What is Cold Food?

"Cold Eclipse" is a work of the Tang Dynasty poet Han Jian (翃):

春城无处不飞花，寒食东风御柳斜.

The candles were passed around the Han Palace at sunset, and the light smoke was scattered into the houses of the five lords.

This is a piece describing the city of Chang'an before and after the Cold Food Festival.

Traditionally, there was a rule to ban fire and eat cold food during the Cold Food Festival, so it was called the "Cold Food Festival". The festival was an official celebration in honor of Jie Zitui, who was loyal to the core and then set on fire by his master. How do you know if you are observing the rules of the festival? That would be to ban fire. And the last line of the poem is clearly about those official families, who not only lit the lamps, but also the candles issued out of the palace.

This is actually a satirical poem. The "Han Palace" here actually refers to the palace at that time, and this was the rule of writing at that time.

So although the poem is famous for its first line, "Flowers fly everywhere in the city of spring," it is actually a satirical piece about court officials who did not follow the custom of banning fire.

But such anti-human festivals were naturally eliminated by the common people in the entertainment-loving Tang Dynasty, and his satire, even at that time, was meaningless.

On the contrary, it was because Emperor Dezong of the Tang Dynasty liked his first line so much that he promoted him to an official position, accomplishing a great story of promotion due to poetry.

Who else is celebrating "cold food" today?