Tomb-Sweeping Day is the first day of the lunar calendar?

Tomb-Sweeping Day (nickname: Walking Festival, English name: Tom B-Sweeping Day) is the most important sacrifice festival in China, and the date is generally on April 5 of the Gregorian calendar. China people have been polite and respectful to their ancestors since ancient times, so the tradition of the Spring Festival gradually took shape during the Qingming period. Every year in Tomb-Sweeping Day, many places will hold various commemorative activities in memory of revolutionary ancestors and war heroes. There are folk customs such as hiking, grave sweeping and ancestor worship.

Tomb-Sweeping Day, with both natural and humanistic connotations, is not only one of the "24 solar terms", but also a traditional festival for ancestor worship. "Twenty-four solar terms" is the product of ancient farming civilization, which not only plays a guiding role in agricultural production, but also affects ancient people's food, clothing, housing and transportation, and even cultural concepts. The "Twenty-four solar terms" were originally determined by the rotation direction of bucket handle, the Big Dipper, which rotates circularly and is closely related to the twenty-four solar terms. In different seasons and at different times, the Big Dipper will point in different directions, which has also become the basis for ancient people to judge the changes of solar terms, that is, the so-called "bucket handle refers to the east, and the world is spring; Guide to barrel handle, it's summer in the world; Bucket handle refers to the west, and the world is autumn; Bucket handle refers to the north, and the world is winter. ". "Twenty-four solar terms" is a special festival to express natural rhythm changes and establish "December construction" in the trunk calendar. In the official calendar, the year 2000 is divided into "December Construction" (twelfth year of the twelfth lunar month or the earthly branch), and "Construction" represents the direction of the top of Beidou bucket handle, and bucket handle rotates to "twelfth lunar month" in turn. In traditional culture, the branch is linked with the time position of gossip, and the yin position is the "root position" of gossip the day after tomorrow. It is the position at the end of the year and the beginning of the year, representing the end and the beginning, such as Yi Shuo Gua Zhuan: "The root, the divination in the northeast, is also the beginning of everything." Therefore, bucket handle starts from the north of due east (yin position, gossip position the day after tomorrow) and rotates around east, south, west and north, which is called one of the "years old". When bucket handle points to the "B" position due east and south, it is clear and clear. Tomb-Sweeping Day is full of air, everything is clean, full of vitality, and the temperature rises. The earth presents the image of spring and tranquility, which is a good time for spring outing and grave sweeping in the suburbs.

Cultural connotation

Tomb-Sweeping Day is the most solemn festival for ancestor worship of the Chinese nation, and it belongs to a traditional cultural festival for ancestor worship. Tomb-Sweeping Day embodies the national spirit, inherits the sacrificial culture of Chinese civilization, and expresses people's moral feelings of respecting and honoring their ancestors. Grave-sweeping is "grave-sweeping sacrifice", which is called "respecting time" for ancestors. Spring and Autumn Festival has existed since ancient times. Tomb-Sweeping Day has a long history, which originated from ancient ancestral beliefs and spring sacrifices. According to the research results of modern anthropology and archaeology, the two most primitive beliefs of human beings are the belief in heaven and earth and the belief in ancestors. According to archaeological excavations, a 10,000-year-old tomb was found at the Qingtang site in Yingde, Guangdong Province, which is the earliest tomb in China, indicating that ancient ancestors had a clear sense of burial behavior and customs thousands of years ago. The custom of "grave-sweeping sacrifice" has a long history, and Qingming "grave-sweeping sacrifice" is the synthesis and sublimation of traditional spring customs. The establishment of the ancient branch calendar provided decisive conditions for the formation of festivals. Ancestor belief and sacrificial culture were important factors in the formation of ancestral worship custom in Qingming Festival. Tomb-Sweeping Day is rich in customs, which can be summarized as two festivals and traditions: one is to respect the ancestors and be cautious to the end; The second is outing and getting close to nature. Tomb-Sweeping Day not only has the theme of sweeping, remembering and remembering, but also has the theme of taking an outing and enjoying the body and mind. The traditional concept of "harmony between man and nature" has been vividly reflected in Tomb-Sweeping Day. Through historical development, Tomb-Sweeping Day has integrated the customs of the Cold Food Festival and Shangsi Festival in Tang and Song Dynasties, and integrated various folk customs, which has extremely rich cultural connotations.