【Learn Chinese】What Are Traditional Foods for Qingming Festival?

Qingming Festival (清明节, qīng míng jíe) is one of the most important traditional festivals in China. It falls on April 4th or 5th. In 2024, Qingming Festival falls on April 4th, when most Chinese people will enjoy a public holiday.

What Are Traditional Foods for Qingming Festival?
Different places have different foods for Qingming Festival. The traditional Qingming festival foods include sweet green rice balls, crispy cakes, Qingming Zong. 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
Sweet Green Rice Balls (青团 qīng tuán) 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.

Qingming Cakes
Qingming cakes are called sazi (撒子sā zi) or hanju (寒具 hánjù). 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 Zong (Rice Dumplings)
Rice dumplings are not only for Dragon Boat Festival. In fact, they have become popular as a take-out food. Zongzi are sticky rice dumplings filled with pork, chestnut, and red beans (sometimes this varies), and wrapped in bamboo leaves. They are also commonly used and eaten at Qingming Festival, as they are very convenient for offering and taking on spring outings.