As a descendant of Yan Huang, I don't know if you know anything about Traditional Festivals in China. What are the traditional festivals in China? According to the lunar calendar time, the first day of the first lunar month is the Spring Festival, the fifteenth day of the first month is the Lantern Festival, and the first two days of February are the Dragon Head and the Sheri Festival.
The first three days of March are the first day of the month, and the 106th day after the winter solstice is the cold eclipse. After April 5th is Qingming, the first five Dragon Boat Festival in early May, the Qiqixi Festival in early July, the Zhongyuan Festival in July 15th, the Mid-Autumn Festival in August 15th, the Jiuchongyang Festival in early September, the Lower Yuan Festival on October 15th, in addition to the Winter Solstice and Chinese New Year's Eve.
What is more noteworthy is that there are two traditional festivals that are the same as the natural solar terms, namely Qingming and winter solstice. So about the Qingming Festival, how much do you know about it?
Today we will focus on two topics. First, what are the stories related to Qingming? Second: In modern life, should Qingming continue to sweep tombs and worship ancestors in accordance with folk customs, and if people adopt the method of open-air paper sacrifice, will they be criticized as bad habits?
Qingming Festival is the most solemn festival of ancestor worship in the Chinese nation, and it is also a kind of commemoration festival for future generations to remember their ancestors. In fact, the Qingming Festival embodies the national spirit of the sons and daughters of China, and also inherits the thousand-year-old culture of Chinese civilization, expressing the moral feelings of future generations for history and respecting ancestors and respecting ancestors.
According to the results of archaeological research, the most primitive human beings actually have only two beliefs, one is the reverence for heaven and earth, and the other is the respect for ancestors. Moreover, the sons and daughters of China have the custom of tomb sacrifice and have a long history.
In the ancient Ganzhi calendar, the importance of celebrating the Qingming Festival is emphasized. Because of the existence of the ancestors' beliefs and sacrifice rituals of the sons and daughters of China, the ancestor worship of the Qingming Dynasty is not only a tradition but also a spiritual inheritance.
There are different customs in various places about the Qingming Festival for chinese children, but there are two major categories in total. The first is to honor the ancestors, and the second is to go on an outing, which realizes the remembrance and remembrance of the heavens and the earth and the ancestors of future generations.
Before the Tang and Song dynasties, the ancients also had the Cold Food Festival and the Shangwei Festival. Since then, the Qingming Festival has become widely respected, and people have integrated the customs of the Cold Food Festival and the Shangwei Festival, and have integrated with the cultures of various places.
Therefore, in modern life, the Qingming Festival is rich and diverse, but there are only two cultural connotations inherited by posterity. One is inseparable from the nature of heaven and earth, and the other is to talk about the ritual sacrifice to the ancestors.
So what are the legends and stories about the Qingming Festival in ancient Chinese history?
In 202 BC, Liu Bang's army won the Chu-Han War. The King of Han has since unified the world and established the Western Han Dynasty, known in history as Han Gaozu. But Liu Bang came from a mediocre background, and his family conditions were not very good.
Liu Bang's mother failed to see her son flying yellow and tengda, and died early. However, at that time, the rural people only buried the deceased in a hasty manner, and they did not pay much attention to the epitaph, which led to Liu Bang wanting to sacrifice to his mother after the war and complete the sacrifice ceremony of his descendants to his mother.
But Liu Bang did not remember where his mother's grave was, he just remembered a general location. When Liu Bang rushed over to see him, he was also confused, and he couldn't tell where his mother was buried.
Liu Bang looked at the countless tombstones in front of him and felt very uncomfortable, so he picked up a few leaves on the ground and meditated in his heart: "If the heavens pity my heart, plus my mother has a spirit in the sky, I will scatter these leaves into the air at will, as long as a leaf falls in front of a certain grave, even if the wind can't blow away, it is the grave of my Mother Liu Bang." ”
I don't know if it was a coincidence or Liu Bang's wish really worked, when he threw the leaves into the air, sure enough, a leaf landed in front of a tombstone, and the wind did not blow the leaves away. Liu Bang ran over to take a look, and it seemed to be very consistent with the place where his mother was buried in his memory. So Liu Bang quickly ordered someone to reset the new cemetery for his mother, and he would go to the tomb every year.
Later, after the people heard the story of Liu Bang worshipping his mother, they also spontaneously imitated Liu Bang. At the same time, people will also use some sacrificial props to express the remembrance of ancestors. But before and after this festival, in addition to eating specific foods, they would also bathe and pack up and go to the countryside to play.
During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, The Duke of Jin had a concubine who was favored alone, and this Li Ji wanted to mix with the politics of the forecourt. So she privately co-opted the chancellor to support her son to inherit the throne, but at that time, the only candidate for the throne was Crown Prince Shensheng.
Li Ji, who gradually became more and more powerful, wanted to put Shen Sheng to death, and the prince Shen Sheng, who was in a dilemma, was forced to commit suicide by hanging on the beam. But the prince also had a younger brother named Heavy Ear, who was forced to flee the land of right and wrong in order to escape the chaos.
The days of his exile were difficult, but fortunately there were many ministers around him who were very loyal to him. Among them was a courtier named Jiezi Tui, whose loyalty to the heavy ear was evident in the sun and the moon. When Zhong'er hadn't eaten for several days, how could he have the strength to escape?
Heavy Ear fainted from hunger in the wilderness, and The meson pushed no other way to choose to fill Heavy Ear with his own flesh. The meson pushed his own life to save the heavy ear, but what people did not expect was that after 19 years, the meson push was still left behind by the heavy ear, what is going on?
It turned out that through political movements, He returned to the palace and became the monarch, becoming a well-known Jin Wengong in history. However, he did not expect that after Duke Wen of Jin came to power, he would add officials to the ranks of the ministers who shared his happiness and hardships in the early years, but he only forgot about Jiezi Tui.
This seemed to hurt the heart of the meson, and when the other ministers explained the past to Jin Wengong 19 years ago, Jin Wengong knew that he was ashamed and wanted to visit the door in person and pull the meson back to his side. But JieZi Tui and his mother hid in the Mianshan Mountains to live a secluded life, but Jin Wengong still felt that he could not cross this hurdle, so he chased after the Mianshan Mountains.
Unfortunately, Mianshan mountain was too big, and Jin Wengong did not know how to push the meson out. At this time, a minister at the side of Jin Wengong proposed an idea, saying that as long as the mountain was set on fire, the meson would inevitably run out of the mountain with his mother, and as long as they waited at the foot of the mountain, they would definitely be able to welcome the meson push.
After Hearing this idea, Jin Wengong really set fire to the mountain, but unexpectedly, the meson Tui Ning would not go down the mountain. By the time people found the mother and son again, they were already dead. And the meson pushed dead before he died, holding a big tree, which was an old willow tree with a hole under the willow tree.
There was a cowhide in the cave, and Jin Wengong saw that the original cowhide had written a suicide note left by the meson. The content of the epistle mainly says: "Cut the flesh and serve the king with all his heart, but may the Lord always be clear and clear... The subject has no shame in the Nine Springs, and is diligent in his administration and restores clarity..."
Jin Wengong had countless feelings about this, and then he put this letter in his sleeve wherever he went, which also became the motto of his future administration. Before leaving Mianshan, Jin Wengong reburied the mother and son of Jiezi push, and also established an ancestral hall on the mountain, and ordered that this day be designated as a cold food festival, stipulating that the people of the whole country could only eat cold food during this period.
On the same day in the second year, Duke Wen of Jin took his ministers to Mianshan again. He found that the old willow tree had miraculously (previously burned out) and had grown new shoots, so Jin Wengong casually plucked a willow and braided it into a circle and put it on his head.
So the ancients called the hat made of wicker woven qingming willow, and later people also thought that this festival was qingming festival according to this legend. Therefore, some modern people will insert a willow stick when offering sacrifices to their ancestors.
The wicker is either placed in front of the grave of the ancestors or inserted in front of their own homes. Because the wicker in the story of Jin Wengong represents the meaning of attracting the soul of the ancestor and allowing him to get rest.
The poem says: "During the Qingming Festival, the rain is pouring, and the pedestrians on the road want to break their souls", this desolate environment seems to render the very sad psychology of people during the Qingming Festival. In fact, from a historical point of view, in addition to the sadness of the ancestors when the ancients were remembered during the Qingming Festival, they also had a yearning for playing in Qingqing, which had to be a pleasant mood.
Therefore, when people walk in the wild, they will bring some food unique to the Qingming Festival. In the south, many families will prepare youth leagues. This is a kind of turquoise pastry, because the material is mainly fresh wormwood leaves and baking soda, so when it comes out of the pot, it will leave people with a fresh fragrance, very natural atmosphere.
In addition, there is a green pastry in Taining, Fujian Province called warm mushroom bun. It is a rice dumpling made of sage grass and rice milk, and people can make a sweet mushroom bun by adding vegetable stuffing or bacon, spring shoots, shiitake mushrooms, brown sugar and other dishes.
In addition to eating this dessert themselves, the locals will also worship it to the god of the land, praying to the gods to bless the farmers to achieve great development of agriculture, and better grain abundance in autumn.
In the north, there are also some people who will eat loose seeds during the Qingming Festival, which is a kind of fried pasta, mainly mixing rice noodles into the main ingredient, and then rolling them into thin strips after the noodles are made, and frying them to get the scattered seeds. But there are also places called twist flowers, which are crispy to eat and are loved by northern diners.
Although there is a traditional Chinese saying called: "The people take food as the sky", the food made Chinese is related to culture and customs. People use various ways to express their love for life.
What to eat is only a part of people's lives, making food and tasting food is a form of expression of emotions Chinese, so why is Qingming Festival so important? Here's why.
However, in today's life, celebrating the Qingming Festival will also attract some doubts. For example, for the Qingming Festival, if people want to express their remembrance of their ancestors by burning paper, they may be scolded by some people.
Considering that modern people's awareness of environmental protection is gradually strengthening, individual voices emerge in an endless stream. They believe that during the Qingming Festival, if the people of the whole country burn paper in a large area, it will cause pollution to the environment, it is easy to cause fire and other safety hazards when burning paper, and they also say that burning paper is a superstitious practice, saying that everyone should believe in science and so on.
These doubts seem to hinder everyone from burning paper in the open air during the Qingming or winter solstice ancestor worship. So in the Qingming Dynasty, can modern people still burn paper? Is burning paper a folk custom or a bad habit?
After reading people's criticism of the open-air burning of paper during the Qingming Dynasty, we can also see what the supporters of open-air burning paper have to say:
Some netizens believe that the environmental pollution caused by open-air paper burning is not as great as everyone thinks. Because the Qingming Festival is only that day, even the whole country is considering burning paper in the open at this time. But this time is too small, and the pollution that can be caused to the environment is not so large. After all, compared with the environmental pollution caused by industrial construction, it is all pediatrics.
In addition, some netizens believe that Chinese have a tradition of festivals, which is not only a culture but also a inheritance of etiquette. The sons and daughters of China all say that China is a country of etiquette, but there are also some voices among modern people who say that they want to cancel the open burning of paper, then these people have no etiquette for their ancestors, and even the ceremonies have been canceled.
Some netizens believe that this is a thousand-year-old tradition of burning paper on the Qingming Festival, and some people use a superstition or bad habit, how can they refute it?
The fourth sound is: people's safety awareness is increasing year by year, even if they choose to burn paper in the open air during the Qingming Dynasty, everyone will still spontaneously consider safety work such as fire prevention. Since paper burners are not afraid of being punished for not doing a good job of safety, what are others worried about?
In fact, under this question, you can look at the surrounding countries and other civilizations in the world. You may have heard of ancient Babylonian India, but China is one of the four ancient countries, and there is no fault in civilization. The continuation of this civilization is a remarkable thing, bearing in mind that most civilizations on Earth are not only faulted, but most have even died out early.
Only the Chinese civilization is still developing, is there no merit for sacrifice? Of course. In the wake of the global outbreak in 2020, people should understand how important national and cultural self-confidence is.
People can't always feel that everything in foreign countries is good, nor can they underestimate the cultural heritage of the motherland. Therefore, as long as people do a good job of safety work, in line with local policies, and also abide by local epidemic prevention rules, everyone appropriately uses this ritual to express the remembrance of ancestors and respect for traditional festivals.
In fact, during the Qingming Festival, people not only have to sweep the graves of their ancestors to sacrifice. As long as there are conditions, everyone can also take their children to the Revolutionary Martyrs' Garden to worship. Children are the future of the motherland, and education is the link of inheritance. Parents should give cultural education related to traditional Chinese festivals to every flower of the motherland, so that Chinese civilization can not appear in our generation.
So with regard to the knowledge related to the Qingming Festival, what do you add to the topic of "whether open-air paper burning is a folk custom or a bad habit"? Everyone can leave a comment in the comment area to discuss.