The Legend of Eating Ai in Tomb-Sweeping Day and the Introduction of Eating Ai Custom in Tomb-Sweeping Day

1, Tomb-Sweeping Day eats moxa sticks before and after, and won't get sick all year round. Mourning is one of the traditional ancestral food in Guangdong. Before the Qingming Festival, making Ai Ai was a ritual, which was done every year. This shows that Cantonese people attach importance to Tomb-Sweeping Day's ancestor worship. Folium Artemisiae Argyi is a kind of herb, which has the effects of warming meridians to stop bleeding, dispelling cold and relieving pain. During the Qingming period, citizens generally made moxa sticks, and the sales of moxa sticks also increased. Throughout northern Guangdong, Tomb-Sweeping Day has the custom of making Ai. In addition to its fragrance and delicacy, wormwood is an essential sacrifice when offering sacrifices to mountains.

2. Why does Tomb-Sweeping Day want to be Ai Ai? The rural saying is mainly "to ward off evil spirits". It is said that fresh wormwood is a kind of evil spirits, and eating wormwood in Tomb-Sweeping Day can "ward off evil spirits"; Others say that Ai is a masculine thing, and the dead ancestors lived in the underworld. When they sacrifice mountains, they are used to worship their ancestors, which can play a role in reconciling yin and yang. In fact, wormwood itself is a kind of herbal medicine, with pure yang, which can play the role of dredging meridians, restoring yang to save the adverse, and eliminating yin and cold. According to Compendium of Materia Medica, wormwood has the effects of "harmonizing middle energizer, invigorating qi, relieving diarrhea, eliminating phlegm, restraining seasonal qi, and eliminating heat cough" and "treating cold and expectoration, dispersing cold in lung and greatly increasing lung qi".