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Not prohibited by law

The Qingming Festival (aka Tomb-Sweeping Day) is, for the first time, a national holiday this year.

Today's China Daily features a profile of the man who was instrumental in giving us all the day off on Friday. Chen Jing, a professor with Nanjing University,

Two years ago, on a trip to sweep the family tomb located in another city, Chen found himself in a train full of people carrying paper money and chrysanthemums, preparing to visit graves.

But he noticed that most of these were elderly, since young people were still at work that day. Chen immediately took a vote in the carriage and found that almost everyone supported making Qingming a national holiday.

He later found that the elderly thought it necessary to include young family members in the festival's activities, while working people also wanted the chance to honor their ancestors....

"Only when everyone cares about the preservation of our folk culture can our cultural heritage be restored," he said.

Other academics have suggested that the restoration of folk culture needs to reach even further back, to the true origins of the Qingming: a matchmaking festival.

On 30 March, the Shanghai Morning Post ran an article that quoted Zhu Xuqiang, a PhD in the history department at Shanghai Normal University, on the topic of a line from the Rites of Zhou (周礼): "In the second month of spring, men and women can meet, and they are not prohibited from eloping."