The origin and customs of the Cold Clothes Festival

There are many theories about the origin of the Cold Clothes Festival:

1. The Cold Clothes Festival originated in the Zhou Dynasty.

Because it is clearly recorded in "Poetry Scriptures - Bin Feng - July" that "The fire flows in July, and the clothes are awarded in September." The Han Dynasty Confucian scholar Mao Heng interpreted the meaning of this sentence and said, "Frost began to fall in September, and the woman's work was completed, so she could be awarded winter clothes." This means that from September onwards, the sky gradually gets colder, and it is time to buy more winter clothes. In addition, the book of rites - the lunar calendar October winter, the Zhou dynasty, there is a welcome to the winter ceremony. The son of heaven rate of the three princes and nine ministers and other high-ranking officials and dignitaries to the northern suburbs of the ceremony. After the ceremony to return to the palace, reward those who have sacrificed their lives for the country, pension their wives and children. Some people speculate, "the book of rites" contained in the zhou tianzi to the deceased reward, is to send cold clothes. It was a customary practice that was practiced from the top down.

2. The Cold Clothes Festival originated with Meng Jiangnu in the Qin Dynasty.

She was captured to repair the Great Wall of her husband to send cold clothes, thousands of miles to find her husband, and found that her husband was dead, the bones of his body was built into the Great Wall wall, so she mourned and cried, crying down the Great Wall of the story. Since then, people inside and outside the Great Wall have been calling the first day of the tenth lunar month "Cold Clothes Festival". It has become an important custom for people in the north to mourn their deceased relatives by burning and sending cold clothes to them on the first day of October. Song Dynasty poet Liu Kezhuang wrote "read the Qin Ji seven poems" lamented:

3, Cold Clothes Festival are all in October on the first day of the first day of the month, the people of the ancestor, sweeping the tomb; in the evening, the letter of the book of the medieval kozogami, with the five colors of the silk made of the crown, belt, clothes and shoes, in the door to pay tribute to the burned.

Cold Clothes Festival:

Cold Clothes Festival, also known as the "October Dynasty", "Underworld Festival", "Ghost Head Day", etc., for the annual lunar calendar. The first day of October, is China's people in the northern part of the festival of the ancestors to send cold clothes, rumored to have originated in the Zhou Dynasty, the actual formation of the Song Dynasty not earlier. Cold Clothes Festival is popular in the northern region of China, many people in the north will be in this day to burn offerings, to commemorate the death of loved ones, so-called send cold clothes. People in the northern region of China will be cold clothes Festival and the annual spring Qingming Festival, July 15, the Mid-Yuan Festival known as China's three major "ghost festivals".