Clear and Bright 清明

What it marks

Clear skies and bright air — and the tomb-sweeping festival, when families tend ancestors' graves. The only solar term that is also a public holiday across much of the Chinese-speaking world.

Traditionally favours

• honouring ancestors
• tending graves
• outings
• clearing the air

Widely avoided for weddings and business openings, because the day belongs to the dead. Plan celebrations around it.

These are the tradition’s tendencies, not guarantees — and a solar term describes a stretch of weeks, so for a specific day check today’s almanac, which reads the day’s own 宜 and 忌.