每年的清明定在二十四節氣的春分后的第十五天，清明節是子孫們去掃墓祭祖的節日，人們會帶祭品前往祭祖，同時打掃和清理墓啤。今年(2005)的清明節是公歷4月5日。

 清 明 上 河 圖

清明節的傳統

    Ancestor worship is a Chinese tradition dating back thousands of years.

    中國祭祀祖先的傳統已有數千年之久。

    Also known as the Grave-sweeping or Spring Remembrance, Ching Ming ("clear and bright"), is when Chinese families show their respect by visiting the graves of their ancestors to clear away weeds, touch up gravestone inscriptions and make offerings of wine and fruit.

    清明時，中國闔家前往祭拜祖先，同時把祖墳修飾一下，把雜草清除。然后準備一些犧牲、酒和水果作為對祖先的祭品。

清明節的翻譯

    “清明”依音譯為“Ching Ming, 但“節”則依意譯為festival，合起來便是Ching Ming Festival, 是音譯和意譯的混合物。

    此外，我們再學習幾個中國傳統節日的英譯：

    “春節”在英文上叫做Chinese New Year's Day, 是意譯，字面的意思就是“中國人的新年”；或Spring Festival，即“春天的節日”；或Chinese Rural New Year，即“中國農歷新年”
    “端午節”的譯法和“清明節”一樣，“端午”譯為Duan Wu, 節是Festival。不過，許多人也喜歡稱之為Duan Wu, 節是Festival。另外，許多人也喜歡稱之為Dragon Boat Festival，意為“龍舟節”。
    “中秋節”逐字意譯為Mid-Autumn Festival,有時則在前邊加上Chinese。亦有人稱之為Moon Festival的。
    “重陽節”也和“清明節”、“端午節”一般譯法，稱為Chung Yeung Festival。由于我們有時也把“重陽”稱為“重九”，所以有些英國人也把我們的這一個節日叫做“Double-ninth Day,”不過還是以前者較多用。

擴充閱讀一：Chinese Ching Ming Festival

A Chinese holiday, celbrated on April 5th, is the Ching Ming Festival (aka Qingming Festival.) Ching, in Chinese, means pure or clean and Ming means brightness. Most people call this holiday grave-sweeping day because people head to the cemetery to clean graves.

There are many Ching Ming rituals[儀式] which include pulling out weeds around the headstone, cleaning the stone and replacing wilted or dead flowers with fresh ones. People also burn incense[薰香] and paper money. The paper money is for the deceased to use in the afterlife. You'll even see food arranged on headstones but it's not a picnic. The food is an offering to the spirits. Three sets of chopsticks[筷子] and three Chinese wine cups are also placed above the food, close to the headstone.

Other rituals include family members pouring wine on the grave or setting off firecrackers[鞭炮] to scare away evil spirits. The firecrackers also let deceased loved ones know they're there to pay their respects. Legend has it that unhappy spirits wander the earth on Ching Ming day. It's considered bad luck to do important business or have an operation on April 5th. Stick to hanging out in the cemetery and offering your ancestors food and fake money.

The practice of ancestor worship is based on three beliefs:
1) that a person's good or bad fortune is influenced by the souls of his or her ancestors;
2) that all departed[死去的] ancestors have the same material needs they had when alive; and
3) that the departed can assist their living relatives.

擴充閱讀二：清明節的由來

    有關清明節的由來：相傳在秦朝末年，漢高祖劉邦和西楚霸王項羽，大戰好幾回合后，終于取得天下。他光榮返回故鄉的時候，想要到父母親的墳墓上去祭拜，卻因為連年的戰爭，使得一座座的墳墓上長滿雜草，墓碑東倒西歪，有的斷落，有的破裂，而無法辨認碑上的文字。

    劉邦非常的難過，雖然部下也幫他翻遍所有的墓碑，可是直到黃昏的時候還是沒找到他父母的墳墓。最後劉邦從衣袖里拿出一張紙，用手撕成許多小碎片，緊緊捏在手上，然後向上蒼禱告說：“爹娘在天有靈，現在風刮得這么大，我將把這些小紙片，拋向空中，如果紙片落在一個地方，風都吹不動，就是爹娘的墳墓。”說完劉邦把紙片向空中拋，果然有一片紙片落在一座墳墓上，不論風怎么吹都吹不動，劉邦跑過去仔細瞧一瞧模糊的墓碑，果然看到他父母的名字刻在上面。

    劉邦高興得不得了，馬上請人重新整修父母親的墓，而且從此以后，每年的清明節一定到父母的墳上祭拜。后來民間的百姓，也和劉邦一樣每年的清明節都到祖先的墳墓祭拜，并且用小土塊壓幾張紙片在墳上，表示這座墳墓是有人祭掃的。