When did the traditional Chinese Qingming Festival begin?

The traditional Qingming Festival in China began around the Zhou Dynasty, and has a history of more than 2,500 years. Qingming is a very important festival in the beginning, once Qingming arrives, the temperature rises, it is a good time for spring plowing and planting, so there is "before and after Qingming, planting melons and beans". "Tree planting, not over the Qingming" proverbs.

Later, due to the Qingming and cold food days close, and cold food is the folk ban on fire sweeping days, gradually, cold food and Qingming on the merger of one, and cold food has become a Qingming alias, but also become a custom for the Qingming festival, the day of the Qingming does not move the fireworks, only to eat cold food.

Expanded:

Customs of the Ching-ming Festival

1, sweeping the tombs and offering sacrifices to ancestors

Today's society, people still have the custom of visiting the graves around the Qingming Festival to pay homage to their ancestors: shoveling out weeds, placing offerings, offering incense and prayers in front of the graves, burning paper money and gold ingots, or simply dedicating a bouquet of flowers, in order to express their nostalgia for their ancestors.

2, trekking

Ching Ming time, it is the return of spring, people are due to take advantage of the convenience of sweeping the graves of young and old in the mountains and countryside wild play some, go home by hand to fold a few branches of leaf buds blossoming willow branches to wear on the head, happy and happy.

There are also people deliberately during the Qingming Festival to the nature to appreciate and appreciate the vibrant spring scenery, hiking in the countryside, a Lyric in the harsh winter since the depression of the chest, this kind of trekking is also known as the spring tour, the ancient called the spring, looking for spring. The meaning of the foot is to step on the grass, playing in the countryside, viewing the spring color.

Before and after the Qingming Festival is a good time for trekking, so it has become an important part of the Qingming Festival. In ancient times, women could not travel on weekdays, Qingming tomb is a rare opportunity to step on the green, so women in the Qingming Festival than men play more fun, folk "women's Qingming men's year" said.

People's Daily Online - What are the customs of Qingming Festival? The origin of the Qingming Festival and the Qingming Festival customs inventory

People's Daily News - the origin of the Qingming Festival and the legend