People across China marked the Qingming Festival on Friday by preparing and enjoying traditional snacks made from seasonal ingredients, reflecting the cultural significance of this time-honored tradition.
The Qingming Festival, or Tomb-Sweeping Day, is traditionally a time for honoring ancestors. This year, the holiday runs from April 4 to 6.
Qingming baba, a seasonal delicacy from Sinan County in southwest China's Guizhou Province, is a traditional snack enjoyed during the Qingming Festival. Made by blending green extracts from Qingming grass with glutinous rice flour, the mixture is shaped into rice balls and filled with various ingredients, often including local wild vegetables. Once steamed, Qingming baba becomes soft, chewy, and delightfully aromatic.
"The rice balls have various fillings, such as Chinese toon with eggs, houttuynia with cured meat, tofu with cured meat, peanuts with sesame, red beans, and salted vegetables with minced meat. These are common local ingredient combinations. We want to offer a completely new taste experience for our customers," said Fang Li, manager of an agritainment in Sinan.
In northwest China's Qinghai Province, Qingming sweet snacks made with wormwood extracts are a festive favorite. The crushed wormwood imparts a vibrant green color and a distinctive fragrance to the treats, which are often filled with highland barley, taro paste, or bean paste. Meanwhile, Qinghai locals have put a creative twist on their traditional flower buns, preserving classic floral patterns while introducing imaginative shapes, including flower baskets and ice cream cones.
China celebrates Qingming Festival with seasonal delicacies, time-honored customs
