Asking about Qingming culture

Qingming is one of the 24 solar terms in the lunar calendar. It starts around April 5th every year when the sun reaches the longitude of 15; "Twenty-four solar terms": "March Festival ... everything is clean and clear at this time. 」

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

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 festival in Chinese mainland, Hongkong and Taiwan Province province, and Macau is one of them (the other is the winter solstice).

In ancient times, Qingming was not as important as the Cold Food Festival the day before. The main custom of the Cold Food Festival is not to make a fire, not to cook with a fire, but to eat prepared cooked food and cold food, hence the name. As the date approached, after the Song Dynasty, the custom of cold food sweeping graves gradually moved to Qingming. Tomb-Sweeping Day has been upgraded from a simple agricultural solar term to an important festival, but some customs of cold food have been passed down in an abnormal way and preserved in Tomb-Sweeping Day. South Taiwan Province Province and parts of South Korea will still hold cold food festivals. Customs such as spring outing and swinging are only held in Tomb-Sweeping Day.

It is said that the origin of Tomb-Sweeping Day began with the "grave-sweeping" ceremony of ancient emperors and generals. Later, people followed suit, and it became a fixed custom of the Chinese nation to worship ancestors and sweep graves on this day. Because of the custom of ancestor worship, grave sweeping and outing in China, it has gradually evolved into a traditional festival in China, and China people commemorate their ancestors in the form of grave sweeping and worship. At the turn of mid-spring and late spring, it is generally 65,438+006 days from winter to the future, the day after the Cold Food Festival. Grave-sweeping activities can last about ten days before and after the festival.

Local custom

Tomb-Sweeping Day's customs are different in scale and manner in southern and northern China. There are also activities such as wearing willow branches, flying kites, collecting firewood, drawing eggs, fighting cocks and swinging. This custom is also popular among the Bai, Miao, Mongolian and Naxi ethnic minorities. Tomb-Sweeping Day is also an important festival for Vietnam, Korea and Ryukyu.