Why does Tomb-Sweeping Day plant trees?

Tomb-Sweeping Day is an important traditional festival for us. On this day, it is a festival to worship ancestors and sweep graves. Tomb-Sweeping Day has a history of about 2000 years. The following is what I arranged for you: Why do you want to plant trees in Tomb-Sweeping Day? Welcome everyone to learn from it. I'm sure it will help you.

Why does Tomb-Sweeping Day plant trees?

China has the habit of planting trees in Qingming since ancient times. Some people even call Tomb-Sweeping Day Arbor Day. The custom of planting trees has been passed down to this day. Why does Tomb-Sweeping Day plant trees? This is because before and after the Qingming Festival, the spring is bright, the spring rain is flying, and the plants planted have high survival rate and fast growth, so there is a saying that "melons grow beans before and after the Qingming Festival".

The folk custom of planting trees originated from the funeral custom. As early as the Western Zhou Dynasty, feudal rulers began to plant trees in graves, but planting trees at that time was only a sign of the ruler's identity. And ordinary people are not allowed to set up graves to plant trees. Therefore, planting trees in graves is still not popular. It was not until the Spring and Autumn Period that people began to plant trees on graves in imitation of the rulers' behavior. At this time, tree planting only existed as a symbol of ancestral graves.

According to the Book of Rites, Confucius planted pines and cypresses in front of his parents' graves in order to accurately identify his ancestral graves in the future. But at this time, planting trees has nothing to do with Tomb-Sweeping Day. The combination of Qingming and planting trees is really because of Emperor Gaozu Liu Bang.

According to legend, in the early years of the Western Han Dynasty, Liu Bang, the Emperor Gaozu, was too busy to go back to his hometown because he had been fighting abroad for many years. He didn't go back to his hometown to worship his ancestors until he became emperor, but he couldn't find his parents' graves for a while. Later, with the help of everyone, a dilapidated tombstone was found in the chaotic grass, so people were ordered to build a grave and erect a monument, and pine and cypress were planted as a sign.

It happened that this day was Tomb-Sweeping Day in the twenty-four solar terms of the lunar calendar, and Liu Bang, on the advice of Confucian scholars, decided that Tomb-Sweeping Day was the ancestor worship festival. After that, every time he went to Tomb-Sweeping Day, he would return to his hometown and hold a grand ancestor worship and tree planting activity. Later, this custom spread among the people, and people combined Qingming ancestor worship with tree planting, and gradually formed a fixed folk custom.

In the Tang Dynasty, the folk custom of walking in the Qingming Festival and inserting willows in the Qingming Festival was very popular. The so-called willow insertion originally refers to an act of inserting willow branches into people. However, in the process of walking in the fields and worshipping ancestors in graves, people often insert willow branches into graves or the ground, so that willows will survive and inadvertently play a role in planting trees.

The origin of Tomb-Sweeping Day

The traditional Tomb-Sweeping Day in China began in the Zhou Dynasty and has a history of more than 2,500 years.

Tomb-Sweeping Day is first of all a very important solar term. As soon as Tomb-Sweeping Day arrives, the temperature rises, which is a good season for spring ploughing and planting. Therefore, there is a saying that "melons and beans are planted before and after Qingming". Agricultural proverb "Planting trees is not as clear as Qingming". Later, as the days of Qingming and cold food approached, cold food was the day when people banned fire to sweep graves. Gradually, cold food and Qingming became one, and cold food became another name of Qingming and became a custom of Qingming. On Qingming Day, there are no fireworks, only cold food.

Tomb-Sweeping Day introduced.

Qingming is one of the 24 solar terms in China. Because the 24 solar terms objectively reflect the changes of temperature, rainfall and phenology throughout the year, ancient working people used them to arrange agricultural activities. Huainanzi? Astronomical training says: "On the 15th day after the vernal equinox, the bucket refers to B, and the Qingming wind is coming." According to the centenarian question, "everything grows clean and bright at this time." So it's called Qingming. "As soon as Qingming arrives, the temperature rises and the rainfall increases, which is a good time for spring ploughing and spring planting. Therefore, there is an agricultural proverb that "before and after Qingming, point melons and plant beans" and "planting trees is not as good as Qingming". It can be seen that this solar term is closely related to agricultural production.

However, Qingming, as a festival, is different from pure solar terms. Solar terms are symbols of phenological changes and seasonal order in China, while festivals contain certain customs and activities, which have certain commemorative significance.

Tomb-Sweeping Day is a traditional festival in China, and it is also the most important festival to worship ancestors and sweep graves. Grave-sweeping is commonly known as going to the grave and offering sacrifices to the dead. Most Han people and some ethnic minorities visit graves in Tomb-Sweeping 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 some green branches and insert them in front of the graves, then kowtow and worship, and finally go home after eating and drinking. The poem Qingming written by Du Mu, a poet in the Tang Dynasty, said: "There are many rains during the Qingming period, and pedestrians on the road want to break their souls. Ask local people where to buy wine? The shepherd boy pointed to Xinghua Village. " Write about the special atmosphere in Tomb-Sweeping Day.

Tomb-Sweeping Day, also known as the outing festival, according to the solar calendar, between April 4th and 6th every year, it is the season of beautiful spring and lush vegetation, and it is also a good time for people to have a spring outing (called outing in ancient times), so the ancients had the custom of going for an outing in Qingming and carrying out a series of sports activities.

To this day, the custom of worshipping ancestors and mourning the dead relatives in Tomb-Sweeping Day is still very popular.