The custom of Tomb-Sweeping Day

Tomb-Sweeping Day is one of the most important traditional festivals in China. It is not only a festival for people to pay homage to their ancestors and remember them, but also a link for the Chinese nation to recognize their ancestors and return to their ancestors. It is also a spring ceremony for hiking, getting close to nature and urging new students to care. I have carefully arranged five customs in Tomb-Sweeping Day.

1, sweeping the grave

Tomb-Sweeping Day's grave-sweeping is called "thinking about respecting time" for ancestors, and its custom has a long history. In the Ming Dynasty's "A Brief Introduction to the Scenery of the Imperial Capital", it was written: "On the Qingming Festival in March, men and women went to the grave to pay their respects, and the gold ingot was hung on the back of the sedan chair, and the road was full of embarrassment. Worshipers, mourners, weeping, weeding, adding soil to graves, burning ingots several times, and buying graves with paper money.

If you can't see the paper money, it will be a lonely grave. Cry, don't come back, go to the tree, choose the garden, and get drunk. "In fact, grave-sweeping existed before the Qin Dynasty, but it was not necessarily the time of Tomb-Sweeping Day, but after the Qin Dynasty. It was not until the Tang Dynasty that it became popular.

Step 2 insert willow

Tomb-Sweeping Day and China have the folk custom of inserting willows.

It is said that the custom of inserting willows is to commemorate Shennong, the ancestor of farming, who taught the people to cultivate crops. In some places, people put willow branches under the eaves to forecast the weather. There is an old saying that "the willow branches are green and the rain is raining;" The saying that there is another village. Willow has a strong vitality, as the saying goes: "If you plant flowers with your heart, you will plant willows without your heart. "Wicker lives when it is inserted in the soil, where it is inserted, where it is inserted every year, and the shade is everywhere.

Another way of saying it is that this custom is to commemorate meson push. Jietui set himself on fire under the willow tree to keep the festival, which made Jin Wengong, his ministers and people feel sad. The next year, when Jin Wengong personally led the ministers to climb the mountain to worship Jiexiu, he found that the old willow trees that had been burned in those years had actually come back from the dead. Jin Wengong named the old willow in front of him "Qingming Willow", and on the spot, he broke off a few branches and put them on his head to show his memory.

Step 3 go for an outing

At the time of Qingming, it is spring that returns to the earth. People took advantage of the opportunity of sweeping graves, and the whole family, old and young, enjoyed themselves in Shan Ye. After returning home, they broke some branches and put them on their heads, feeling very happy. During their stay in Tomb-Sweeping Day, some people go hiking in the suburbs to express their stagnant mood since the severe winter, and go to nature to enjoy and appreciate the vibrant spring scenery. This kind of outing is also called spring outing, which was called spring exploration and spring hunting in ancient times. It means stepping on the grass, playing in the country and watching the spring.

Step 4 fly a kite

Kite flying is also a popular activity in Tomb-Sweeping Day. During their stay in Tomb-Sweeping Day, people not only wore it during the day, but also at night. At night, a string of colored lanterns is hung under the kite or on the wind-stabilizing stay, like twinkling stars, which is called "magic lamp". Someone used to put kites in the blue sky, then cut the strings and let the breeze send them to the ends of the earth. It is said that this can eliminate diseases and disasters and bring good luck to yourself.

5. Cuju

Bow is a rubber ball, the skin of which is made of leather, and the ball is stuffed with wool. Cuju is kicking the ball with your feet. This is a popular game in ancient Tomb-Sweeping Day. According to legend, it was invented by the Yellow Emperor with the original purpose of training warriors. Playing polo is also one of the ways to play the Dragon Boat Festival. In front of Baiyun Temple in Beijing, there are also rules for the masses to ride horses and hit the ball. There were polo in the Temple of Heaven in Qing Dynasty, and polo didn't disappear until the middle of Qing Dynasty. In recent years, antique polo has appeared in Xi, which makes this ancient sport reappear after many years of extinction.

The above is the Tomb-Sweeping Day custom I compiled, "When the swallows come, the news agency, pear flower falls is behind Tomb-Sweeping Day". Tomb-Sweeping Day, a traditional festival with a history of more than two thousand years, is well known. Please leave a comment in the comments below.