Is Tomb-Sweeping Day a custom? Is Tomb-Sweeping Day a custom?

Tomb-Sweeping Day is not a custom. Tomb-Sweeping Day is one of the important traditional festivals in China. On this day, everyone will go to the grave to worship their ancestors. Of course, in addition to the grave-sweeping ceremony, there are also Qingming custom activities such as hiking, swinging, cuju, planting trees, flying kites, inserting willows, tug-of-war, shooting willows, fighting cocks, and silkworm flower parties.

? Tomb-Sweeping Day custom?

? First, sweep the grave to worship the ancestors?

Sacrificing ancestors is a way of remembering ancestors, and its custom has a long history. According to archaeological findings, the ancients had obvious conscious burial behavior and customs before 1 10,000 years ago. There are differences around Tomb-Sweeping Day. According to the different places of sacrifice, Tomb-Sweeping Day can be divided into tomb sacrifice and ancestral temple sacrifice. Tomb sacrifice refers to offering sacrifices to ancestors in a cemetery to express filial piety and yearning for ancestors. It belongs to a cultural tradition of paying homage to ancestors and pursuing the future with caution. According to custom, people usually set off in the morning to visit graves. When sweeping graves, people should bring wine, food, fruit, paper money and other items to the cemetery, trim the graves, cultivate new soil, remove weeds, offer food to the graves of ancestors, then burn paper money and kowtow to worship. Influenced by traditional cultural psychology, China people have a strong sense of family, pay special attention to their families and ancestors, and have a strong sense of ancestor worship and returning home. This is a special way to commemorate their ancestors.

In China, people pay attention to the pursuit of the future with caution, and numerous sacrificial activities have appeared to adapt to this concept. With the passage of history, most of these activities have declined. Only the grave-sweeping activity in Tomb-Sweeping Day has survived to this day, so it is regarded as one of the oldest folk customs by experts.

In addition to the "mountain sacrifice" for sweeping graves, there are ancestral temple sacrifices in later generations, which are called "temple sacrifices". Temple sacrifices are closely related to ancient spring sacrifices. Although they are far apart in time, their blood is indeed the same. Temple fair sacrifice is a gathering of clans. The custom of sweeping graves to worship ancestors existed in the pre-Qin period. Due to different ancient customs, it is not necessary for Tomb-Sweeping Day to visit graves in some places. Before the Tang Dynasty, grave-sweeping in some places in the north was mainly in the Cold Food Festival and the Cold Clothes Festival. It was not until the Tang and Song Dynasties that tomb-sweeping in Qingming began to prevail in the whole country. The Tang Dynasty was a period of integration of the custom of tomb sacrifice in different places, which followed the custom of tomb sacrifice in Qingming and extended to all parts of the country. Many places in the south sweep graves in Chongyang, Qingming or winter solstice, such as Fujian, Guangdong, Hainan, Guangxi and Kunming, Yunnan.

? Second, go for an outing?

The Chinese nation has had the custom of going for an outing in Qingming since ancient times. In ancient times, it was called spring outing, spring seeking and so on. Spring outing, also known as spring outing, refers to going for a walk in the suburbs in early spring. This seasonal folk activity, outing, has a long history in China, and its source is the ancient Spring Festival custom of farming sacrifice. This Spring Festival custom of farming sacrifice has a far-reaching influence on later generations. During the Qingming Festival, spring returns to the earth, and nature presents a vibrant scene everywhere, which is a good time to go for an outing. People use the opportunity of sweeping graves to have fun with their families in mountainous areas and rural areas.

China folks have long maintained the custom of Tomb-Sweeping Day's outing with a long history. When everything is budding, it has become a custom to go for an outing in the wild. According to the Book of Jin, every spring, people go to the suburbs to enjoy the scenery together. During the Tang and Song Dynasties, the custom of hiking was particularly popular. According to "Old Tang Book", "In February of the second year of Dali, at noon, it was fortunate that Kunming was green." It can be seen that the custom of spring outing has long been deeply rooted in people's hearts.

? Third, insert willow?

Tomb-Sweeping Day is full of beautiful spring and trees. People go hiking, sweeping graves and going to graves on this day. Everyone should wear willow, and willow branches should be inserted at the door of every household. Where did this custom come from? There is a legend about Tomb-Sweeping Day related to Liu Yong, a great poet in the Song Dynasty. It is said that Liu Yong lives a dissolute life and often travels between Huajie Liuxiang. Geisha at that time loved their talents and were proud of being favored by Liu Yong. However, Liu Yong was not allowed to have a career because of his bad life. Although he passed the Jinshi, he died in poverty in Xiangyang. His funeral expenses were all raised by singers who admired him. Every year in Tomb-Sweeping Day, the singer will plant willow branches in front of his grave as a souvenir. It has become a custom to plant willow branches on Qingming Festival.

In fact, this custom existed as early as the Tang Dynasty. People in the Tang Dynasty believed that wearing willow branches when offering sacrifices by the river on March 3 could get rid of the harm of poisonous insects. After the Song and Yuan Dynasties, the custom of inserting willows in Tomb-Sweeping Day was very popular. When people come back from an outing, they stay at home to avoid insects. Whether recorded in folklore or historical records, planting willows in Tomb-Sweeping Day is always related to avoiding diseases and epidemics. During the Spring Festival, the climate gets warmer, and all kinds of germs begin to multiply in large numbers. People can only hope to shake willows and branches in the case of poor medical conditions.

? Fourth, tug of war?

Tug of war was called "tug of war" in the early days and "strong hook" in the Tang Dynasty. It was invented at the end of the Spring and Autumn Period, which became popular in the military and later spread among the people. During the reign of Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty, a large tug-of-war was held in Tomb-Sweeping Day. Since then, tug-of-war has become a part of the Qingming custom. One year, Tomb-Sweeping Day and Tang Zhongzong ordered hundreds of civil and military officials with three grades or above in the Qing Dynasty, together with the bachelor's degree, to gather in the Palace Gymnasium, and each team held tug-of-war competitions in batches. The rope used is more than 1000 small ropes tied at both ends of hemp rope, and hundreds of people are divided into two teams to catch them at both ends. In the competition, the weak are losers. Zhongzong took his queen, concubine and princess to watch the competition. At that time, he shouted loudly and shook the earth, showing an unprecedented grand occasion. It is said that tug-of-war was held in the Qingming period when spring ploughing and spring planting were in full swing, which meant praying for a bumper harvest, and emperors of all dynasties naturally attached great importance to it.

? 5. plant trees?

China has the habit of planting trees in Qingming since ancient times. Some people even call Tomb-Sweeping Day Arbor Day. The custom of planting trees has been passed down to this day. Why does Tomb-Sweeping Day plant trees? This is because before and after the Qingming Festival, the spring is bright, the spring rain is flying, and the plants planted have high survival rate and fast growth, so there is a saying that "melons grow beans before and after the Qingming Festival".

The folk custom of planting trees originated from the funeral custom. As early as the Western Zhou Dynasty, feudal rulers began to plant trees in graves, but planting trees at that time was only a sign of the ruler's identity. And ordinary people are not allowed to set up graves to plant trees. Therefore, planting trees in graves is still not popular. It was not until the Spring and Autumn Period that people began to plant trees on graves in imitation of the rulers' behavior. At this time, tree planting only existed as a symbol of ancestral graves.

According to the Book of Rites, Confucius planted pines and cypresses in front of his parents' graves in order to accurately identify his ancestral graves in the future. But at this time, planting trees has nothing to do with Tomb-Sweeping Day. The combination of Qingming and planting trees is really because of Emperor Gaozu Liu Bang.

According to legend, in the early years of the Western Han Dynasty, Liu Bang, the Emperor Gaozu, was too busy to go back to his hometown because he had been fighting abroad for many years. He didn't go back to his hometown to worship his ancestors until he became emperor, but he couldn't find his parents' graves for a while. Later, with the help of everyone, a dilapidated tombstone was found in the chaotic grass, so people were ordered to build a grave and erect a monument, and pine and cypress were planted as a sign.

It happened that this day was Tomb-Sweeping Day in the twenty-four solar terms of the lunar calendar, and Liu Bang, on the advice of Confucian scholars, decided that Tomb-Sweeping Day was the ancestor worship festival. After that, every time he went to Tomb-Sweeping Day, he would return to his hometown and hold a grand ancestor worship and tree planting activity. Later, this custom spread among the people, and people combined Qingming ancestor worship with tree planting, and gradually formed a fixed folk custom.

? 6. Fly a kite?

Flying kites is one of people's favorite activities in Tomb-Sweeping Day. The ancients believed that if someone was sick, they could write down or draw their illness on the kite, tie the kite in the air with a string, let it fly to the sky, cut the cable, and the disease disaster would fly away with the kite. Later, kites gradually developed into a popular outing entertainment.

Pan Rongbi, a writer in A Qing, wrote in "Ji Sheng at the Age of Emperor Jingdi": "When sweeping graves in Qingming Festival, men and women in the whole city flocked out from the suburbs, carrying boxes and wheels facing each other. Everyone brings a kite spool, and it will be better to put it in front of the grave after the sacrifice. " The ancients also thought that the Qingming wind was very suitable for flying kites. Jia Qinglu said: "The wind of spring is from bottom to top, and kites rise because of it, so there is a proverb" Clear and clear ". "In ancient times, flying kites was not only an entertainment activity, but also an act of witchcraft: they thought flying kites could release their bad breath. Therefore, when flying kites in Tomb-Sweeping Day, many people will write all the disasters they know on paper kites. When the kite flies high, they cut the kite string and let the kite float away with the wind, symbolizing that their illness and dirty air have been taken away by the kite.

Tomb-Sweeping Day is a traditional festival in China, and China people have always observed it. During their stay in Tomb-Sweeping Day, people will fly kites, worship their ancestors and enjoy flowers and scenery in the park. These ancient cultural customs have been circulating in China, so Tomb-Sweeping Day has become a symbol of the Chinese nation's Millennium culture. Also, let's study the ancient culture in Tomb-Sweeping Day, enhance our gratitude to our ancestors, inherit the ancient culture, and make the cultural tradition more active.