The custom of sweeping graves

In the history of China, it has long been a custom to eat cold food, forbid fire and pay homage to ancestors. After the Tang Dynasty, the Cold Food Festival gradually declined, so it became a continuous festival tradition for Tomb-Sweeping Day to sweep graves to worship ancestors. Bai Juyi, a great poet in the Tang Dynasty, wrote in his poem "Cold Food and Wild Hope": "Who cries when birds are singing? The wind blows the paper money in the wilderness, and the ancient tomb is full of spring grass. Li Tanghua reflects poplar trees, full of life and death parting places. " Mysterious desert and heavy spring are crying, but people who are raining at dusk and dusk go home. "Song Dynasty poet Koguryo once wrote in the poem Qingming:" There are many tombs in the north and south, and Qingming is different. Paper ashes fly into white butterflies, and tears are dyed into red azaleas. When the sun goes down, the fox sleeps in front of the grave, and the children smile at the lights when the night returns. If there is wine in life, there must be drunkenness. Not a drop reached Jiuquan. "Even in today's society, before and after Tomb-Sweeping Day, people still have the custom of paying homage to their ancestors: uprooting weeds, placing offerings, burning incense and praying at the grave, burning paper money and gold ingots, or simply offering a bunch of flowers to express their memory of their ancestors.