For traditional Chinese family, Qing Ming is one of the most important festival in their calendar. Some people called it as tomb sweeping day. But I think the meaning of the festival is far more than that. It is a time to pay respect and commemorate to the late one by visiting their grave and tidying it up.
The festival is fall on early of April each year, but visiting graveyard is not necessary done on the actual day itself. Some people choose to do it few days earlier (usually on weekend) to avoid extreme traffic jam at graveyard compound during the actual day.
Chinese usually will check out the lunar calendar on when is the suitable time for doing Qing Ming. When the word "Qing Ming" is printed on the calendar, meaning it is the correct timing and usually that's about one week before the actual day.
Some families view this event as equal or even more important than Chinese New Year reunion. Therefore usually few days before to the actual day itself, those working outstation will come back to their hometown and normally during this time Sibu will have heavy traffic load in town, hotel occupancy and eateries business increase drastically.
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