Why do you need to advance the ancestor worship in Ching Ming? How many days in advance?

Qingming Festival to worship ancestors, customs vary from place to place, the time chosen is also very different.

Let's talk about my customs in the Pearl River Delta, our region's customs, Qingming ancestor worship (commonly known as mountain worship) is 36 days of time, any day can be. That is, 3 days before the start of the Qingming Festival, to the "tomb closed" after 3 days (a month after the Qingming day is called tomb closed). Of course, at the peak of the day of the Qingming Festival, everywhere in the cemetery cemetery and columbarium are crowded, commonly known as "line is clear".

But there are also many people to avoid congestion to avoid the peak, choose to 36 days within the time of other days. For example, my family, scheduled for the day of the first Sunday after the Qingming Festival, rain or shine, has been practiced for nearly 20 years.

There is also a special phenomenon of worship mountain graves, is about a month before the Qingming Festival, the kind of time called "worship new mountain", the so-called "new mountain", that is, after last year's Qingming Festival and this year's Qingming Festival before the period of the death of people's mountain graves, that is, the first time to worship the mountain graves, to be the first time. The so-called "new hill" is the grave of a person who died after last year's Ching Ming Festival and before this year's Ching Ming Festival, that is, the grave of a person who died for the first time. The popularity of the folk worship new mountain is "new mountain but social", the so-called but social, social is three seven twenty-one days, that is, more than 21 days before the Qingming Festival.

In short, Qingming ancestor worship, different places, there is no so-called "authentic" and standard. There is no such thing as "authentic" or standardized. Each person does his or her own rituals and rules, but it is just a way to find comfort in the soul.

Early sacrificial origin

Qingming Festival before the tomb, is the ancestors of the traditional folklore inherited from generation to generation. The main reason for early ancestor worship is that the Ching Ming Festival is preceded by the Cold Food Festival.

When it comes to the Cold Food Festival, I believe we are all relatively unfamiliar with it. It is also known as the "Smoke-free Festival" and the "Hundred and Five Festival". According to the calendar, the 105th day after the winter solstice is called the Cold Food Festival.

Cold Food Festival Customs

According to traditional customs, on the day of the Cold Food Festival, people are prohibited from setting off fireworks and firecrackers, and can only eat cold food. Because the Cold Food Festival is in the spring when everything is recovering, people also add customs such as trekking, sweeping, swinging and cuju. Cold Food Festival in China has more than two thousand years of history, once known as "the first big day of sacrifice".

The Qingming Festival - a grand and solemn festival of ancestor worship for the Chinese people - is usually celebrated in late spring and mid-spring, 108 days after the winter solstice. During the Qingming Festival, in addition to sweeping tombs, people also add customs such as trekking, cuju, kite flying and tree planting.

Reasons for Early Ancestor Sacrifice

From the above, it is easy to see that the Qingming Festival and the Cold Food Festival are similar in time, and there are customs of tomb-sweeping, trekking, and cuju in both festivals. With the passage of time, people gradually combined these two festivals into one, so the Cold Food Festival also became another name for the Qingming Festival. Later, the state made the Qingming Festival a legal holiday, and the Cold Food Festival gradually faded out of people's lives. Because of this, people only worship their ancestors a few days before the Qingming Festival, so there is the saying "early Qingming, late cold food".

How many days in advance is better

Since the Qingming Festival ancestor worship should be in advance, how many days in advance is good? Usually, the earlier the time of ancestor worship on Qingming Festival, the better, because the more people worship ancestors on Qingming Festival, the busier the work or children away from home, you can worship ancestors a week or two in advance, so not only stagger the peak of ancestor worship, but also to avoid traffic jams.

On the day of ancestor worship, it is best to schedule the time between 7 a.m. and 3 p.m., because this time the yang energy is stronger, and it is the best time for people to worship their ancestors. After 3 p.m., the yang energy gradually diminishes and the yin energy gradually strengthens. If unfortunate or weak people worship their ancestors during this time, their health will become worse.

The precepts of early ancestor worship

About the sweeping of new graves: the so-called new graves, means the burial time is not more than three years of the ancestral graves, the grandchildren in the first year of the sweeping of graves, you can choose in the first year of the Chingming Festival 10 days before the Qingming Festival of a certain auspicious day; in the second year of the sweeping of graves, to be the day of the Chingming Festival; in the third year, you can choose a Chingming Festival auspicious day after the day of the 10 days.

Ancient Tomb Sweeping:When children and grandchildren sweep the ancient tomb, they can choose any day before or after the Ching Ming Festival (buried more than three years); the time of the ancient tomb sweeping, you can choose to sweep the tomb before or after the Ching Ming Festival on any day, do not have to consider the auspicious. When the date of the tomb is determined, the specific time of the tomb should be selected at the fifth hour, that is, before the sun comes out.

Conclusion

Regarding the time and manner of sweeping the tomb on Qingming Day, it will vary from region to region. As the descendants respect and pass on the experience of their ancestors, some traditional customs are often passed on with a tendency to be patterned, which is contrary to the original intention of the experience of the ancestors.

Therefore, when choosing the time to sweep the tomb, as long as it is conducive to physical and mental health, social harmony, family harmony, the child can be based on the actual situation of the individual, do not have to advance or push back a few days.

Spring has passed, Qingming Festival in the immediate future, may be for most young people, Qingming Festival is just a three-day rest festival, traditional many customs have gradually been forgotten, may be another two or three decades, Qingming Festival contains customs will be completely forgotten.

The most important tradition of Qingming Festival is ancestor worship. I remember when I was a child in the countryside, on the day of Qingming Festival or two or three days before, my grandfather would take everyone to the ancestral tomb to worship, burn paper and kowtow. The children are also more obedient to learn from the elders kowtow.

Listening to the grandparents talk about, and then before the Qingming Festival will be early on the graves of ancestors, there is a saying that the Qingming Festival is "off ghosts", a few days early off ghosts, so that the two realms of life and death are more peaceful some. And the first day of October on the lunar calendar is "release ghosts", so in the first day of October on the lunar calendar will be a few days of worship.

Children will also ask their grandparents if it's okay to keep it closed all the time. They would say that it was a customary practice.

The customary traditions of the Qingming Festival should be properly preserved, and we should cherish these traditions.

Two days before the Qingming Festival is called the cold food, according to the rules can not open fire to cook, cold food from the Spring and Autumn period, the legend of the Duke of Jin Wendong during the exile, the meso pushes once cut the stock for him to fill the hunger. Duke Wen of Jin returned to his country as the king of the marquis, divided into groups of ministers, the only Jie Zi push unwilling to be rewarded, with his mother living in seclusion in Mianshan. Later, Duke Wen of Jin personally went to Mianshan to invite Jie Zi Tui, but Jie Zi Tui did not want to be an official. Hiding in the mountain, Duke Wen's men set fire to the mountain with the intention of forcing Jie Zi Tui to show his face. As a result, Jie Zi Tui was burned to death under a big willow tree with his mother in his arms. In order to commemorate this loyal and righteous man, so the Duke of Jin Wen ordered: no fire to cook on the day of the death of Jie Zi push, to eat cold food, known as the cold food festival.

Ancestor worship is usually in the countryside on the outskirts of the mountains, so you have to prepare offerings, paper money and so on a few days in advance. And once a year, the area around the ancestral tomb may already be overgrown with weeds, so you need to clean up the surrounding weeds and dead wood first to avoid causing a fire.

Ancestor worship also has some taboos to pay attention to, such as to wear solemn and solemn clothes, not to take pictures in the cemetery, not to make a lot of noise and play and so on.

For the Qingming ancestor worship, why should be in advance but also several days in advance?

In fact, for this cultural practice, each place is different, because China is a vast area, so for this situation, we feel that each place is different when, should not take all the places together.

We are here today to explain to you the problem of Qingming ancestor worship in our side of the countryside

In our side of the countryside in the custom of worship and sweeping the tomb in fact, there are a lot of requirements.

It's the fact that the Qingming Festival can't be advanced or postponed

What does it mean that it can't be advanced?

On our side, after the New Year, we cannot go to the mountains to sweep the graves and pay respect to our ancestors. You must wait until the day of the Qingming Festival to start worshipping.

Unless there are other special circumstances, then it's a different story, but if you say that in general, to go to worship before the day of the Qingming Festival, most likely there will not be anything good happen

What does it mean that can not be postponed?

On our side, after the New Year, you can't pay respect to the grave. So what does it mean that you can't postpone it?

No postponement, that is, in the middle of the year, for example, after the New Year, and then on the day of the Qingming Festival, you start to visit the tomb.

Then you must wait until the Qingming Festival to go to the tomb. You can't refuse to go. Even if it's raining heavily, you have to go, even if it's to worship an ancestor, it belongs to the beginning.

On our side there is also a very strange agreement strange custom , is the day before and after the Qingming Festival is not allowed to sweep the tomb.

For example, some people say that in the countryside, because of too many tombstones of ancestors, it is necessary to go over the mountains to pay homage to the tomb.

So can it be divided into two or three days? This is not possible.

On our side of the Ching Ming Festival to worship, in this day to worship, can worship how much is how much. Then those who don't worship for fun will basically flow, and then after the Dragon Boat Festival, choose other sunny days to worship.

So in this case, we feel that the different cultural practices of each place will be different, and the local cultural practices should prevail.

Time flies, the years like a shuttle, with yesterday's "February 2, dragon head" has passed, the next traditional festival Qingming Festival is coming soon, this year's Qingming Festival in the solar calendar on April 5, the first day of the third lunar month. Qingming Festival sweeping the graves of ancestors, is the Chinese people attach great importance to traditional festivals, with the development of society, many young people are now relatively unfamiliar with the ancestral activities, they think that the Qingming graves is "talking to the ghosts", in fact, this statement is very incorrect, to the serious point that is not to respect the deceased ancestors.

Qingming Festival is a traditional Chinese holiday, every day before the arrival of this day, people will be in this day or a few days before, burning incense and paper sacrifices to the ancestors, which in the countryside circulated a proverb, that is, "Early Qingming, the evening of cold food". The meaning of this proverb is that the Qingming Festival ancestor can be in advance to the deceased burn paper, can be in advance but can never be pushed back, and the cold food festival ancestor can be pushed back, the same is the festival of ancestor, why Qingming ancestor to advance it? What do you need to prepare in advance before the arrival of Qingming?