other. Although modern life has many changes, these meaningful customs are still preserved by Vietnamese people as an indispensable traditional cultural beauty.

What does a complete Thanh Minh 2025 offering tray include?

The Thanh Minh Festival 2025 offering tray is an important part of the traditional rituals of Vietnamese people, showing respect and gratitude to ancestors. Depending on the conditions and customs of each family, the offering tray can be prepared with different offerings.

The offering tray outside the grave usually includes both vegetarian and non-vegetarian offerings. The basic offerings include: incense, candles, tea, wine, water, betel and areca nuts, votive paper money, and fruit. The offering tray can include dishes such as sticky rice with beans, tea, wine, pork, pig's feet, boiled chicken, etc. If there are many incense bowls outside the grave, each bowl needs to be lit with incense. The offerings placed on the table can be prepared together.

Offerings at home are often simpler and do not require elaborate offerings. For savory offerings, dishes such as sticky rice, boiled chicken, bamboo shoot soup, stir-fried dishes, etc. are popular choices. If the family wants to prepare a vegetarian offering, they can be replaced with simple vegetarian dishes.

If the family cannot afford to prepare an offering, they can burn incense with fresh fruit, tea, cakes, and candies to show their gratitude to their ancestors. The most important thing is the sincerity and heart of the descendants for the deceased.

The Thanh Minh Festival offering tray is not only a traditional ritual but also an occasion for families to reunite, remember and show gratitude to ancestors, and pray for peace and luck for the whole year.

Instructions for preparing offerings for Thanh Minh Festival 2025

Prepare offerings

Offerings for the Qingming Festival usually include basic items such as meat, chicken, wine, and ham. A full offering tray may include sticky rice, boiled chicken, bamboo shoot soup, and stir-fried vermicelli. In addition, incense, flowers, lamps, betel and areca nuts, votive paper money, and fruit should be prepared to offer to the ancestors.

Graveside worship

When performing the tomb-sweeping ceremony, the homeowner needs to arrange the offerings carefully. Fruits and votive paper money can be placed together, but the savory offerings should be placed separately. Then, light incense and candles, note to only put in 1 or 3 sticks, avoid putting in 2 sticks. Bow 3 times to show respect to the local god, then invite the ancestors back and start reading the prayer.

Waiting for the incense to burn out, everyone lit incense at the family tomb and asked for permission from the ancestors to clean up. When the incense has burned out for 2/3 of the time, everyone can give thanks, burn votive paper, ask for blessings and leave.

Worship at home

When worshiping Thanh Minh at home, you need to pay attention to cleaning the house, especially the family altar. Prepare a tray of offerings at home to worship after Thanh Minh at the grave.

Burning incense and praying are similar to other worshiping customs. The important thing is to be sincere and maintain a solemn attitude when performing the ceremony, showing respect to your ancestors.

What should be avoided on Qingming Festival?

Qingming Festival is an occasion for descendants to remember and show gratitude to their ancestors, but there are also taboos to avoid bad luck and show respect for the deceased. Here are some things not to do on this day:

Avoid stepping on or kicking other people's offerings.

When visiting graves, avoid stepping on other people’s graves or kicking their offerings. This not only brings bad luck but also shows disrespect. Children and young people in particular should be reminded to avoid such actions.

Pregnant women, menstruating women or sick people should limit visiting graves.

Women who are menstruating, pregnant women, or people with colds or rheumatism should not visit graves. The cold air and negative energy in the cemetery can negatively affect their health.

Restrict photography in the cemetery

Although Qingming Festival is a time for family reunions and commemorative photos, taking photos in cemeteries is discouraged. This can detract from the solemnity and reverence of this sacred space.

Clean the grave carefully

When cleaning a grave, it is necessary to clean from front to back and check the condition of the grave to avoid animals such as rats, snakes, and centipedes crawling inside. This helps protect the grave and shows the thoughtfulness of descendants.

Do not gossip or point at other people's graves.

Gossiping or pointing at other people’s graves not only brings bad luck, but also shows disrespect to the deceased. Maintain a dignified and respectful attitude when in a cemetery.

Avoid making too much noise or laughing.

The cemetery is a sacred place, so avoid making too much noise or laughing. Keep the space quiet to show respect to your ancestors and the deceased.

Do not bring offerings home from the cemetery.

After the offering, you should not bring the offerings home from the cemetery. This is believed to bring negative energy and can affect the family's luck.

Prayer for Thanh Minh Festival

Qingming Festival prayer used at graves

Tomb-sweeping offerings on Qingming Festival usually include: incense, betel and areca nuts, votive paper money, wine, meat (pig's trotter, boiled chicken or a piece of lean ham), and fruit.

I bow to the nine directions of Heaven, the ten directions of Buddhas, the Buddhas of the ten directions.

I respectfully bow to the spirit of………………(Father, Mother or Ancestor………….

Today is the day………….

Character:………………………….

We, the believers ……………………………

Residing at:…………………….

We and our entire family, thanks to the great merit and great virtue of the founder, we have built the career of………….. and feel sad thinking about the grave in a deserted place. We, the believers, sincerely prepare offerings, areca nuts, betel leaves, flowers, tea, fruit, light incense sticks and respectfully present them at the grave, respectfully invite the spirit of…………..to come and enjoy.

We would like to be allowed to repair the grave, fill the ground, repair the Minh Duong and Hau Quy to make it more solid. Thanks to the Buddha and Saints' protection, the virtue of heaven and earth, and the protection of the gods, so that we can have peace, the dead can pass on to the living. We, your descendants, for the sake of the true spirit... Vow to accumulate virtue, cultivate virtue, do good deeds, offer Tin Bao, help orphans and widows, help the poor and save the victims, be filial to the ancestors to use this merit to return to the ancestors.

I bow and ask the sacred spirits to witness, accept the offerings, bless and protect my children and grandchildren, and pass by to watch over my house. Cover my ears and save me from disasters, bestow wealth and fortune, bring good things and drive away evil things. Bless my family to prosper, my cinnamon trees to flourish, my children and grandchildren to enjoy the blessings of heaven, and the young and old to be imbued with the grace of Buddha and Saints.

We respectfully offer this humble offering and ask for your witness.

After praying, wait until 2/3 of the incense stick has burned out. At this time, everyone will go to give thanks, burn votive papers, ask for blessings, and return home to perform the ceremony for the family gods and ancestors at home.

Qingming Festival prayers for home use

Depending on each family, you can prepare a full offering tray with sticky rice, boiled chicken, or ham, bamboo shoot soup, vermicelli, add stir-fried dishes, etc. or just burn incense normally with fresh fruit, Chinese tea, cigarettes, etc. to inform the deceased ancestors, gambling gods, etc. about Thanh Minh day.

The homeowner dresses up seriously, stands in front of the altar, lights incense, lights a lamp, then prays:

Namo Amitabha Buddha!

Namo Amitabha Buddha!

Namo Amitabha Buddha!

I bow to the nine directions of heaven, the ten directions of Buddhas, the ten directions of Buddhas.

I bow to my ancestors, relatives on both sides of my family...

I bow to my ancestors, grandparents, Red girl, Red boy at home.

Today is the... day of... month... year...

Now I keep the duty of worshiping the name..., age..., born in commune..., district..., province... with the whole family, before the family altar bow my head and pay homage.

Please invite the Kitchen Gods to come and help us.

Respectfully offer: betel, wine, tea, water, gold, incense, fruits and sincere offerings on the occasion of Thanh Minh festival. Respectfully invite the souls of paternal and maternal ancestors, great-grandparents, grandparents, parents, aunts, uncles, brothers and sisters to witness and enjoy the ceremony.

I respectfully bow to my ancestors, my maternal and paternal grandparents, my paternal and maternal grandparents, and my extended family to bless, protect, and caress my extended family for peace and prosperity, so that the three summer months and nine winter months are cool and fresh. May the good things that I bring and the bad things that I bring away help my family's work go smoothly and bring good luck.

We respectfully offer this humble offering, bowing and asking our ancestors to witness the sincerity of the entire family.

Namo Amitabha Buddha!

Namo Amitabha Buddha!

Namo Amitabha Buddha!

Things to note when worshiping on Thanh Minh Festival and visiting graves

Qingming Festival is an occasion for descendants to remember and show gratitude to their ancestors. When performing the tomb-sweeping ceremony, it is necessary to follow some rules and notes to show respect and avoid bad luck. Below are some things to note:

Arrange offerings and burn incense

When performing the tomb-sweeping ceremony, the homeowner needs to arrange the offerings carefully. Fruits and votive paper money can be placed together, but the savory offerings should be placed separately. Then, light incense and candles, note to only put in 1 or 3 sticks, avoid putting in 2 sticks. Bow 3 times to show respect to the local god, then invite the ancestors back and start reading the prayer.

Wait for the incense to burn out and clean the grave

Waiting for the incense to burn out, everyone lit incense at the family tomb and asked for permission from the ancestors to clean up. When the incense has burned out for 2/3 of the time, everyone can give thanks, burn votive paper, ask for blessings and leave.

Avoid stepping on or kicking other people's offerings.

When passing by someone else’s grave, do not step on or kick their offerings. This not only brings bad luck but also shows disrespect. Children in particular should be reminded to avoid such actions.

Restrict photography in the cemetery

Although Qingming Festival is a time for family reunions and commemorative photos, taking photos in cemeteries is discouraged. This can detract from the solemnity and reverence of this sacred space.

Do not gossip or point at other people's graves.

Gossiping or pointing at other people’s graves not only brings bad luck, but also shows disrespect to the deceased. Maintain a dignified and respectful attitude when in a cemetery.

Clean the grave carefully

When cleaning a grave, it is necessary to clean from front to back and check the condition of the grave to avoid animals such as rats, snakes, and centipedes crawling inside. This helps protect the grave and shows the thoughtfulness of descendants.