What is the origin and significance of Qingming Festival?

The Qingming Festival is also known as the Ancestor Festival and the March Festival. Originated from China's ancient famous meteorological work "Almanac" "after fifteen days, the bucket refers to Ding, for the Qingming, when everything is clean and clear, cover when the gas is clear and the scenery is bright, everything is obvious, so it is named."

Origin of Qingming Festival

1, the origin of the Qingming Festival began in ancient times, the emperor and generals of the "tomb sacrifice" ceremony. Later, on this day, people also do the same, worship ancestors, sweep the tomb. This custom has been passed down from generation to generation, has become a fixed custom of the Chinese nation. Initially, the Cold Food Festival and the Qingming Festival were two different festivals. When the Tang Dynasty came, the day of pilgrimage and tomb-sweeping was designated as the Cold Food Festival.

2. The name "Qingming Festival" also comes from the Qingming Festival, which is one of the 24 solar terms in the Chinese lunar calendar. The Qingming Festival occurs 105 days after the winter solstice. The Qingming Festival lasts for 15 days. As a festival, Qingming falls after the spring equinox. At this time, winter is over, spring is full of vigor, the weather is sunny, the fields are bright and clean, and nature is full of energy. It is appropriate to use the word "Qingming" to refer to this period.

3. The 105 days after the winter solstice are known as cold food. In the past, fire and cold food were forbidden, so it was also known as the "Cold Festival" and the "No Smoking Festival". According to folklore, the Cold Food Festival commemorates the death of Jie Zi Tui, who was burned to death on Mianshan Mountain during the Spring and Autumn Period, and the Duke of Jin, who forbade the making of fires. Jie Zi Tui came from Shanxi, so the cold food custom was first popular in Shanxi. In the past, cold food would cause fires. The next day, a ceremony was held in the king's palace to bore holes for making fire. People also begged each other with willows to make fire.

The Story of Qingming Festival

Legend has it that during the Spring and Autumn Period, the Prince of Jin, Chong Er, went into exile to escape persecution, and on the way to exile, he was in an uninhabited place, so tired and hungry that he was no longer able to stand up. The ministers searched for half a day and could not find anything to eat, when everyone was very anxious, the ministers jiezi push to a secluded place, cut off a piece of meat from his own thigh, and boiled a bowl of broth for the duke to drink, and Chong Er gradually regained his spirit, and when Chong Er realized that the meat was cut off by jiezi push his own leg, he shed tears.

Nineteen years later, Chong Er became the king of the country, the historical Duke Wen of Jin. He rewarded all the ministers who had accompanied him into exile, but forgot about Jie Zi Tui. Many people were angry with Jie Zi Tui and urged him to face the king to ask for rewards, but Jie Zi Tui despised those who competed for rewards. He packed his clothes and quietly went to Mianshan Mountain to live in seclusion.

When Duke Wen of Jin heard about this, he was so ashamed of himself that he personally went to invite Jie Zi push, but Jie Zi push had already left his home and went to Mianshan Mountain. The Mianshan Mountain is high and dangerous, and the trees are dense, it is not easy to find two people, some people have a plan to burn the Mianshan Mountain from three sides, forcing out Jie Zi push. The fire burned all over the Mianshan Mountain, but did not see the figure of Jie Zi push, after the fire went out, people realized that the back of his mother Jie Zi push has been sitting under an old willow tree died. Jin Wendong see, mournful. When the coffin, from the hole in the tree found a bloody book, written on it: "cut meat to serve the king's heart, but I hope that the Lord is always clear." To commemorate Jie Zi Tui, Duke Wen of Jin ordered that this day be designated as the Cold Food Festival. The next year, Duke Wen of Jin led his ministers to climb the mountain to pay homage to Jie Zi Tui, and found that the old willow tree had risen from the dead. He gave the old willow the name "Qingming Willow", and announced that the day after the Cold Food Festival would be designated as the Qingming Festival.

Holiday Arrangements for Qingming Festival

The Qingming Festival is celebrated at the intersection of mid-spring and late spring, 106 days after the winter solstice. Tomb-sweeping activities usually take place 10 days before or 10 days after the Qingming Festival (Early Qingming, Late Cold Food). Some local people's tomb-sweeping activities lasted up to a month. When officials returned to their hometowns to sweep the tombs, there were delays in their duties, so Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty issued a decree to solve the problem of vacations. He began to provide for a four-day vacation on the Cold Food Festival: February 21, 736, the twenty-fourth year of the reign of Emperor Kaiyuan: the four days of the Cold Food Festival and the four days of the Qingming Festival were to be a vacation. ("Tang will be" volume 82), according to the Dali twelve years (777) edict, the Tang government offices in accordance with the usual five-day holiday: from now on, cold food through the Qingming, five days of vacation. By the sixth year of Zhenyuan (790), the holiday was increased to seven days. So that the officials can comfortably carry out tomb sweeping and memorial services. It can be seen that the Cold Food Festival had already become a very grand national festival in the Tang Dynasty. Wang Lengran's "Cold Food" of the Tang Dynasty said, "Autumn is more important than sunshine and winter is more important than wax, but cold food is better than cold food before spring. That is to say, the importance of the Cold Food Festival exceeded that of the Chongyang Festival and the year-end wax festival. In the Song Dynasty, the Cold Food Festival also had a seven-day vacation. Pang Yuanying of the Northern Song Dynasty recorded in Wenchang Miscellany, Volume 1, that the ancestral temple department took a vacation for seventy-six days in the year, and seven days for each of the New Year's Day, the Cold Food Festival, and the Winter Solstice. Southern Song Dynasty Chen Yuanliang, "the year and the time wide record" Volume 15, cited Song Lu Yuanming, "the year and the time miscellany," said: two days before the Qingming cold food festival, before and after the three days, where the holiday seven days. And the people to one hundred and four days of fire ban, called private cold food, also known as the big cold food. North people are this day to sweep the ancestral graves, through the month, there is a cold food January Festival of the proverb.

In 1935, the government of the Republic of China explicitly set April 5 for the national holiday Qingming Festival. December 7, 2007, the State Council 198th executive meeting adopted a revision of the "National Annual and Memorial Day Holiday Measures" decision, which provides that; the Qingming Festival, a holiday of 1 day (Lunar Qingming Day), in 2008, Qingming Festival officially became a legal holiday, a day of holiday. 2009, and then changed to three days. 2014 Qingming Festival, a day of holiday. , and then changed to three days. 2014 Qingming Festival holiday for April 5 to April 7th.

Customs of Qingming Festival

The customs of Qingming Festival are rich and interesting, in addition to preaching the prohibition of fire, sweeping tombs, there are a series of customs and sports activities, such as trekking, swinging on the swings, Cuju, playing polo, sticking willow. Legend has it that this is because the Qingming Festival to cold food and fire ban, in order to prevent cold food and cold food injury, so people come to participate in a number of sports activities, in order to exercise the body. Therefore, this festival is characterized by both the sorrowful tears of sweeping the new graves of life and death, as well as the laughter of trekking and playing.

One, sweep the tomb

Ching Ming Festival is China's traditional festival, but also the most important festival, is the day of ancestor worship and sweep the tomb. Tomb-sweeping is commonly known as a tomb-sweeping, an activity to honor the dead. Most Han Chinese and some ethnic minorities sweep their tombs on Qingming Day.

According to the old custom, when sweeping tombs, people should bring wine, food, fruits, paper money and other items to the cemetery, offer the food in front of their loved ones' graves, then incinerate the paper money, cultivate new soil for the graves, fold a few young green branches and stick them on the graves, then bow and worship, and finally eat the wine and food and go home. Du Mu, a poet of the Tang Dynasty, wrote a poem called "Qingming": "The rain falls one after another during the Qingming Festival, and the pedestrians on the road want to break their souls. Where can I find a tavern? The shepherd boy points to the apricot blossom village." It writes the special atmosphere of Qingming Festival.

Second, trekking

Qingming Festival, also known as the festival, according to the solar calendar, it is between April 4 and 6 every year, it is the spring bright and beautiful grass and trees spit green season, but also is the people of the spring tour (called trekking in ancient times) is a good time, so the ancients have Qingming trekking, and to carry out a series of sports activities of the custom.

Three, eat green dumplings (Qingming kuey teow)

In the Jiangnan area of the Qingming period will always eat a special food - Qingming kuey teow, there are places called green dumplings, patty cake rake, mugwort dumplings, mugwort cake and so on. Qingming kuey teow is mostly made of mugwort, kneaded with glutinous rice flour or rice flour, lined with sugar, bean paste, meat filling, vegetable filling, and so on. The taste is either sweet or salty, soft and delicious.

Four, cockfighting

Cockfighting was once prevalent in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, is the ancient aristocratic game of the dignitaries and landowners. As early as in the Spring and Autumn period of the "Zuo Zhuan" has been recorded. But after the mid-Qing period, cockfighting slowly disappeared.

Fifth, flying kites

Kites, also known as "paper kites", "kite", kite flying is a favorite activity during the Qingming Festival. Kites are made of paper or silk on a skeleton made of bamboo gabions, pulled by a long line tied to it, and released into the sky while the wind is blowing, belonging to a kind of flying machine that utilizes aerodynamic power alone. During the Qingming Festival, people not only fly kites in the daytime, but also at night. At night, a series of small colorful lanterns are hung under the kite or on the wind steady pulling line, like twinkling stars, which are called "divine lanterns". In the past, some people put the kite on the blue sky, then cut the line, let the wind send them to the end of the world, it is said that this can get rid of diseases and bring good luck to themselves.

Poetry about the Qingming Festival

1. In the late spring of the Qingming Festival, I was disappointed to see the northern mountains. The flint fire is new, and the tung flower is old. --The first is the "Ching Ming Festival". 2) The road is straight! I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to do that. The mountains are far away from the maple, and the broken house is alone by the wheat. The grass is still in the spring breeze, and the new road is not there. The pear blossom has been in the cold food since the festival, and I am only worried about the rest of the festival. --Song - Yang Wanli "cold food on the mound"

3, plowman called love building boat, spring grass green ten thousand fields; try to go to the Wu gate to see the county Guo, clear and bright several places have new smoke. --Tang - Zhang Ji "Lvmen that is the case"

4, no flowers and no wine over the Qingming, the flavor of depression like a wild monk. Yesterday, the neighbors begged for a new fire, the dawn window and reading lamp.

6. The bells and drums are clamoring to get away from the day, and the car drivers are urging to get dressed for the night. The new kitchen is on fire, and the willow is turning over in the dark. I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to do that, but I'm going to be able to do it," he said. I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to get a good look at you, but I'm sure I'll be able to. The wind and rain, the pear blossoms and the cold food have passed, how many graves have children and grandchildren come? What is not with the East Luo water, who is buried in the North Mangshan. The middle bridge is full of carriages and horses, and the lower bridge is full of boats. The mounds and tombs are full of people, and the cranes fly back in disappointment in Liaodong. I am sure that the body will be turned into soil for a hundred years, and the lonely moon on earth will reflect the pear blossoms.

10. The light red color of the rain is not good enough for the clothes, but the tired eyes are lost again.