What are the two festivals in Tomb-Sweeping Day?

Shangsi Festival and Cold Food Festival.

When it comes to Tomb-Sweeping Day, many people first think of eating green balls, sweeping graves, cutting willow branches and hiking. In ancient times, these customs had nothing to do with Tomb-Sweeping Day at first! Of course, the formation of festivals is by no means overnight, but a long process of integration.

Tomb-Sweeping Day was not a "festival" at first, but a "solar term". The word "Qingming" was first recorded in the Zhou Dynasty, but it was really formed as a solar term in the Han Dynasty. During the Western Han Dynasty, the unique 24 solar terms in China were basically complete. Qingming is five of the twenty-four solar terms. Tomb-Sweeping Day Qi is counted from the date of winter, that is, 108 days after winter. During the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the "Twenty-four solar terms" were absorbed into the taichu calendar Law, as a supplement to the calendar guiding farming, which more accurately reflected the annual cycle of the earth. This is our lunar calendar today.

Since then, the calendar of China has been basically determined. This has played an important role in determining the specific date of Tomb-Sweeping Day around April 5th of the Gregorian calendar. The real rise of Tomb-Sweeping Day was formed in the Tang Dynasty. Before the Tang and Song Dynasties, Shangsi Festival and Cold Food Festival had been produced. During the Tang and Song Dynasties, there were various entertainment activities in Shangsi Festival and Cold Food Festival.

Because Shangsi Festival, Cold Food Festival and Tomb-Sweeping Day are almost the same, all in the first three months of the lunar calendar. Therefore, several festivals are linked together every day, showing a trend of integration. The Tang Dynasty stipulated in the most authoritative etiquette of the country that Ethan should be opened: "Cold food is bright, and every time it is cold food, there will be a three-day holiday." During the period of Tang Dezong, the holiday was extended to seven days, which shows that the Tang Dynasty attached importance to cold food and Qingming.

Slowly, with the activities of Shangsi Festival no longer popular, the custom of forbidding fire in Cold Food Festival became more and more indifferent, and the status of Tomb-Sweeping Day gradually rose. "Tomb-Sweeping Day" is listed as a separate category in the chronicle of the Song Dynasty. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the Cold Food Festival and Shangsi Festival basically faded out, and the three festivals merged, leaving only Tomb-Sweeping Day. At the same time, Tomb-Sweeping Day combined the customs of Cold Food Festival and Shangsi Festival. Grave-sweeping and hiking have become two major themes of etiquette and customs in Tomb-Sweeping Day.

Tomb-Sweeping Day, as the only traditional festival combining solar terms with festivals, was also listed in the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage list in 2006, and it is also called the four traditional festivals in China together with Spring Festival, Dragon Boat Festival and Mid-Autumn Festival. Besides China, some countries and regions in the world also have Tomb-Sweeping Day, such as Viet Nam, South Korea, Malaysia and Singapore.

The cultural connotation of Tomb-Sweeping Day inherits the unique spirit and emotion of the Chinese nation, and it is also a manifestation of the Chinese nation's memory of the virtues of its ancestors. Sacrificing ancestors is to remember. Remember the ancestors, remember the Qingming, and cherish the present.