Family-Day Activity on Tomb-Sweeping Day Held at Hunan Provincial Museum

Qing Ming, usually called Tomb-Sweeping Day, is one of the traditional Chinese festivals. It is an occasion for Chinese people to sweep the graves of their forebears, thereby to remember the dead and the dearly departed, more importantly, to honor and to pay respect to one’s deceased ancestors and family members.

Besides sweeping the graves, eating eggs is also a major tradition for this special festival. Therefore, on April 5, the Tomb-Sweeping Day, Family-Day activity on the theme of “crazy eggs” was held at Hunan Provincial Museum.

On that day, Education Activity Room became a paradise for eggs. Kids turned the eggs into all kinds of cartoon figures such as Xi Yangyang, Pig King, Pikachu, etc. with their colorful paint-brushes and creative imaginations.  

A docent is teaching kids how to paint the egg.

Kids are painting the eggs.

In the part of “Scene Play”, with the help of other little friends and their parents, each kid gave an ad-lib performance with their self-made egg-characters. Next, kids enjoyed an exciting time in “Egg Championship” to compete for who has the hardest egg by striking one egg with another. The broken eggs were used as materials for “Cold Food” (special food prepared on Tomb-Sweeping Day) and eaten by kids and their parents.  

Egg Championship

This Family-Day Activity, integrating the knowledge and custom of our traditional festival into the interesting games, is favorably reviewed by both kids and parents. Many parents expressed the wishes to participate in more activities held at the museum in future.