Mid-spring, spring rain also rose up unceasingly, and then to the year's Qingming Festival, the impact of this epidemic, can not return to han to sweep the tomb, the community has been sealed has done three nucleic acids, daily grounded at home, in addition to writing and reading, is to do some food to treat themselves, but qingming is coming, one day our ancestors customs are not on fire, this day is also known as the "cold food festival", and in the Qingming period of ancestor worship, is also related to this festival, and is not as sad as we think, it is possible to drink and give poetry, Many people may not know that today we will introduce the relationship between the Qingming Festival and the Cold Food Festival, including the reason why the ancients drank alcohol on this day.
In fact, in the strict sense, Qingming is only the name of one of the twenty-four solar terms.
At present, Qingming is the same national legal holiday as the Dragon Boat Festival, Mid-Autumn Festival, but also become a traditional festival of ancestor worship and tomb sweeping in folklore, in fact, the source of this custom is more importantly related to the "Cold Food Festival", and now Qingming is also one of the "Eight Festivals of the Year" in China, 108 days after the winter solstice, in the strict sense, Qingming usually does not refer to a certain day, but April 4-6. As the traditional cultural customs of the agricultural civilization of the Central Plains, in fact, in strict sense, Qingming is only one of the names of the twenty-four solar terms, and the custom of the Qingming Festival began to exist during the Zhou Dynasty, which has been more than 2,500 years ago.
Qingming Festival is one of the three major "ghost festivals" in China, the theme is "mourning the dead" and "sacrifice to sweep the grave", which is a "respect for the time" of ancestors, and its custom has a long history. In the early days, there are many theories about the origin of the Qingming Festival, the more reliable is derived from the ancient emperor "tomb" sacrifice, and later the folk also began to imitate, but also in the mid-spring and late spring, meet to worship the ancestors to sweep the tomb, after generations of inheritance, gradually become a fixed custom of the Chinese nation.
Later, it gradually evolved into a festival to commemorate ancestors, which had nothing to do with the Qingming festival, but with the integration of another festival, the Cold Food Festival.
Cold Food Festival, also known as the "No Smoking Festival", as the name suggests, that is, fireworks are prohibited, only cold food is eaten, but in the later evolution and development of life, it gradually integrated the ancient people's customs of sweeping tombs and walking on greens at this stage.
Speaking of the Cold Food Festival, I have to mention two people, in the Spring and Autumn Period, one is the Prince of Jinguo Heavy Ear, in order to escape the pursuit, only a few people with his entourage fled in panic, all the way up and down, suffering a lot, the other is the loyal ministers in the entourage, the meson pushed the stock to fill the hunger, only to save the heavy ear to live, and finally after the twists and turns, back to the throne, the history is called jin Wengong.
After Jin Wengong ascended the throne, he began to reward his followers for meritorious service, but his intermediary son Tui politely refused, and took his old mother to the deep mountains to live in seclusion, Jin Wengong could not find it, that is, he used a stupid trick to set fire to the mountain, trying to push the meson out of the mountain.
Nai He Jie Zi pushed away the intention has been decided, rather than die, wait for the mountain fire to dissipate, under a tree found that the meson pushed the corpse of mother and son, Jin Wengong cried unceasingly, in order to commemorate and commemorate the merits of The Meson Push, on the day of his death, he no longer moved the fire, only ate cold food, and called on the world to smoke fire these days, which is the origin of the early "Cold Food Festival" allusion.
Because the time coincided with the Qingming in the twenty-four solar terms, it was gradually used as a synonym for "Qingming Festival".
Therefore, Qingming and cold food are originally two festivals, but due to the similarity of time, coupled with the integration of tomb sweeping and cold food and non-smoking customs, the ancients often extended the activities of the cold food festival to the Qingming, and over time, the cold food festival and the Qingming festival became one.
In the Spring and Autumn Period, because of the cold food festival, the family should smoke fire for three days, and this season, the winter cold is not over, it is very uncomfortable to eat cold food for several consecutive days, especially the Han culture ethnic groups in our Central Plains, which are not mainly meat-eating; therefore, another folk custom is the custom of warming up through drinking wine. According to the Jin Dynasty Lu Yi's "Book of Yizhong", "Cold food is made of liquor for three days. "It shows that at this stage, especially during the Cold Food Festival, the folk began to make and drink the custom of sweet wine pulp. In the Qin and Han dynasties, the social etiquette system became an important part of the implementation of feudal society, especially in the content of Confucian culture, loyalty and filial piety are the basic social personality foundation, and if a person does not have these two points, he will basically not be trusted by anyone.
According to the Book of Han, the Western Han Dynasty minister Yan Yannian even if he is thousands of miles away from Beijing, he must regularly return to his hometown to sweep the cemetery, which shows his emphasis on this festival; in the Tang Dynasty, both scholars and civilians regard the cold food festival sweeping as a ceremony to return to the ancestors, because in the traditional lunar calendar, the Qingming festival is very close to the cold food festival, and people usually extend the tomb sweeping to the Qingming;
In the Song and Yuan Dynasties, the Qingming Festival gradually rose from the status of being attached to the Cold Food Festival to replacing the status of the Cold Food Festival, and ceremonies such as tomb sweeping were mostly held in the Qingming Dynasty, and even the original customs and activities of the Cold Food Festival, such as cold food, bowing, swinging, etc., were also included in the customs of the Qingming Festival.
Later, in order to comply with the will of the people, in view of the fact that the social cold food and Qingming have become the same habit, they determined in the form of official documents, and the Qingming and cold food festivals were closed together. This cultural practice has always affected most of the Han cultural areas, and in 2008, the mainland government also specifically included the Qingming Festival as the same four statutory holidays as the Dragon Boat Festival, mid-autumn festival and Spring Festival.
After the Song and Yuan Dynasties, cold food and Qingming were merged into one, and cold food became another name for Qingming, but also became a custom of Qingming, and in the folk, there was also the custom of not moving fireworks on the day of Qingming, only eating cold food. Therefore, the tombs can be swept during the Qingming Dynasty, but the ancients did not burn paper, did not move fireworks, but continued, and gradually have been forgotten by the world. Later, no longer pay attention to the prohibition of fire, the paper money was burned. In ancient times, due to the influence of cold food and fire prohibition, paper money was not burned, but hung on small trees and bamboo poles in the cemetery, so that all the graves swept by the sacrifice had paper flags fluttering, constituting a unique "landscape" before and after the Qingming Dynasty.
In addition, with the change of times, during the Song Dynasty and the Qingming Dynasty, a new custom emerged, that is, drinking alcohol began to be associated with outings. Because the Cold Food Festival and the Qingming Festival are the same, and drinking alcohol during the Cold Food Festival can increase the heat to warm up, which also makes up for the discomfort of not being able to make a fire at this time, and eating cold food, which is an important reason for drinking on the Qingming Festival. During the Qingming Festival, one is that the season is rainy and cold, most of the atmosphere is depressed and sad, and the memory of the deceased, the mood is low, it is easy to attract people to be depressed in the chest, so it will also make people often borrow wine to dispel their sorrows, the wine as a song, Du Mu has a poem "Qingming season rains, pedestrians on the road want to break the soul, borrow to ask where the restaurant is, shepherd boy remotely refers to the apricot blossom village." The poem expresses the best description of this scene, although it is not directly stated, but the purpose of people looking for a restaurant should also be imagined.
At that time, the poets' works on these days were often cold food and Qingming, and the famous poet Bai Juyi had a verse saying: "The crowing magpies are noisy and the trees are faint, and the Qingming cold food is crying." Wei Yingwu has a poem that says: "Qingming cold food is good, and the spring garden is open." "Wine is a good thing, but also can express emotions of a derivative, can pour sorrow can also wash sorrow, in the tradition of the Chinese nation, especially under the influence of Confucian cultural influence, the ancients have always paid attention to filial piety first, in such a festival period, the most affectionate famous, sweeping the grave to remember the deceased, it is inevitable that the mood will be complicated, so how can the relatives who remember the deceased in such a season not be sentimental and cry? There are depressed knots in the chest, only by relying on wine, hoping to get drunk, and temporarily forgetting the pain, so the ancients often borrowed wine to calm or temporarily anesthetize people's mourning feelings.
According to the custom, generally in the Qingming Festival is the morning when the yang is sufficient to sweep the tomb, sweep the tomb to carry a variety of wine, fruit, paper money and other items to the cemetery, the food is sacrificed in front of the tombstone of the deceased, burn paper and cultivate the soil, trim and clean up, or fold a few tender green branches on the grave, and then prostrate and worship, sacrifice wine to honor the deceased.
And some people in the field, can not personally return to the cemetery to sweep the grave, eat lunch must prepare a glass of wine at home, wine instead of sacrifice is a simple sacrifice ceremony, the dinner table for the ancestors to put wine dishes, first pay homage to the ancestors, the family can begin to eat, expressing respect and remembrance of the deceased relatives.
Therefore, every Qingming season, people often take the opportunity to sweep the grave, and the whole family carries wine and food for spring travel, and eats out for dinner.
According to the Song Dynasty's meticulous record in the "Records of the Qianchun Years", "Between the north and south mountains, there are many carriages and horses, and the wild priests are Juduo... Women light makeup, carry children, wine pots and dishes", in the suburbs outside Kaifeng, but also "four wild as the city", when people took advantage of this holiday, meet in groups between the suburban jungles, Chen cup plate, persuade wine to pay, under the background of fine wine and food, lyrical nostalgia, children and teenagers are also difficult to get the suburbs to spread wilderness, play, the whole picture is also quite interesting. Today, although the Qingming Festival is originally intended to worship the ancestors and sweep the tombs, but with the development of the times, this festival has become a festival of national vacation and entertainment in a larger sense, the source and customs of cold food have been gradually forgotten and less known, and it has become a trend to use this holiday to go green and travel, but this does not prevent people from remembering and paying tribute to their ancestors.
Two years ago, we once watched a video produced by Tencent Video, "Where the Guest Comes From", which is to select contemporary celebrities to tell yashu, taste tea and talk about ancient times, and jointly trace their historical and cultural allusions, not only remembering the culture and customs of the ancestors, but also extending this culture from the individual to the public, causing strong repercussions in society, achieving a lot of resonance, and carrying forward the traditional moral culture, this innovative way and content, is a kind of exploration in a diversified social environment. Qingming Festival, a traditional festival with deep cultural connotations, is the accumulation of history and culture of the Chinese nation for thousands of years, no matter the change of dynasties, changes in the world, it has always been rooted in people's hearts, representing people's most simple emotions, with the development of society, Qingming Festival is more of a spiritual destination for people who are wandering outside, but also represents a kind of nostalgia, always remember "ancestral geometry, where I came from".