Why did Tomb-Sweeping Day chop willow branches?

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 the rain is raining;" 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.

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Introduction to Tomb-Sweeping Day:

Tomb-Sweeping Day is one of the 24 solar terms in China. Because the 24 solar terms objectively reflect the changes of temperature, rainfall and phenology throughout the year, ancient working people used them to arrange agricultural activities.

Huainanzi? Astronomical training said: "At the fifteenth day after the vernal equinox, the bucket refers to B, and the wind comes to Tomb-Sweeping Day." According to the centenarian question, "everything grows clean and bright at this time." So it is called Tomb-Sweeping Day. "

With the arrival of Tomb-Sweeping Day, the temperature rises and the rainfall increases, which is a good season for spring ploughing and sowing. Therefore, there is an agricultural proverb that "before and after Tomb-Sweeping Day, point melons and plant beans" and "planting trees is not as good as Tomb-Sweeping Day". It can be seen that this solar term is closely related to agricultural production. ?

However, as a festival, Tomb-Sweeping Day is different from the pure solar terms. Solar terms are symbols of phenological changes and seasonal order in China, while festivals contain certain customs and activities, which have certain commemorative significance. ?

Tomb-Sweeping Day is a traditional festival in China, and it is also the most important festival to worship ancestors and sweep graves. Grave-sweeping is commonly known as going to the grave and offering sacrifices to the dead. Most Han people and some ethnic minorities visit graves in Tomb-Sweeping Day. ?

According to the old custom, when sweeping graves, people should bring food, wine, fruit, paper money and other items to the cemetery, offer food to the graves of their loved ones, then burn the paper money, cultivate new soil for the graves, break some green branches and insert them in front of the graves, then kowtow and worship, and finally go home after eating and drinking.

The poem "Tomb-Sweeping Day" by Du Mu, a poet in the Tang Dynasty, said: "It rains in succession during the Qingming Festival, and pedestrians on the road want to die. Ask local people where to buy wine? The shepherd boy pointed to Xinghua Village. " Write about the special atmosphere in Tomb-Sweeping Day. ?

Tomb-Sweeping Day is also called an outing festival. According to the solar calendar, between April 4th and 6th every year, it is the season of beautiful spring and lush vegetation, and it is also a good time for people to go for a spring outing (called an outing in ancient times). Therefore, the ancients had the custom of Tomb-Sweeping Day going for an outing and carrying out a series of sports activities. ?

To this day, the custom of worshipping ancestors and mourning the dead relatives in Tomb-Sweeping Day is still very popular. ?

The origin of Tomb-Sweeping Day:

The traditional Tomb-Sweeping Day in China began in the Zhou Dynasty and has a history of more than 2,500 years. Tomb-Sweeping Day was originally a very important solar term. As soon as Tomb-Sweeping Day arrives, the temperature rises, which is a good season for spring ploughing and sowing. So there is a saying that "before and after Tomb-Sweeping Day, we planted melons and beans".

Agricultural proverb "Planting trees is not as good as Tomb-Sweeping Day". Later, as the days of Tomb-Sweeping Day and cold food approached, cold food was the day when people banned fire to sweep graves. Gradually, cold food and Tomb-Sweeping Day became one, and cold food became another name for Tomb-Sweeping Day and a custom in Tomb-Sweeping Day. On that day in Tomb-Sweeping Day, there were no fireworks and only cold food.