The origin and customs of the Cold Food Festival

1, the origin of the Cold Food Festival

It is derived from the ancient system of drilling trees and seeking new fire. Ancient people used different trees to drill fires in different seasons, and it was customary to change fires in different seasons. And after each change of fire, it is necessary to get a new fire. Before the new fire arrived, people were forbidden to make fire. This was a major event at that time.

"Zhou Li - Autumn Officials - SiXuan's": "In the middle of spring to wood to repair the fire forbidden in the country." It can be seen that at that time was shaking the wooden front, walking on the street, ordered to ban the fire. This SiXuan's, that is, a small official in charge of taking fire. At the time of the fire ban, people prepare some cold food for consumption, so it slowly became a fixed custom.

Later, it was linked to the legend of Jie Zi Tui, and became the Cold Food Festival, which lasted for a month. After all, this was not good for health, so the date was shortened from seven or three days to one day, and after Tang it was integrated into the Qingming Festival.

2, Cold Food Festival customs

Worship sweeping ancestor:

Cold Food Festival sweeping ancestor in the North and South Dynasties to the Tang Dynasty was regarded as a "wild sacrifice". After the evolution of the royal mausoleum; the government sacrifices Confucian temple, sacrifices to the sages; the people on the grave, and so on.

When a family or a clan to the ancestors' graves, to worship, add soil, hanging paper money, and then will be pushed Yan, snake pan rabbit scattered on the top of the grave rolled down, with a willow branch or pimple needle threaded, placed in the room in a high place, the intention of staining the ancestor's virtue.

Cold food and drink:

Cold food food, including cold food porridge, cold food noodles, cold food syrup, green rice and molasses, etc.; cold food offerings have noodles Yan, Snake Plate rabbit, date cake, fine barley, God's ??? and so on; drinks have spring wine, new tea, spring water and dozens of other kinds of sweet water.

Most of them have profound meanings, such as the sacrificial food snake pan rabbit, commonly known as "snake pan rabbit, must be rich," said, meaning to look forward to the people of the rich and strong; Zi push the Yan, to take jiexiu dialect, "Niannian" do not forget the jie push the high wind and bright integrity ... ... ...

Expanded Information:

Main Values

Art

The Cold Food Festival, in the process of its development, produced many literary works: "Zuo Zhuan - Xigong twenty-four years" "Jie Zhi Push does not speak of the Locust," by the "Records of the Historical Records" and the "Ziji Tongan" and other historical masterpieces repeatedly quoted, and in the Qing Dynasty was included in the ancient Chinese literature. Cited in the Qing Dynasty, was included in the ancient text of the primer "Gu Wen Guan Zhi", "Appreciation of Chinese prose", the first of which is "Jie Zhi Tui does not say Lu", becoming one of the classic works of Chinese ancient literature.

In the poetic works of the past dynasties, the poems on the Cold Food Festival have never ceased from the Warring States Qu Yuan, Sun Chu of the Western Jin Dynasty to the modern era, and there are nearly 300 poems in the whole Tang Dynasty, and more than 100 poems in the Song Dynasty and the Yuan dynasty compositions, which involve the Tang Emperor Xuanzong, Zhang Shuo and other historical celebrities, as well as Du Fu, Bai Juyi, and the eight major figures of the Tang and Song dynasties, and other representatives of the school, and have become an important source of information for the study of the history of the development of Chinese poetry and lyrics