Customs of Tomb-Sweeping Day, Guangdong

In Dongguan, sweeping graves on Qingming Festival is called "worshipping mountains", also called "hanging paper". When it comes to sacrifices, Tomb-Sweeping Day pays attention to apples, sugar cane and suckling pigs. Hakka people have different opinions about Tomb-Sweeping Day eating Ai _, but in Fenggang, Dongguan, it is said that eating Ai _ is not afraid of being struck by lightning, because there are many thunderstorms in Tomb-Sweeping Day. Some people also say that it will be better for children to eat Ai _.

Step 2 clean up the line

Traditional Guangzhou people have always attached importance to sweeping graves on Qingming Day, and have the custom of "sweeping graves" on Zhengqing Day. "Walking" is different from hiking, which is an outing. "Walking" means that a group of people agree to go to the grave together on that 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 a few green branches and insert them on the graves, then kowtow and worship, and finally eat food and wine.

Grave-sweeping in Jiangmen, Tomb-Sweeping Day is a family-based or family-based gathering festival, so there are some special foods that should be celebrated, such as chicken excrement rattan cake, egg cake for ancestor worship and Enping sesame cake. According to the owner of the local pastry shop in Jiangmen, the chicken manure vine cake is the most suitable for eating during the Qingming period. It has the effect of clearing away heat and toxic materials, and because it is only 50 cents, it can be said that it is cheap and good, and it can sell thousands of pieces every day before and after Qingming.

Tomb-Sweeping Day is the season when willows sprout and smoke is green. Jiangmen has the custom of folding willows and inserting willows. Many local citizens will buy a bunch of willows to hang on their doors. Qingming is also an important solar term in agricultural production. The agricultural proverb says, "Before and after Qingming Festival, point melons and plant beans." By Qingming, the temperature is warming up and the rainfall is increasing, which is a good time for local spring ploughing and planting in Jiangmen.