Why do Tomb-Sweeping Day and China have the tradition of sweeping graves? Besides ancestor worship, what else?

Tomb-Sweeping Day is a cold food festival in the history of China. On this day, people are forbidden to live, so it has become a custom to honor their ancestors. After the Tang Dynasty, the Cold Food Festival gradually changed, so Tomb-Sweeping Day's grave-sweeping and ancestor-worship became a festival custom tradition that continues to this day. Now, people still have the custom of going to visit graves to worship ancestors around Tomb-Sweeping Day. In memory of their ancestors, they will place offerings on graves, pull out weeds, burn some paper money in front of graves, or put a bunch of flowers.

Apart from sweeping graves, Tomb-Sweeping Day also has the folk custom of inserting, piercing and folding willows. When I was in Tomb-Sweeping Day, it was the time when the willows sprouted and smoked green. When people go on an outing, they will break some branches and play with them in their hands. Some people also use it to knit hats and wear them on their heads. This custom was very common in the old society. I heard that willow branches have the function of exorcism. Tea willow instead of willow is not only decorative, but also has the function of praying for evil spirits. It can also be related to the custom of using willow branches to light sparks in the past cold food festival, but it is not recommended to break willow branches at will now.

Flying kites is also the favorite activity of people in Tomb-Sweeping Day. In ancient times, people believed that if someone was sick, they could write down his illness, or draw it on a tied kite, fly in the air with a thread, and cut the thread when it flew high in the air, so that the disease and disaster would fly away with the kite. Flying kites has gradually developed into an outing entertainment. Flying kites in ancient times was not only an activity, but also an act of witchcraft. They think that flying kites can release their bad luck, so many people will write down their disappointment on kites when they are desperately flying, cut the kite string when they fly high, and let the kites float freely. It also symbolizes taking away all your diseases and bad luck.

In fact, in ancient times, Tomb-Sweeping Day had many folk activities besides ancestor worship. For example, hiking, swinging, planting trees, cuju, cockfighting, and residual flower parties are all popular folk activities in the past.