Kung Fu Altar - Sun Toi - Shen Tai

The Image on the Right is the most Common and miss identified.

The Answers:

Image on the Left : Sworn Brothers "Oath of the Peach Garden"

Seated is Liu Bei (劉備 aka Xuande (玄德) - Royalty - swords

On the Left is Zhang Fei (張飛) aka Yide ( ) - Snake Lance

On the right is Guan Yu (關羽) aka Yunchang ( ) - crescent moon blade"
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Image on the Right: Guan Yu and his son and squire/weapon bearer

Seated is Guan Yu (關羽) aka Yunchang ( )

On the Right is Guan Ping (關平)- holding GuanYu's Seal

On the Left is : Zhou Cang (周倉) - holding "Crescent Moon Blade"

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April 5, 2022

Qingming Festival,清明节 also called Tomb Sweeping Day or, literally, 'Pure Brightness' Festival in English, is a traditional Chinese festival and an important day for most people (including the Han Chinese and some of China's 55 other ethnic minorities) to go and sweep tombs and commemorate their ancestors. On this day, tomb sweeping is one of the most important and popular activities to show respect to ancestors.

It usually falls on April 4 or 5.

Originally, Qingming didn't relate to tomb sweeping or showing respect to ancestors. It is the second of the 24 solar terms on the traditional Chinese solar calendar.

In Chinese, Qingming (清明) means 'clearness' and 'brightness'. The origin of the name was related to climate and nature in this season. At the beginning of April, it becomes noticeably warmer and brighter, and nature is waking up in northern/central China (this happens earlier in south China). People start to wear light cloths and walk outside to feel the growth in spring.

The day before Tomb Sweeping Day was the traditional Chinese Cold Food Day. As time passed, the two festivals were gradually combined into one. On the day of the Cold Food Festival, people used no fire and only ate cold food. Now people in some places still have the custom of eating cold food on Qingming Festival.

There are various activities for Qingming Festival. The most popular ones such as tomb upkeep and repair, spring outings, kite flying, and putting willow branches on gates have been an important part of this festival since the beginning.

People often participate in a sport to ward off the cold and in anticipation of the arrival of spring. The festival integrates both reverence and fun through its customs.

Tomb Sweeping — the Most Important Custom of Qingming Festival

People commemorate and show respect to their ancestors by visiting their graves, offering food, tea or wine, burning incense, burning or offering joss paper (representing money), etc. They sweep the tombs, remove weeds, and add fresh soil to the graves. They might stick willow branches, flowers, or plastic plants on the tomb.

At Qingming, people usually worship their ancestors by burning incense and 'paper money' at their ancestors' grave sites.
They pray before their ancestors' graves and beseech them to bless their families. However, the custom has been greatly simplified today, especially in cities, where many people only put flowers to the dead relatives.

During the Qingming Festival, some people wear soft willow branches and place the branches on gates and front doors. People believe that this custom will ward off wandering evil spirits during Qingming.

That willows are considered magical is mainly a Buddhist influence. Traditional pictures of the Goddess of Mercy Guanyin often show her seated on a rock with a willow branch in a vase of water at her side. The goddess used this mysterious water and branch to scare away demons.

According to historical records, there is an old saying: "Put willow branches up on gates; drive ghosts away from houses."

Qingming is also called Taqing Festival. Taqing (踏青 /taa-ching/ 'tread green') means a spring outing, when people get out and enjoy the spring blossoms.

The festival usually falls on a day not long before everything turns green in the north, and well into the spring flower season in the south.

It marks the beginning of the season when people spend more time outside as the weather warms up.

Flying kites is also an important custom enjoyed by many people, young and old, during the Qingming Festival. The uniqueness of kite flying during the Qingming Festival lies in that kites are not only flown during the day but also in the evening.

Little colored lanterns are tied to the kites or to the strings that hold the kites. When kites fly in the evening, the lanterns look like twinkling stars.

In the past, people cut the string to let the kite fly freely. People believe that this custom can bring good luck and eliminate diseases. This is why you might sometimes find paper kites lying on the ground in parks and fields.

Kite flying is popular throughout all of China and you will see people doing it on big squares or in parks throughout the entire country. Learn more about Chinese kites.

The day before Tomb Sweeping Day was the traditional Chinese Cold Food Day. As time passed, the two festivals were gradually combined into one. On the cold food festival day, people used no fire and only ate cold food. Now people in some places still have the custom of eating cold food on Qingming Festival.

Different places have different foods for Qingming Festival. The traditional Qingming festival foods include sweet green rice balls, peach blossom porridge, crispy cakes, Qingming snails, and eggs. These foods are usually cooked one or two days before the arrival of the Qingming Festival so people can eat and recreate during the holidays.

Sweet Green Rice Balls (青团 qīngtuán /ching-twann/ 'green dumpling(s)') are a popular Qingming food that are made of a mixture of glutinous rice powder and green vegetable juice and stuffed with sweetened bean paste. Sweet green rice balls are jade-green in color, glutinous in taste, and sweet in aroma.

Chingming cakes are called sazi (撒子sāzi /saa-dzuh/ [phonetic]) or hanju (寒具 hánjù /han-jyoo/ 'cold tools'). They are a crispy fried food that are made of wheat flour or glutinous rice flour, eggs, sesame, onion, salt, and other ingredients.

Among some Chinese ethnic minorities, such as the Uygur in Xinjiang, the Dongxiang in Gansu, the Naxi in Yunnan, and the Hui in Ningxia, sazi is famed for its great variety and many flavors.

Qingming snails is a dish cooked with snails, onions, ginger, soy sauce, cooking wine, and sugar.

Peach blossom porridge is a kind of porridge cooked with fresh peach blossom and rice.

Today was able to bear witness to a rare tradition pertaining to Lion Dance.

Its not often you see this process of retiring old and worn out Lion Dancing equipment. This process is only mostly seen today when it pertains to equipment used in Funerals.

Sadly i've seen over the years these beautiful pieces of art work and instruments of cultural and spiritual blessings being unceremoniously relegated to the local trash piles and dumps.