Weihai Qingming Festival Customs

The customs of Qingming Festival are rich and interesting, in addition to preaching about banning fire and sweeping tombs, there are also a series of customs and sports activities, such as trekking, swinging, cuju, playing polo, and sticking willow. Legend has it that this is because the Qingming Festival to cold food and fire ban, in order to prevent cold food and cold food injury, so people come to participate in a number of sports activities, in order to exercise the body. Therefore, this festival is characterized by both the sorrowful tears of sweeping the new graves of life and death, and the laughter of trekking and playing.

Swinging

This is an ancient Qingming Festival custom in China. Swinging, meaning migrating by the leather rope. Its history is very ancient, the earliest called the thousand autumn, and then in order to avoid taboos, changed to swing. Ancient swing with tree branches for the frame, and then bolted on the ribbon made. Later gradually developed into a swing with two ropes and pedals. Playing swing not only can improve health, but also can cultivate the spirit of bravery, and is still loved by people, especially children.

Cuju

Cuju is a kind of leather ball, the ball skin made of leather, the ball with hair stuffed tight. Cuju is to kick the ball with the foot. It is a favorite game during the ancient Qingming Festival. It is said to have been invented by the Yellow Emperor, and its original purpose was to train warriors.

Trekking

Also called spring tour. In ancient times, it was called exploring spring, searching for spring and so on. March Qingming, spring back to the earth, the natural world everywhere presents a vibrant scene, it is a great time for excursions. China's folk long maintained the Qingming trekking habit.

Tree planting

Before and after Qingming, the spring sun shines, the spring sun shines, the spring rain sprinkles, planting saplings with a high survival rate, fast growth. Therefore, since ancient times, China has the Qingming tree planting habit. Some people also call the Qingming Festival "Tree Planting Day". Tree-planting custom has been handed down to the present day. 1979, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress stipulated that every year on March 12 for China's Tree Planting Day. This is to mobilize the people of all nationalities to actively carry out activities to green the motherland, has a very important significance.

Flying kites

is also a favorite activity during the Qingming Festival. Every Qingming Festival, people not only fly during the day, but also at night. At night, a string of small colorful lanterns are hung under the kite or on the wind steady pulling line, like twinkling stars, which are called "divine lanterns". In the past, some people put the kite on the blue sky, then cut the line, let the wind send them to the end of the world, it is said that this can eliminate diseases and bring good luck to themselves.

The Chinese food culture, in fact, has its most basic reasons. Not to mention the March 3 to eat eggs it, Dragon Boat Festival to eat zongzi, duck eggs, drink xionghuang wine, Mid-Autumn Festival to eat mooncakes, Spring Festival to eat rice, Lantern Festival to eat Lantern, here note two points, one is that these festivals are basically evenly distributed over a period of time one. The second can not be separated from what to eat. This is because, in thousands of years of Chinese history, most of the years of material is relatively scarce, generally can not have what to eat, that is, nutrition is usually insufficient. Long-term nutritional deficiencies affect survival, so they need a good reason to eat something they wouldn't normally eat. In addition, the third of March in the lunar calendar this period is the peak of the chicken eggs, eggs, to buy the price is not high, so to "expand domestic demand", eat some of their own, two birds with one stone.

Cold food, Qingming Festival in the fight chicken (egg) play, the real origin, should still be attributed to the pre-Qin era in some areas of the custom of banning fires, multi-day ban on fires and cold food, hard-boiled eggs is undoubtedly the best food reserves through this period. Furthermore, on the day of the Qingming Festival, cooked eggs are also portable food. Beforehand, the impact of peeling, inevitably caused the children two collision of interest.

If you want to explore the symbolic meaning of eating and crashing eggs on the Qingming Festival, it should also symbolize people's reverence and faith in life and fertility. The egg is a symbol of fertility and life in ancient Chinese culture. Legend has it that Pangu, the creator of the heavens and the earth, was conceived in an egg, "the chaos of heaven and earth is like a chicken, Pangu was born in it" ("Art and Culture Classification"), the founder of the Shang Dynasty, Chee, "saw the Xuanbird fall from its egg, and Jane Dee took it and swallowed it, and it was born because of the conception" ("The Records of the Grand Historian"), the first ancestor of the Qin Dynasty, Daiye, was also The first ancestor of Qin, Daye, was also conceived by a woman who swallowed the egg of a Xuanbird ("Records of the Grand Historian"). Folk custom, women give birth to a child, to the neighbors to report the good news, not also sent eggs? In the Qingming Festival, there is also a sense of life in the rituals of ancestor-sweeping and tomb-sweeping, isn't there also a sense of honoring the dead? In the spring, all things are born, is the season of life, many folk phenomena are in the deeper meaning of life on the implicit.

It is said that if you eat eggs boiled at this time of year, you will not get a headache for a year. How did this custom come to be? Legend has it that in ancient times, the area around Xiaogan was part of the Yunmengze, a watery countryside, and people made a living by fishing. Because people every day in the lake blowing the lake wind, got a headache. One day, the Shennong who tasted all kinds of herbs passed by Yunmengze, and saw some people rolling on the lake beach because of headache. Shennong took pity on them, so he went around looking for herbs to cure these people's headache. But no medicine was effective. On the third day of March, Shennong picked up a few wild eggs from the mountains, and dug a large handful of ground vegetables, and took the boat to cook for people to eat. After people ate the eggs boiled with ground vegetables, they suddenly felt no headache. Later, the first three days of March to eat ground vegetables boiled

eggs became a custom, has been continued to this day.

Eating eggs at Qingming is as important as eating dumplings at the Dragon Boat Festival. The festival eggs are roughly categorized into two types, one is "painted eggs" and the other is "carved eggs". The former can be eaten, while the latter is just for fun. However, there is also a saying that when sweeping the graves, the hard-boiled eggs will be broken on the tombstones, and the shells will be thrown on the graves to symbolize the "shedding of shells", which indicates the renewal of life and the hope that the children and grandchildren will all be successful

The Ching Ming Festival is one of the traditional festivals in China, which is celebrated on April 5 every year, and it has a history of more than 2,500 years since its inception. In addition to sweeping tombs and paying homage to ancestors, Qingming Festival food customs are also colorful.

Eating green dumplings

The Qingming Festival, the southern part of the country has the custom of eating green dumplings. The green dumplings are made from the juice of a wild plant called "wheatgrass," which is pounded and squeezed, and then the juice is mixed with dried, water-ground glutinous rice flour and the dumplings are made. The filling of the dumplings is made of fine sweetened bean paste, and a small piece of sweetened lard is added to the filling. Once the dumplings are ready, they are steamed in a cage, and when they come out of the cage, the cooked vegetable oil is brushed evenly over the surface of the dumplings with a brush, and the job is done.

The dumplings are as green as jade, glutinous and soft, fragrant, and sweet but not greasy, fat but not fat. Green dumplings are also used by people in the southern part of the country to offer sacrifices to their ancestors, and because of this, green dumplings are particularly important in the folklore of the southern part of the country.

Eating deep-fried noodle cakes

There is a custom of eating deep-fried noodle cakes at Qingming Festival in the north and south of China. "Deep-fried noodle cakes, which are crispy and exquisite, were called "cold utensils" in ancient times. The custom of forbidding fire and cold food on the cold food festival is no longer popular in most parts of China, but deep-fried noodle cakes related to this festival are y loved by the world.

The deep-fried noodle cakes now popular in the Han area have the difference between the north and the south: the northern deep-fried noodle cakes are generous and spontaneous, with wheat flour as the main material; the southern deep-fried noodle cakes are delicate and meticulous, with rice flour as the main material. In the minority areas, there are many varieties of deep-fried noodle cakes with different flavors, especially the deep-fried cakes of Uygur, Dongxiang and Naxi, as well as the deep-fried cakes of Ningxia Hui are the most famous.

Eating Mustard Greens

Mustard greens are the indispensable seasonal vegetables on the table of Guangdong people at the Qingming Festival, which are homophonous with the word "sedan chair" and imply that the ancestors return in sedan chair to be free from the pains of the first warmth and cold.

South Jinming region to steam a large steamed bun, walnuts, jujubes, beans and so on, known as the "Zifu", meaning that the children and grandchildren of the blessing of the ancestors. Jinbei region, it is customary to eat with cornbread black bean sprouts filling. Yulin and Yan'an in northern Shaanxi Province before the festival to steam "Zi push buns" and do face flower, steamed out of the face flower vivid, like art treasures, both for their own consumption and can be gifted to friends and relatives.

China's traditional Qingming Festival began around the Zhou Dynasty and has a history of more than 2,500 years. Due to the close proximity of Qingming and cold food days, and cold food is the folk ban on fire sweeping day, gradually, cold food and Qingming into one, and cold food has become the alias of Qingming, but also become a custom for the Qingming Festival, Qingming day does not move the fireworks, and only eat cold food. The origin of Qingming, the only one of the twenty-four solar terms to become a festival, is related to the story of Mianshan Jiezitui.

In the state of Jin during the Spring and Autumn Period, several sons of Duke Xian of Jin fought fiercely for the throne. Chong Er, the second son of Duke Xian of Jin, went into exile for nineteen years to avoid killing each other. Jie Zi Pui, a vassal of Jin, admired Chong Er's character and sacrificed his life to follow him, and in the most critical moment of Chong Er's life, he had cut off his shares to serve the king. Together, they often discussed ways to save the country, and had a good relationship with each other. Chong Er once said that if he could be the king of the state in the future, he would definitely repay the favor of Duke Jie. Later, with the help of Qin, Chong Er finally fought his way back to Jin and became the king of Jin as Duke Wen of Jin. After the restoration of the state of Jin, Duke Wen gave a banquet to his ministers and rewarded them for their achievements, but he did not give Jie Zi Tui, who had often given his advice, any official position or reward. Jie Zi Tui disdained to be with the villains who flattered Duke Wen all the time, and was even more disappointed that Duke Wen did not practise clear politics after his restoration. So he took his mother to Mianshan Mountain and lived in seclusion.

Some people began to talk, saying that the Duke of Jin was ungrateful and didn't use the wise ministers. The Duke of Jin slowly heard the talk, and he seemed to feel that he was doing something wrong, so he hurriedly called for Jie Zi Tui to invite him to go to Mianshan Mountain to live in seclusion. In order to show his ministers that he was not an ungrateful ruler and to calm down people's discussion, Duke Wen of Jin was eager to find Jie Zi push. He led his ministers to Mianshan Mountain to look for Jie Zi push. Mianshan mountain streams and ravines, crags and jagged, rugged road, coupled with jie Zi push intention to hide, how can not find jie Zi push. The Duke of Jin was anxious, but there was nothing he could do.

Jin Wendong's men also have their own thoughts, some hope that Jie Zi Tui will come back to assist Jin Wendong to rule the world, but some are afraid that Jie Zi Tui will come back and take away his own favor. One of his men told Duke Wen that Jie Zi Tui was a filial son, and that if you set fire to Mian Shan, Jie Zi Tui would come out to see you for fear of hurting his mother. Jin Wendong, who was in a state of confusion, saw that Jie Zi Tui's heart was so eager that he adopted this idea in a confused manner and ordered people to set fire to Mianshan Mountain. It was mid-spring, windy and dry, smoke and fire engulfed the entire Mianshan. The fire burned for a few days, but did not see the shadow of the mediator. Only after the fire was extinguished did people realize that Jie Zi Tui would rather die than go out of the mountain, and his mother had been burned to death under a big willow tree on the top of the mountain. Duke Wen of Jin remembered Kai Zi Tui's loyalty to himself and the words from the bottom of his heart, holding the burnt willow tree could not help but bawl. He had the mother and son buried in the mountains, and changed the name of Mianshan Mountain to Jieshan, "to record my faults, and the good people". At the same time, he ordered that on the anniversary of the death of Jie Zi push, i.e., 105 days after the winter solstice, the whole country prohibited fireworks, and only allowed to eat cold food, which was called the Cold Food Festival, in order to commemorate the death of Jie Zi push

The day after the Cold Food Festival of the second year, the Duke of Jin Wendong went to Mianshan Mountain Jie Zi push was martyred in the willow tree, and found that the big burnt willow tree had already given birth to a new willow branch. Recalling the hope of Jie Zi Tui that he would implement clear politics after restoration of the state, he was overwhelmed with emotion and ordered to seal this willow tree as "Qingming Willow" and set this day as "Qingming Festival". Since then, Duke Wen of Jin clean government, development of production, the state of Jin is finally strong, became one of the "five hegemony in the Spring and Autumn Period", with the increase in national influence, the cold food festival, Qingming Festival custom popular in the north and south of the Yangtze River, Tang Dynasty poet Lu Xiang poems: "the four seas with the cold food, a thousand years for a person! ".

In fact, the cold food custom originated from the ancient system of drilling wood for fuel fire. Qingming as a festival, as far back as the Zhou Dynasty has also been determined. The Cold Food Festival and Qingming Festival were merely reinforced by rulers in the form of state orders and passed down. Thereafter, with the migration of time, the customs of the Cold Food Festival were gradually integrated into the Qingming Festival. The Qingming Festival became the only one of the twenty-four festivals with a humanistic history, and it became customary for people to remember the dead and pay tribute to their ancestors on the occasion of the Qingming Festival

The Qingming Festival, which is usually celebrated on or around April 5 of the Gregorian calendar, is the grandest of all the festivals in the springtime for paying tribute to one's ancestors. It is customarily called the "Ghost Festival". It is customary to sweep the graves and go on a green walk. On that occasion, relatives of the deceased go to the graves to cut the thorny grass, offer sacrifices, and burn paper money and coins. In the city, people go out to the countryside to walk in the green. The festival activities also include swinging, kite flying, tug of war and so on.