When is the right time to pay homage to ancestors on the Chinese New Year Festival? The rules set by our ancestors: not too early, not too late!

Every year on the fifteenth day of the seventh month of the lunar calendar is the Day of the Middle Ages, when people pay homage to their ancestors.

This year's festival is coming up soon, and it will be held on August 12, the day after tomorrow.

In fact, we have long since received a reminder text message with the theme: "Green Zhongyuan, civilized sacrifice".

A seemingly ordinary text message has at least two important messages in it.

One is to remind the general public friends, the Chinese nation's traditional festivals can not be forgotten, these intangible cultural heritage should be inherited; the second is to warn people to pay attention to the protection of the environment, the actual living conditions and traditional ancestor worship combined, really "civilized sacrifice.

So the question is, when exactly is the right time to pay homage to your ancestors on the Day of the Middle Ages? Is there a specific time reference table and other tips? What are the rules set by the ancestors? With these questions, let us next to explore some of it.

Midwinter Festival, in fact, is the name of Taoism, in the folklore is called: "half of July", "July 15", "ancestor worship festival".

In Buddhism, it is also known by a different name, "Bon Festival".

Throughout the ages, these diverse names have been standardized as "Zhongyuan Festival", which is also a formal and uniform name for the ancestor worship in the seventh month of the lunar calendar.

Besides, there is also a folk saying that the Mid-Yuan Festival is actually the "Ghost Festival".

In China's thousands of years of civilization, there are four major ghost festivals, namely, the third of March, the Qingming Festival, the Mid-Yuan Festival and the Cold Clothes Festival.

The seventh month of the lunar calendar, when the Mid-Yuan Festival is held, is also called the "Ghost Month".

On the first day of the seventh month, the door to hell will be opened, and those lonely souls will come to the earth, in order to enjoy the people's offerings, which is also regarded as a kind of welfare of the King of Yanluo for them.

At the end of the month, the gates of the ghosts will be closed again, and this is the end of the "Ghost Month".

Based on this folklore and the different customs of different places, there are some differences in the timing of ancestor worship, and on the first day of the seventh month of the lunar calendar, the next day, and the halfway point of the month, there are rituals that take place.

While the day of the Chinese New Year's Day has a lot to say on the matter of ancestor worship, the time of ancestor worship can be roughly divided into two cases.

The first is to go directly to the grave to pay tribute to the ancestors, which is the same as the Qingming Festival, during the Spring Festival to visit the graves, with full of sincerity and filial piety, to the graves of the ancestors to tell their hearts, to express their nostalgia.

In terms of scheduling ancestor worship, it is usually done in the morning, just before lunchtime.

But nowadays everyone's working hours are very tight, so it may be difficult to complete the rituals within the time set by the ancestors, so we will see that the ancestor worship will be extended to around 15:00 in the afternoon.

The second situation is that they don't go directly to the graves to offer sacrifices because many travelers are in other countries and it is difficult for them to go home.

Especially with the current epidemic, many people are unable to go home to pay their respects.

Such a situation actually happened to the ancients, anything can be solved, the heart of ancestor worship is most important.

And there are some differences between the Mid-Yuan Festival and the Mid-Autumn Festival. The Qingming Festival, according to custom, is when you have to go to your ancestors' graves in person to pay your respects, as it involves repairing the burial mounds.

While the Mid-Autumn Festival is the "Ghost Festival", when the ghosts open their doors, they will come out to get some air.

So, as the saying goes, "people are looking for ghosts at Qingming, and ghosts are looking for people at the Mid-Yuan", which has been passed down from the ancient people, actually explains the difference between the two festivals very well.

On the day of the Mid-Yuan Festival, the spirits of those who have loved ones will receive offerings from their families, while those who can't find their loved ones will enjoy the offerings of the world, that is, they will eat a hundred meals.

According to the rules left behind by the ancestors, ancestor worship should be done the night before the 15th day of the seventh month of the lunar calendar to make preparations, such as setting up the table for offerings, the front and back of the house should be done in accordance with the traditional cultural regulations.

To the half of the seventh month, in the morning, noon and dusk of the three time points to set up the meal, so that the ancestor of the door good to enjoy.

And in the evening, the ancestors are sent home by burning a "bungyo".

Conclusion in the festival of ancestors, the main thing is to reflect the people of the ancestors is nostalgia, the specific expression of the form may be different, but the purpose is the same.

Some places are more relaxed about the time of sacrifice, for example, when the night comes, until 5:00 a.m. in the morning this period of time, in their own homes outside the intersection of incense and candles on the sacrifice on the line.

The day after tomorrow is the Day of the Middle Ages, and people who want to pay homage to their ancestors can make reasonable arrangements for the time, but must remember to give everyone a reminder: civilized sacrifices, do a green Day of the Middle Ages.

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