Sign up for our special edition newsletter to get a daily update on the coronavirus pandemic.

China observed a rare national day of mourning for its coronavirus “martyrs” Saturday, a somber day that coincided with the nation’s annual Ching Ming, or tomb-sweeping, festival.

The day traditionally involves Chinese people paying their respects to their ancestors and lost loved ones by visiting their graves to remove weeds and brush away dirt, burn incense and offer food, wine and paper money so Grandma and Grandpa can enjoy the afterlife.

With most of those activities still banned in much of the country as various levels of quarantine remain in place, Chinese President Xi Jinping led the country in three minutes of silence at 10 a.m.

Clad in black and wearing a white chrysanthemum symbolizing grief pinned to his lapel, Xi paid his respects to victims of the outbreak in Beijing, along with a bevy of other senior leaders, the South China Morning Post reported.

As people stood in silence, the sound of air sirens blasted across the country along with horns from cars, trains, and ships in what China’s official Xinhua News Agency called a “wail in grief” for three minutes, the AP reported.

This is the first time China has held a national day of mourning for a public health crisis.

Flags across the country and at overseas embassies were flown at half-mast, and all public entertainment was suspended for the day.

Chinese government and state media websites, including Xinhua and People’s Daily, changed their color schemes to black and white for the day. Online, celebrities like “X-Men: Days of Future Past” star Fan Bingbing swapped their glamorous social media profile pictures for somber photos in grey or black, garnering millions of “likes” from fans. Chinese gaming and social media giant Tencent suspended all online games Saturday.

In Wuhan, the capital of Hubei province and the epicenter of the outbreak, all traffic lights in urban areas turned red at 10 a.m. and all road traffic ceased for three minutes, Reuters reported. About 75 percent of the people who are confirmed dead from the virus in China were in Wuhan, a city of 11 million people in Central China that is still under quarantine, which is expected to be lifted Wednesday.