Why does Qingming eat eggs?

Tomb-Sweeping Day eats eggs in some places in China. Eating eggs in Tomb-Sweeping Day is as important as eating zongzi on the Dragon Boat Festival and eating moon cakes on the Mid-Autumn Festival. It is called "saving eggs". Tomb-Sweeping Day eats an egg, which keeps him healthy all the year round. This custom is absolutely indispensable on that day. There are two kinds of eggs in Tomb-Sweeping Day, one is "painting eggs" and the other is "carving eggs". The former is edible, while the latter is just for enjoyment. Eating eggs originated in the ancient Shangsi Festival. People ask for marriage and children. They cooked eggs, duck eggs, bird eggs and other eggs and painted them in various colors, which were called "multicolored eggs". They came to the river, threw colorful eggs into the river, and went down the river, waiting for people downstream to compete and peel them. After eating, they can reproduce. Eating eggs in Tomb-Sweeping Day now symbolizes satiety. If we want to explore the symbolic significance of Tomb-Sweeping Day's eating eggs against eggs, we should also include people's awe and belief in life and fertility. In the ancient culture of China, the egg was a symbol of fertility and life. Legend has it that the epoch-making Pangu was conceived in an egg in which "heaven and earth are chaotic like a chicken, and Pangu was born" (Ivan Lei Ju). The ancestor of Shang Dynasty agreed that "a bird dropped its egg, a butterfly took it and swallowed it, and it was born of pregnancy" (Historical Records), and the great cause of the ancestor of Qin Dynasty was also "a bird conceived its egg and a woman swallowed it" to conceive (Historical Records). This is a folk custom. When a woman gives birth to a child, she brings good news to her neighbors and eight families. Aren't they eggs, too? Tomb-sweeping in Qingming Festival, among them, don't you also have the life consciousness of being cautious to the end? Spring is the season of life, and many folk customs coincide in the deep meaning of life. It is said that eating eggs cooked at this time will not cause headaches for a year. How did this custom come down? Legend has it that the ancient Xiaogan area was a part of Yunmengze, a water town, and people made a living by fishing. Because people blow the lake breeze in the lake every day, they have headaches. One day, Shennong, who had tasted all kinds of herbs, passed Yunmengze and saw someone rolling on the lake beach because of a headache. Shennong sympathized with them and looked for herbs everywhere to treat their headaches. But nothing works. On the third day of March, Shennong picked up some wild eggs from the mountain, dug a handful of vegetables and brought them to the boat to cook for people to satisfy their hunger. People will suddenly feel headache after eating rice and scrambled eggs. Later, it became a custom to eat vegetables and boil eggs on the third day of March, which has continued to this day. Tomb-Sweeping Day eggs can be roughly divided into two types, one is "painting eggs", which are actually dyed with various colors on the eggshells, similar to our "red eggs" today, but with different colors; The other is "egg carving", in which paintings are carved on eggshells. The former is edible and the latter is for enjoyment only. This custom prevailed throughout the country during the Sui and Tang Dynasties. ◆ ◇ Where is this custom? In Shandong, Jimo eats egg cake, while Laiyang, Zhaoyuan and Long Island eat egg cake. It is said that if not, there will be hail. Guangrao, Shandong-Tomb-Sweeping Day eats glutinous rice egg. During his stay in Tomb-Sweeping Day, China also had the custom of eating eggs, cakes, sandwich cakes, Qingming Zongzi, steamed cakes, Qingming cakes, dry porridge and other nutritious foods.