What's the difference between ancient Tomb-Sweeping Day and modern Tomb-Sweeping Day?

What's the difference between ancient Tomb-Sweeping Day and modern Tomb-Sweeping Day?

2015-10-2716: 53: 37 Hangzhou online

Modern Tomb-Sweeping Day is only regarded as a traditional festival, and people only know that this day is a day to worship ancestors, sweep graves and remember their ancestors. Few people know that Tomb-Sweeping Day is not just ancient Tomb-Sweeping Day.

In ancient times, besides mourning for the dead, there were many outings, outings and other activities. There is also a lost festival-Cold Food Festival.

According to legend, the Cold Food Festival originated in the State of Jin in the Spring and Autumn Period, to commemorate Jiezitui. Legend has it that during Jin Wengong Zhong Er's exile, meson tui cut shares to satisfy his hunger. When Jin Wengong returned to China as a monarch, he forgot to recommend him when he was enfeoffed. Jiezitui didn't want to boast about his achievements and compete for favor, so he took his mother to live in seclusion in Mianshan. Later, Jin Wengong personally went to Mianshan to find Jiezitui, who didn't want to be an official and hid in the mountains. Jin Wengong's men put Yamakaji, the original intention is to force mesons to reveal their true colors. As a result, meson pushed his mother and was burned to death under a big tree. In order to commemorate this loyal minister and righteous man, on the day when he retired, he did not cook with a fire and ate cold food, which was called Cold Food Festival.

Because Tomb-Sweeping Day was angry on the third day of cold food, later generations gradually moved the custom of cold food to Qingming with the passage of time. After the Song Dynasty, the custom of cold food sweeping graves moved to Qingming, and spring outing, swinging and other customs were also held in Qingming. Tomb-Sweeping Day rose from a simple agricultural solar term to an important festival, and the influence of the Cold Food Festival disappeared. However, the custom of cold food has been handed down in several ways and has been preserved in Tomb-Sweeping Day.

The similarities in customs and contents between Tomb-Sweeping Day and the original Cold Food Festival are not significant. There are two main links between them: one is the connection of time, and the other is the emotional appeal of remembering and sacrificing predecessors. These two links eventually made Tomb-Sweeping Day replace or annex the Cold Food Festival.

So what are the activities worth mentioning in ancient Tomb-Sweeping Day?

1. With the customs of Tomb-Sweeping Day and the Cold Food Festival gradually overlapping, some special foods of the Cold Food Festival have also been handed down. So Tomb-Sweeping Day has also become a "food festival".

Second, ancient women are not like women today. They can't go out or show their faces at ordinary times. The so-called growing up in the inner room, no one knows her. It is a good time for ancient women to go out when Tomb-Sweeping Day worships her ancestors for an outing. On this day, they will dress up, go out early to pay homage to their ancestors and then go out for an outing. Therefore, there is a saying that "women's Qingming is the year of men".

Third, there were holidays in ancient Tomb-Sweeping Day. Before Sui and Tang Dynasties, people paid more attention to cold food than Qingming. When Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty arrived, Tomb-Sweeping Day's grave-sweeping ceremony was officially included in the ceremony, which was one of the "Five Rites" at that time. As a result, the status of Tomb-Sweeping Day was elevated, and the Qingming holiday was linked to the Cold Food Festival, which became a "small holiday" in spring after the Lantern Festival. The holiday arrangements in the Tang Dynasty are as follows: "Jacky and winter solstice are seven days each, cold food is placed on the fourth day of Qingming, August 15th, and summer solstice and twelfth day are three days each". It means: New Year's Day and Winter Solstice are two festivals, each with a 7-day holiday; Qingming and Cold Food Festival are linked together, with a holiday of 4 days; Summer solstice, Mid-Autumn Festival and twelfth month (twelfth month) have three days' holiday.

Fourth, during the Qingming Festival, spring returns to the earth, and nature presents a vibrant scene everywhere, which is a good time for an outing. Our people have kept the habit of walking in Tomb-Sweeping Day for a long time.

Flying a kite: When flying a kite in Tomb-Sweeping Day, many people will write down the disasters and diseases they know on the kite, and then cut the kite string when it rises to the sky and let it float away with the wind, hoping to take away all the dirty air and bring good luck.

Six, inserting willows, Tomb-Sweeping Day is the time when willows sprout and smoke green. There are folk customs of folding willows, piercing willows and inserting willows. When people go out for an outing, they break off some wicker branches, which can be played with in their hands, woven into hats and worn on their heads, or taken home and inserted on the lintels and eaves.

The custom of inserting willow is related to avoiding epidemic. The Tang people thought that wearing willow branches when offering sacrifices by the river could drive away the harm of poisonous insects.

Some activities in ancient Tomb-Sweeping Day can't be found in modern Tomb-Sweeping Day, but the most important thing is that Tomb-Sweeping Day has been handed down as a traditional festival in China. Every year in Tomb-Sweeping Day, every family carries out a series of ancestor worship and grave sweeping activities.