What does Qingming mean?

Qingming is a solar term representing phenology, which means sunny weather and lush vegetation. Tomb-Sweeping Day has folk customs such as climbing mountains, eating cold food and sweeping graves.

As the saying goes, "Qingming breaks snow, Grain Rain breaks frost." When the weather is clear, the climate in South China is warm and the spring is strong. However, before and after Tomb-Sweeping Day, cold air still invaded from time to time, even making the average daily temperature lower than 12℃ for more than three consecutive days, resulting in rotten seedlings of middle rice and dead seedlings of early rice. Therefore, it is necessary to avoid warm tail and cold head when sowing and transplanting rice. In the northwest plateau, livestock are weak under the influence of severe winter and insufficient forage, so it is necessary to guard against the harm of strong cooling weather after spring to old, weak and young livestock.

"There are many rains during the Qingming Festival" is a portrayal of the spring rain in the south of the Yangtze River by Du Mu, a famous poet in the Tang Dynasty. But in some areas, this is not the case. Especially in the western part of South China, it is often in the spring drought period, and the rainfall in early April is generally only 10 to 20 mm, which is less than half of that in the south of the Yangtze River. Although there are many spring rains in eastern South China, the rainfall in early April is generally only 20 to 40 mm, so natural precipitation is not enough for agricultural production, so it must be replenished by storing water years ago. In addition, May-June is the month with the most hail in a year, so the prevention of hail disaster should be strengthened.

Qingming is the fifth of the 24 solar terms and the beginning of the calendar. The time point is around the first day of the third lunar month (April 4-6 in Gregorian calendar), and the sun reaches longitude 15. "Twenty-four solar terms": "March Festival" ... At this time, everything is clean and clear. "

"When I Ask a Hundred Questions" says: "When everything grows, it is pure and bright, hence the name Qingming."

"Almanac": "On the fifteenth day after the vernal equinox, the bucket refers to Ding, which is used for Qingming, when everything is clean and bright, and when it is covered, everything is clean and bright, hence the name." Tomb-Sweeping Day, Chu, Yu and Jiu San are also called the four traditional festivals of ancestor worship in China.

Because Tomb-Sweeping Day is determined according to the solar terms, Tomb-Sweeping Day is one of the few traditional festivals in China that roughly coincide with the western calendar. Tomb-Sweeping Day is the only holiday in Taiwan Province Province, Chinese mainland, Hongkong and other places according to the solar terms, and Macau has a winter solstice.

Tomb-Sweeping Day custom

Qingming customs are rich and interesting. Families give each other steamed fruit, not only paying attention to the prohibition of fire to sweep graves, but also a series of custom sports activities such as climbing, swinging, cuju, playing polo and inserting willows. According to legend, this is because Tomb-Sweeping Day wants to ban cold food and fire. In order to prevent the harm of cold food and cold meal to people, we all take part in some sports activities to exercise. Therefore, this festival is a distinctive festival, with sad tears to sweep the new grave, parting from life and death, and laughter for an outing.

spring outing

Go for an outing, also known as spring outing, spring seeking and outing. Just stepping on the grass, playing in the country and watching the spring scenery. Qingming in April, spring returns to the earth, and nature presents a vibrant scene everywhere, which is a good time for an outing. People in our country have always maintained the habit of going for an outing in Qingming. Tomb-Sweeping Day is a good time to go for an outing, so it has become an important part of Tomb-Sweeping Day customs.

Qingming outing is extremely common in Shandong. The children in Linqu and Tengzhou went for an outing and flew kites outside the village early in the morning. Some whistles are made of wicker, and they are beautiful. In some places, children lift their faces and exhale, which is said to be to vent internal fire. Swing is a habit in most areas. There are three kinds of swings in Weifang: one is straight swing (suitable for the elderly), the other is swing, and the third is swing. Jimo pays more attention to Tomb-Sweeping Day. On this day, people put on holiday clothes as soon as they get up, especially women. They all dressed up beautifully and visited everywhere. First, they watch their new wife sitting on a cold food (the new wife will sit on the kang like on her wedding day), and then they go to swing. High swing means a good life, so everyone is fighting for each other and playing happily on the swing. On this day, women have a good time, so there is a saying in the local area that "women celebrate the year of men".

play football

Cuju (cê j ū) is a kind of rubber ball, whose skin is made of leather and the ball is filled with wool. Cuju is kicking the ball with your feet. This is a popular game in ancient Tomb-Sweeping Day. According to legend, it was invented by the Yellow Emperor with the original purpose of training warriors. So far, we call it football.

Pay tribute to the dead at their graves.

Grave-sweeping, originally a custom of cold food on the day before Qingming (or three days before Qingming), gradually merged into Qingming from the Tang Dynasty. This has become a custom in Tomb-Sweeping Day. It is called "respect for thinking time" for ancestors. In the Ming Dynasty's "A Brief Introduction to the Scenery of the Imperial Capital", it was written: "On the Qingming Festival in March, men and women visited graves and paid tribute to them, and gold ingots were hung behind sedan chairs, making noise all over the street. Worshipers, mourners, weeping, weeding, adding soil to graves, burning ingots several times, and buying graves with paper money. If you can't see the paper money, it will be a lonely grave. After crying, don't go back, go to the fragrant tree, choose the garden, and sit down and get drunk. " In fact, grave-sweeping existed before the Qin Dynasty, but not necessarily during the Qingming period, but after the Qin Dynasty. It was not until the Tang Dynasty that it became popular. Qing thomas lee said, "On New Year's Eve, the Cold Food Festival and the First Frost Festival, you should offer sacrifices to sweep the graves. During the period, I will serve my bed with vegetarian food, use wine and tools for cutting vegetation, seal trees in the middle of the week, and break Cao Jing, so it is called sweeping the grave. " And spread to this day. "Liu Chui buildings heavy rain, thousands of children to catch up with the grave. There is smoke everywhere in Qingshan, burning incense to worship the ancestors. " Heshui Zuo's poems reflect the present situation of Tomb-Sweeping Day's folk customs. In contemporary China, most social tombs have been changed into square small stone tombs. There is a poem in Qingming: "The rain is like hemp at first sight, and the weeds in the countryside are green." Or look for the stone in the cemetery and think about the flowers in the grave. "(Excerpted from the Collection of Poems of Shi Jing in the South of the Yangtze River) Tomb-Sweeping Day should have been held in the cemetery in person, but due to different economic conditions and other conditions, the way of offering sacrifices and sweeping was also different.

In the past, the grave-sweeping ceremony in Tai 'an was quite grand. The host took four side dishes and jiaozi to the ancestral grave, where they offered sacrifices first, then burned incense and paper, and sprinkled wine as a souvenir. When sweeping graves in Zhaoyuan, Jimo, Linqu and Linqing, new soil should be added in front of the graves. It is said that this is to repair the house for the ancestors in case of heavy rain in summer, which is essentially a memory of the ancestors. Most areas sweep graves in Tomb-Sweeping Day, a few areas (such as Zhucheng) sweep graves at the Cold Food Festival, and Longkou and Boxing sweep graves four days before Tomb-Sweeping Day. They usually sweep graves in Tomb-Sweeping Day. Willow and pine branches are planted all over Shandong, and Tomb-Sweeping Day is said to be a memorial meson push. Every household in Tai 'an inserted wicker and put wicker rings on dogs. Folk song: "If you don't put willows in Qingming Festival, the dog will turn yellow when it dies." Jimo is used to wearing pine branches, which means that it is as prosperous as pine and cypress. Linyi and Zhucheng, however, tapped the wall with wicker and pine branches and said, "One Tomb-Sweeping Day a year, and the willow is in the green gang. Don't go through the door during the day and don't sting at night. "

"Burning a bundle" is the main form of paying homage to ancestors. The so-called "baggage", also known as "parcel", refers to the postal parcel that Xiao sent from Shi Yang to the underworld. In the past, Nanzhi store sold the so-called "wrapped skin", that is, a big bag was pasted with white paper. There are two forms: one is a woodcut version with Sanskrit transliteration of "Death Mantra" printed around it, and a lotus memorial tablet printed in the middle with the name of the deceased who received the money, such as "The late Zhang Fujun was afraid of the boss in Yunshan", which is both a package and a memorial tablet. The other is plain foreskin, which does not print any patterns. Just put a blue sign in the middle and write down the name of the deceased. Also used as a master card. There are many kinds of money in the bag. First burn paper, nine k white paper, and smash four rows of round money, five for each row; Second, Mingbi, which is copied after foreign currency tickets are available in the world, is written with the words "Paradise Bank", "Ghost Bank" and "Hell Bank", with a pattern of □ capital, mostly with a huge face value, and a Buddhist "death curse" printed on the back; 3. Fake foreign currency, with cardboard as the core and wrapped in silver foil, suppressing the same pattern as the prevailing silver dollar at that time; Fourth, the "death curse" printed in red on yellow paper is round money, so it is also called "death money"; Five, with gold foil and silver foil stacked ingots, hammers, and some string into a string, with a colored paper ear at the bottom. In the old society, no matter rich or poor, there was a burning burden. On that day, a confession case was set up in the ancestral hall or the main room of the family house, with the luggage in the middle. In front of it, there are offerings such as jiaozi, cakes and fruits, burning incense and holding candles. After the whole family salutes according to their generations, they can be incinerated outside the door. When incinerating, draw a big circle and leave a gap in the direction of the cemetery. Burning three or five pieces of paper outside the circle is called "special delivery." Some rich people want to take their families and their families to the grave to pay homage. At this time, it is necessary to repair the grave, or symbolically add soil to the grave and put some paper money on it to let others see and know that there are descendants in this grave.

Online grave sweeping, with the development of the Internet after 2000, online grave sweeping became popular. That is to create a virtual cemetery or personal memorial hall for the deceased on the internet, and then pay homage to the grave by burning incense, offering flowers and saluting in front of the tomb of the deceased. Online grave sweeping is also a green grave sweeping method advocated by the Ministry of Civil Affairs. [ 1]

worship

Worship, some kowtow to ancestors; Some sit around eating and drinking together; Others fly kites and even compete with each other for entertainment. Women and children will also fold some Yang Liuzhi nearby and put on steamed food with wicker. Others put wicker into reeds and put them on their heads, saying, "If you don't wear willow in Qingming Festival, you will become a yellow dog in the afterlife." This is a grave-sweeping and an outing. You can't go home until you are happy. It is said that the custom of inserting willows is also to commemorate Shennong, the ancestor of farming, who taught the people to cultivate crops. In some places, people put willow branches under the eaves to forecast the weather. There is an old saying that "the willow branches are green and it rains;" The saying that there is another village. During the period of Huang Chao, it was stipulated that "Qingming lasts for a period, and Liu Dai is the number". After the failure of the uprising, the custom of wearing willow was gradually eliminated, and only willow was popular. Willow has a strong vitality, as the saying goes: "intentional planting of flowers, unintentional planting of willows." Wicker lives when inserted in the soil, lives where it is inserted, and goes down year after year, and it becomes gloomy everywhere.

There is another saying in Tomb-Sweeping Day: It turns out that China people regard Tomb-Sweeping Day, July 30th and the first day of October as the three major ghost festivals, which are the time for ghosts to haunt and ask for help. In order to prevent the harassment and persecution of ghosts, people put willows and put them on. Willow has the function of ward off evil spirits in people's minds. Influenced by Buddhism, people think that willows can exorcise ghosts and call them "ghost trees". Guanyin dipped willow branches in water to help all beings. Jia Sixie of the Northern Wei Dynasty said in the Book of Qi Yao Min: "Take a willow branch and put it on the house, and a hundred ghosts will not enter the house." Tomb-Sweeping Day is a ghost festival. When wicker sprouted, people naturally inserted willows to ward off evil spirits.

play on the swing

Swing is a custom in ancient Tomb-Sweeping Day, China. Swing, that is, the lifting rope moves. It has a very long history. It was originally called Qian Qiu, but later it was changed into a swing to avoid taboos. In ancient times, swings were made of branches and tied with ribbons. Later, it gradually developed into two ropes, a pedal swing. Swing can not only improve health, but also cultivate courage, which is deeply loved by people, especially children.

fly a kite

Flying kites is also the most popular activity in Tomb-Sweeping Day. During their stay in Tomb-Sweeping Day, people not only wore it during the day, but also at night. At night, a string of colorful lanterns, like twinkling stars, is hung under the kite or on the wind-stabilizing stay, which is called "magic lamp". Someone used to put kites in the blue sky, then cut the strings and let the breeze send them to the ends of the earth. It is said that this can eliminate diseases and disasters and bring good luck to yourself.

plant trees

Qingming is the second day after the cold food, which belongs to the season when everything is clear, everything is alive and the vegetation is lush. After mourning, when you look to the future, spring comes after winter. When people eat cold food, they mourn; After the cold food, go out for an outing, fly kites, swing, insert some willow leaves and watch it shade in the future. Moreover, during the cold food, the vegetation on the mountain will be accidentally burned; Cold food has passed, and Qingming is coming. It's time to plant more trees to make up for it. The spirit of ancestors, like trees on the mountain, is evergreen all the year round; Human life, like newly planted trees, should grow and progress in this spring breeze. Therefore, Qingming Festival is also a traditional Arbor Day in China. There are countless business opportunities in Qingming.

Touch an egg

Every time I go to Tomb-Sweeping Day, there are always several children who are willing to touch eggs. Touching an egg is to put two eggs together and pinch each other to see who can crush each other's eggs. Because you can't eat spicy food, this game has become the children's favorite.

Cold Food Festival

One hundred and five days after beginning of winter, the solstice was called cold food. In the past, fire was forbidden and cold food was eaten, so it was also called "Cold Food Festival" and "No Smoking Festival". According to folklore, cold food is to commemorate the burning of mesons in Mianshan during the Spring and Autumn Period, and Jin Wengong ordered the fire to be banned. Jiezitui is from Shanxi, so the custom of cold food is first popular in Shanxi. In the old days, cold food cut off fire, and the next day there was a ceremony to drill wood for fire in the palace, and the people also begged each other for fire with wicker. Fifteen days after the vernal equinox is Qingming, a good day for an outing. Tomb-Sweeping Day is also a day to visit graves and worship ancestors, which is also called "Ghost Festival" and "Ghost Festival" among the people, and "Three Ghosts Festival" together with July 15th and October 1st, and there is also a ceremony for the city god to patrol the city. Cold Food Festival and Qingming Festival were originally two festivals, but most people in Shandong combined them into one. Generally called Tomb-Sweeping Day, a few areas are called Cold Food Festival, but the festival is in Tomb-Sweeping Day. Kenli has been called "Great Cold Food", "Second Cold Food" and "Third Cold Food" since the first three days in Tomb-Sweeping Day, and the fourth day is Qingming, during which people sweep graves and go hiking. Juancheng takes the day before Tomb-Sweeping Day as the Cold Food Festival, and also calls Tomb-Sweeping Day the Ghost Gate Festival.