The origin and customs of 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. Originally, the Cold Food Festival and Tomb-Sweeping Day were two different festivals. In the Tang Dynasty, the day of sweeping graves was designated as the Cold Food Festival. The correct date of the Cold Food Festival is from winter to the future 105, around Tomb-Sweeping Day. Because the two dates are similar, Tomb-Sweeping Day and Cold Food merged into one day.

According to the biography of Yan Yannian in Han Dynasty, Yan's family will return to the grave site of Donghai in Qingming, although he is thousands of miles away from Beijing. Yan Yannian's behavior is reasonable in terms of the development and strengthening of ancestor worship and consanguinity consciousness of China people. Therefore, the tomb sacrifices that were not included in the norms in ancient times were also included in the Five Rites: "It is always a routine to allow the family of one scholar to enter the tomb and include the Five Rites." With the official approval, the wind of tomb sacrifice is bound to flourish.

In the history of China, it has long been a custom to eat cold food, forbid fire and pay homage to ancestors. After the Tang Dynasty, the Cold Food Festival gradually declined, so it became a continuous festival tradition for Tomb-Sweeping Day to sweep graves to worship ancestors. Bai Juyi, a great poet in the Tang Dynasty, wrote in his poem "Cold Food and Wild Hope": "Who cries when birds are singing? The wind blows the paper money in the wilderness, and the ancient tomb is full of spring grass. The flowers in Li Tang reflect the poplars, which are full of places where life and death leave.

The mysterious desert and the heavy spring day cry without hearing, and the rustling rain makes people go home. Koguryo, a poet in the Song Dynasty, once wrote in the poem Qingming: "There are many tombs in the north and south, and Qingming is different. Paper ashes fly into white butterflies, and tears are dyed into red azaleas. When the sun goes down, the fox sleeps in front of the grave, and the children smile at the lights when the night returns. As long as you are alive, enjoy your wine and be intoxicated. In the grave after your death, you can't taste a drop of wine. " Even in today's society, before and after Tomb-Sweeping Day, people still have the custom of paying homage to their ancestors: uprooting weeds, placing offerings, burning incense and praying in front of graves, burning paper money and gold ingots, or simply offering a bunch of flowers to express their memory of their ancestors.

Tomb-Sweeping Day is the time when willows sprout and smoke is green. There are folk customs of folding willow, piercing willow and inserting willow. When people go out for an outing, they break off some wicker branches, which can be played with in their hands, woven into hats and worn on their heads, or taken home and inserted on the lintels and eaves. There are proverbs that "a beauty becomes a bright eye without wearing willow in Qingming Festival" and "a dog turns yellow after death without wearing willow in Qingming Festival", which shows that folding willow in Qingming Festival is a very common custom in the old society.

It is said that willow branches can ward off evil spirits, so it is not only a fashionable decoration, but also has the effect of praying for evil spirits. It may also be related to the custom of using willow branches to beg for new fire in the past cold food festival. Today, it seems that breaking willow branches at will is a kind of damage to trees and should not be advocated. The custom of planting trees by inserting willows in Tomb-Sweeping Day is said to commemorate Shennong who invented various agricultural production tools and tasted all kinds of herbs. On the other hand, it is said that the willow tree that meson held when he died came back to life. Jin Wengong named it Qingming Willow and folded it into a circle to wear on her head. This custom was later introduced to people. Although the sources of allusions are different, these customs are still inseparable from the joy of people returning to the earth in spring.

In addition to the above-mentioned custom of sweeping graves to worship ancestors, walking in the green and inserting willows, there are many entertainment habits in Tomb-Sweeping Day that have been loved by people for thousands of years, such as hooking, flying kites, swinging, shooting willows, cuju, etc., which were all the rage for a while, but now they are rare.