Qingming Festival is three festivals

The Qingming Festival is three festivals

The Qingming Festival is one of the traditional festivals in Chinai and an important festival of worship. The Qingming Festival is celebrated every year at the beginning of the third month of the lunar calendar when the sun reaches 15 degrees of the yellow meridian. The Qingming Festival usually falls on April 4 or 5 on the Gregorian calendar, so it is also called the "April Festival". But did you know? Today's Qingming Festival, in fact, is the Qingming Festival, cold food festival and on the Si (si) Festival of the three fusion.

The Cold Food Festival is the predecessor of the Qingming Festival, the earliest origin in the Spring and Autumn period of the State of Jin. Legend has it that Jie Zi Pui, a great physician of the State of Jin, set fire to his own estate in order to rescue Duke Wen of Jin, who was trapped in the city. When Duke Wen of Jin learned of this, he was moved and gave him many properties. However, Jie Zi Tui did not accept it, but only asked that after his death, Duke Wen would visit his grave and forbid fire and eat only cold food on that day. Duke Wen of Jin agreed, and ordered all i the country to observe this rule. Since then, the Cold Food Festival has become a festival in honor of Jie Zi Tui.

The Shangsi Festival is a homologation of the Qingming Festival, which first originated in the state of Chu during the Spring and Autumn Period. According to legend, there was a minister named Qu Yuan in Chu who wrote many beautiful poems in order to be loyal to his country. Later, he was driven out of the state because he was framed by a treacherous minister and exiled i the Tearlaw River. On a day on the fifth day of the fifth month, he was so grief-stricken that he threw himself into the river. When the people of Chu learned of this, they were so sad that they rowed boats to salvage his body and threw down rice balls and bamboo tubes containing candied fruit and other food so that fish and shrimp would not eat his body. Since then, the fifth day of May has become the Dragon Boat Festival in honor of Qu Yuan. And one month before the Dragon Boat Festival, on the third day of the third month, the people of Chu began to worship Qu Yuan and to bathe, swim and row dragon boats along the river. This day is called Shang has Festival.

The Qingming Festival, which is the very essence of the Qingming Festival, first originated during the Zhou Dynasty. During the Zhou Dynasty, there was a custom called "Treading Green". Every year, when spring comes, the weather is sunny, grass grows and everything recovers, so people go out to enjoy flowers, picnics, kite flying and other activities. This time of year coincided with the Qingming Festival, so people also called this custom "Qingming Treading Green". Later, under the influence of the Cold Food Festival and the Shangsi Festival, "Qingming Treading Green" gradually evolved into the activity of sweeping tombs and paying homage to ancestors.

This shows that the Qingming Festival is actually an amalgamation of three festivals, which encompasses both veneration and remembrance of ancestors, as well as appreciation and celebration of nature and life.