DECK THE HOLIDAY'S

  The Qingming Festival is a traditional Chinese fest on the 104th day after the winter solstice (or the 15th day from the Spring Equinox), usually occurring around April 5th of the Gregorian calendar.  Astronomically, it is also a solar term.  The Qingming festival falls on the first day of the fifth solar term, named Qingming.  Its name denotes a time for people to go outside and enjoy the greenery of springtime (Taqing, "treading on the greenery") and tend to the graves of departed loved ones.    Qingming has been regularly observed as a statutory public holiday in Taiwan and in the Chinese jurisdictions of Hong Kong and Macau.  Its observance was reinstated as a public holiday in mainland China in 2008, after having been previous suppressed by the ruling Communist Party in 1949.    The holiday is known by a number of names in the English language: All Souls Day (not to be confused with the Roman Catholic holiday, All Souls, Day, of the same name) Clear Brig