The origin of Qingming

Origin: On April 4th, 5th or 6th every year, when the sun reaches 15 degrees, it is Tomb-Sweeping Day Qi. Among the 24 solar terms, Qingming is the only solar term that is both a solar term and a festival. The name of Tomb-Sweeping Day is related to the weather and climate characteristics at this time. Huainanzi in the Western Han Dynasty? Astronomical training said: "On the 15th day after the vernal equinox, the bucket refers to B, and the Qingming wind is coming." "Qingming Wind" is a refreshing and clear wind. "When I was in 100 questions" said, "Everything grows at this time, clean and bright. So it's called Qingming.

"Twenty-four solar terms" said: "March Festival, ... at this time everything is clean and clear." Therefore, "Qingming" means the melting of snow and ice, lush vegetation, sunny weather and prosperity of everything. Famous sentences such as "The willow is full of green silk smoke, and the February sky is clear", "The solar terms are clear and the peaches and plums are smiling" and "The original vegetation in the suburbs is soft after the rain" are vivid descriptions of the phenology of heaven and earth in the Qingming season.

Although Qingming, as a festival, was only formed in the Tang Dynasty, Tomb-Sweeping Day Qi, as a symbol of time sequence, has long been known by the ancients and clearly recorded in the Han Dynasty.

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"Tomb-Sweeping Day is one of the most important traditional festivals in China. It is not only a festival for people to pay homage to their ancestors, but also a link for the Chinese nation to recognize their ancestors and return to their ancestors. It is also a spring ceremony to hike, get close to nature and spur new students. "

As an important festival in Tomb-Sweeping Day, the customs such as offering sacrifices and hiking mainly come from the Cold Food Festival and Shangsi Festival. The Cold Food Festival is related to the ancient people's understanding of nature. In China, the rebirth of a new fire after a cold meal is a transitional ceremony to bid farewell to the old and welcome the new. It reveals the information of seasonal alternation and symbolizes the beginning of a new season, a new hope, a new life and a new cycle. Later, there was a sense of gratitude, and more emphasis was placed on nostalgia and gratitude for the past. Cold food is forbidden to eat cold food tombs, and Qingming takes a new fire to travel. Before the Tang Dynasty, Cold Food Festival and Tomb-Sweeping Day were two consecutive festivals with different themes. The former mourns the past and the latter seeks new life. One yin and one yang, one breath for life, are closely related. Fire is forbidden to make a fire, and sacrifice to the dead is to save lives. This is the internal cultural connection between cold food and Qingming. During the reign of Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty, the imperial court fixed the custom of sweeping graves at the Cold Food Festival in front of Tomb-Sweeping Day by decree. Because cold food and Qingming are closely related in time, the custom of cold food festival has long been linked with Qingming, and grave sweeping has been postponed from cold food to Qingming.

Since the Song and Tang Dynasties, cold food and Qingming have been on holiday side by side, with four to seven days in different years. Song Dynasty is an era of increasingly urbanized life and the development of folk customs in the direction of entertainment. In order to allow people to sweep graves and go hiking in Tomb-Sweeping Day, it is specially stipulated that imperial academy will have a three-day holiday and the martial arts school will have a day off. The Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival depicts Tomb-Sweeping Day at that time.

After that, Qingming and cold food gradually merged into one, and Qingming put the sacrificial customs in the cold food festival under its name. At the same time, Tomb-Sweeping Day has also integrated into the festival custom of "Spring outing on Shangsi Festival". After the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Shangsi Festival withdrew from the festival system, and the Cold Food Festival basically disappeared. There is only one Tomb-Sweeping Day left in spring. Different from other traditional festivals, Tomb-Sweeping Day is a comprehensive festival that combines "solar terms" and "festival customs". In terms of solar terms, Tomb-Sweeping Day has just passed the vernal equinox. At this time, the weather is warmer and everywhere is full of vitality. People go hiking and get close to nature, which can be said to conform to the weather, help to absorb the pure sun of nature, dispel depressed emotions and be beneficial to physical and mental health.

"Tomb-Sweeping Day is the synthesis and sublimation of almost all Spring Festival, and Tomb-Sweeping Day customs have richer cultural connotations.

Custom: Qingming is one of the 24 solar terms in China. If Qingming is calculated according to the lunar calendar, there is no definite date, that is, last winter to the future 106 is Qingming; According to the solar calendar, Tomb-Sweeping Day begins on April 4th or 5th (depending on whether February is flat or leap), when the sun reaches15th degree. At that time, the climate in most parts of China was warm, the winter when trees withered was over, the vegetation was lush, and the spring scenery was full of vitality everywhere. As soon as Qingming arrives, the temperature rises, which is a good time for spring ploughing and sowing. Therefore, there is an agricultural proverb that "before and after Qingming, plant melons and beans" and "planting trees is not as good as Qingming".

The word "Qingming", according to Chen's "Guang Ji at the Age of Years" in the Song Dynasty, said: "A person who is Qingming means that things are clean." During the Qingming Festival, the weather is fine and the flowers are long and green, changing the cold and yellow scene in winter, and the earth is clean and bright. In Huai Nan Zi written by Liu An in Han Dynasty, "Fifteen days after the vernal equinox will bring a breeze". The "Tomb-Sweeping Day" here is in the spring of March, so it is called "March Festival". The book "Questions at the Age of 100" once explained: "Everything grows clean and bright at this time, so it is called Qingming." It can be seen that Tomb-Sweeping Day is named after its excellent weather, temperature, light and rainfall.

However, Qingming, as a festival, is different from 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 one of the traditional festivals in China, and it is also the most important festival to worship ancestors and sweep graves. To this day, the custom of worshipping ancestors and mourning the dead relatives in Tomb-Sweeping Day is still very popular. Therefore, the state has made Tomb-Sweeping Day a legal holiday through legislation.

Tomb-Sweeping Day's customs are rich and colorful. In addition to prohibiting fire from sweeping graves, there are a series of customs and sports activities such as jogging, swinging, cuju, polo and willow insertion. 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 both sad tears to sweep graves and laughter for an outing.

Pay tribute to the dead at their graves.

Sweeping graves on Qingming Festival is called "respecting thinking about time" for ancestors. Its customs have a long history. 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.

hanging paper

"Hanging paper" is called "tomb paper" in the custom of Taiwan Province Province. When hanging paper, you should use a hoe or sickle to clean up the weeds growing on the ancestral graves, and press the tomb paper on the graves with pebbles or bricks, indicating that the graves have heirs, otherwise it is easy to mistake it for an orphan grave and damage it. Tomb paper is divided into white, red and yellow antique paper and five-color paper (red, yellow, blue, white and black). Five-color paper is often used now, which means to cover tiles or to show that future generations have worshipped. As for the traditional Hakkas, they are more cautious when hanging paper. They first dug a piece of green turf with a hoe, put stacks of yellow paper dripping with chicken blood in front of the grave with turf, and then put twelve pieces of silver paper around the grave. In addition to the purpose of hanging tomb paper, there is also a symbol of blood sacrifice.

spring outing

Also called spring outing. It was called Tanchun and Xunchun in ancient times. March is clear, spring returns to the earth, and nature is full of vitality everywhere, which is a good time to go for an outing. People in our country have always maintained the habit of going for an outing in Qingming. The Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival by Zhang Zeduan, a famous painter, depicts the lively scene of Kyoto people going for an outing and going to the market during Qingming Festival in Song Dynasty.

plant trees

Before and after Tomb-Sweeping Day, the spring is bright, the spring is bright, and the spring rain is falling. The planted seedlings have high survival rate and fast growth. Therefore, China has the habit of planting trees in Qingming since ancient times. Some people even call Tomb-Sweeping Day Arbor Day. The custom of planting trees has been passed down to this day. 1979, the National People's Congress Standing Committee (NPCSC) stipulated March 12 every year as China's Arbor Day. This is of great significance to mobilize people of all ethnic groups in China to actively carry out activities to green the motherland.

Chuanliuzhi

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: "If you plant flowers with your heart, you will plant willows without your heart. "Wicker lives when it is planted in the soil, and it lives where it is planted. When it is planted year after year, it becomes gloomy everywhere.

play on the swing

This is the custom of ancient Tomb-Sweeping Day in China. Swing, that is, lift the rope, move. 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. Playing swing can not only improve health, but also cultivate courage, which is deeply loved by people, especially children.

play football

Bow is a rubber ball, the skin of which is made of leather, and the ball is stuffed 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.

a rat race

Tug-of-war was invented during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. It was called "pulling hook" at that time. The main equipment used is a thick hemp rope with many small hemp ropes at both ends. In ancient times, a flag was the boundary, and it was a victory to see which side pulled the other side over the middle line first (representing the river). The purpose of tug-of-war is to enhance physical fitness. First popular in the army, then popular among the people. During the reign of Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty, a large tug-of-war was held in Tomb-Sweeping Day. Since then, tug-of-war has become a Qingming custom.

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 colored lanterns is hung under the kite or on the wind-stabilizing stay, like twinkling stars, 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.