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Erika Na

The largely forgotten Cold Food Festival, known in Mandarin as hanshi jie, is a traditional Chinese holiday celebrated on the 105th day after the winter solstice. In 2025, this falls on April 4.
The festival began around the 7th century BC and was widely observed through the eating of cold food and avoidance of the use of fire. The tradition had faded by the Tang dynasty (AD618-907), when it was consolidated into the more well-known Ching Ming Festival.
As a result, not many in China observe the Cold Food Festival today, although it is still recognised in name.
The Cold Food Festival occurs just before the Ching Ming Festival, or “tomb sweeping” day, which falls on the 15th day after the spring equinox.

The Ching Ming Festival, a public holiday in Hong Kong, mainland China, Macau and Taiwan and celebrated by Chinese communities everywhere, is marked by the cleaning of ancestral tombs and the burning of incense and paper goods. The practice of eating cold food has carried over to the observance of Ching Ming.
The origin of the Cold Food Festival lies in the legend of Jie Zitui, a nobleman during China’s Spring and Autumn Period (771-476BC).
As the story goes, Prince Chong’er, of the royal house of Jin, was forced into exile as a result of political unrest. Jie, a devoted follower, stayed with him – even cutting flesh from his own thigh to make soup when food ran short.
But when the prince ascended to power as the duke of Jin, he forgot about Jie. Disillusioned, the nobleman retreated to a forest on a mountain with his elderly mother.
When the duke realised what he had done, he sent men to find Jie. The duke ordered the forest set on fire to smoke him out. Jie refused to flee and burned to death with his mother. Their bodies were found clinging to a tree.
The grief-stricken duke declared three days of mourning for Jie and forbade his people from cooking with fire. This act of remembrance evolved into the Cold Food Festival, during which people ate dishes that could be prepared cold.
While it began as a festival to pay respects to Jie, it evolved over time into a day for ancestor worship.

During the Tang dynasty, it is said that a culture of extravagant ancestor worship rituals prompted the then emperor to limit such worship to a single day, Ching Ming.
Over time, the festival tradition of eating cold food evolved.
In the Tang dynasty, people enjoyed baked cakes and porridge infused with peach or plum blossoms. By the Song dynasty (960-1279), people had turned to eating savoury treats such as spring rolls and crispy fried dough twists. In the Yuan dynasty (1279-1368) that followed, white sugar sponge cakes and fragrant mugwort-leaf rice were popular choices.
The Cold Food Festival is also marked in South Korea, where it is known as the Hansik Festival – hansik being “cold food” in Korean.
It was widely celebrated under the Goryeo (918-1392) and Joseon (1392-1897) dynasties, when the government hosted feasts for the people. Although the Hansik Festival is still nominally one of five major traditional holidays in the country, the customs of avoiding fire and eating cold food are rarely practised.
Unlike some other holidays – such as Lunar New Year and the Mid-Autumn Festival – the Hansik Festival is not designated a public holiday in Korea. This may partially explain why awareness of the festival has declined among younger generations.

Those who continue to observe the festival typically follow traditions of ancestor worship similar to the Ching Ming Festival. This includes visiting the graves of ancestors to perform memorial rites and clean the burial grounds.
Traditionally on that day, Koreans would eat a variety of cold food, such as cold rice, pre-made side dishes, fruit, rice cakes and noodles and drink sikhye – a sweet Korean rice drink.
In Vietnam, the Cold Food Festival is called Tet Han Thuc and is celebrated on the third day of the third lunar month. It is particularly observed in northern Vietnam and among ethnic Chinese communities in the country.
For those who celebrate, the festival is a day for venerating ancestors and family bonding. Rather than visit the graves of their ancestors, Vietnamese people offer a tray of specific food items and flowers to their ancestors’ altar.
The two essential food items are banh troi – white glutinous rice balls filled with sugar – and banh chay – flat, oval-shaped dumplings with mung bean paste – to symbolise purity and familial warmth.


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Chinese culture

What is the Cold Food Festival, celebrated before Ching Ming in memory of a loyal subject?

People in Vietnam prepare sugar-filled glutinous rice balls for the little-known Cold Food Festival, once widely celebrated in Chinese and East Asian communities but now absorbed into the tomb-sweeping festival called Ching Ming. Photo: Shutterstock

A woman sweeps a tomb during Ching Ming at Babaoshan Cemetery in Beijing. Photo: AFP

People visit the tombs of deceased relatives during Ching Ming at Babaoshan Cemetery. The Ching Ming Festival is a public holiday in Greater China. Photo: AFP

Sikhye is a sweet Korean rice drink. It is one of the items consumed during the Hansik Festival in South Korea. Photo: Shutterstock

What is Ching Ming Festival, known as tomb-sweeping day, and how is it marked?

Grave sweepers worship their ancestors at Diamond Hill Cemetery in Kowloon, Hong Kong, on Ching Ming Festival. Photo: Elson Li

To Chiu-sung, the owner of Chun Shing Hong paper offering shop in Sai Ying Pun, Hong Kong, with paper effigies of durian, lobster and long-leg crab. Photo: Dickson Lee

People burn fake paper money in the street in Beijing, during Ching Ming Festival in 2024, as offerings for deceased relatives and ancestors. Photo: EPA-EFE

Grave sweepers make offerings to ancestors at Diamond Hill Cemetery, Hong Kong, during the Ching Ming Festival. Photo: Dickson Lee

Qingtuan, red bean paste wrapped in a green sticky rice bun, is commonly eaten at Ching Ming. Photo: Shutterstock

Grave sweepers pay tribute to their ancestors at Diamond Hill Cemetery during the Chung Yeung Festival, celebrated during autumn, with similar rituals to Ching Ming. Photo: Sam Tsang

How Seoul and Incheon’s Chinatowns tell stories of Chinese immigration to Korea

The main entrance gate to Incheon Chinatown, South Korea’s oldest Chinese enclave. Photo: AP

The Chinatown in Seoul’s Daerim neighbourhood is full of shops selling goods from China that are difficult to find elsewhere in South Korea. Photo: Erika Na

The Jjajangmyeon Museum in Incheon Chinatown documents the invention and evolution of jjajangmyeon, a Korean-Chinese cold noodle dish. Photo: Park Chan-kyong

Daerim Chinatown has faced several challenges in recent years, including rising rents. Photo: Erika Na

A shop selling street food in Daerim Chinatown in Seoul. Photo: Erika Na

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The story of Japan’s Hatcho miso, from battle rations for samurais to hotel cocktails

A Hatcho miso martini at the Hilton Nagoya. Photo: Llewellyn Cheung

Workers at Kakukyu Hatcho Miso’s production plant in Nagoya, Japan, stacking rocks on casks of fermenting miso. Each cask lid is weighed down with three tonnes of rocks. Photo: Llewellyn Cheung

A pack of Kakukyu Hatcho miso. Photo: Llewellyn Cheung

Casks of fermenting Hatcho miso. Photo: Llewellyn Cheung

Food items served at the Hilton Nagoya that contain Hatcho miso including curry, quiche, financier and teppanyaki abalone. Photo: Llewellyn Cheung

Hilton Nagoya executive chef Satoh Kohji. Photo: Hilton Nagoya

Teppanyaki abalone with Hatcho miso sauce. Photo: Llewellyn Cheung

A Hatcho miso martini from the Hilton Nagoya’s Hideaway 3-3 bar. Photo: Llewellyn Cheung

At Mongolia’s winter festival, yurts, music and milk tea serve as odes to nomadic culture

An archer at the Mongols Nomadic Winter Festival in Ulaanbaatar. Photo: AFP

Musicians in traditional Mongolian dress perform during the nomadic culture festival in Ulaanbaatar. Photo: AFP

A man in traditional Mongolian dress stands outside a Mongolian yurt during the seven-day festival part of efforts to boost tourism during the country’s bitter winters. Photo: AFP

A man in Mongolian dress dances inside a yurt during the festival. Photo: AFP

A hunter holds his eagle at the festival. Photo: AFP

An archer in a traditional Mongolian dress during the festival. Photo: AFP

People in celebrate inside a yurt during the festival. Ulaanbaatar resident Darkhan Altantsetseg called the festival “a nice way of reminding us that our culture is so rich”. Photo: AFP

People in traditional Mongolian dress walk past ice sculptures during the festival. Photo: AFP

Local snacks served inside a yurt during the festival. Photo: AFP

A woman serves traditional Mongolian fermented milk inside a yurt at the festival. Photo: AFP

A woman in traditional Mongolian dress inside a yurt during the festival. Photo: AFP

Lifestyle

Food & Drink

A nobleman once cut a piece of his flesh to feed an exiled Chinese prince. The Cold Food Festival in his honour was inspired by his death


A nobleman once cut a piece of his flesh to feed an exiled Chinese prince. The Cold Food Festival in his honour was inspired by his death.


Hong Kong

China

South Korea

Vietnam