April 5 every year is known as the "Qingming Festival", and this festival has a long history, also known as the Stepping Youth Festival and the Ancestor Worship Festival. Why does Qingming Festival always fall on April 5 of the solar calendar? This is because the Qingming solar term is often between the 4th and 6th, and the 5th is more common, so Qingming was later set for April 5.
The tomb sweeping sacrifice on the Qingming Festival is a very important event, which is an expression of the fine Chinese tradition and also shows the remembrance of the ancestors. But this year's Qingming Festival is different from previous years, the old saying "Qingming is in leap month, go to the grave in advance", which means that you can't go to the tomb to sweep the tomb on the day of Qingming Day, and the reason for this is related to leap February.
What is leap February
Leap February, as the name suggests, means that there are two February in a year, and the second month is Leap February. Our ancestors divided the whole year into 24 solar terms, and inserted these solar terms into 12 months, with two solar terms in a month, the former called "solar terms" and the latter called "medium qi".
Leap February is followed by the Qingming solar term, but the medium qi "Valley Rain" falls to the next month, so this month is incomplete, and can only follow the name of February, so it is set as "leap February".
In this regard, the older generation of people think that leap February is "nothing" and does not exist, so there is a "leap month without a moon" and "underground no leap month" saying, everyone thinks that the leap month is more unlucky, because February does not exist, so even if the Qingming Festival goes to the grave, the ancestors can not receive it, so the people also have the saying that "the leap month Qingming does not go to the grave".
Leap months are heavy
"Leap month Qingming Mo go to the grave, go to the grave will cause trouble to the door", in the eyes of some superstitious older generations, there is also the saying that "leap month is heavy", because everyone believes that the leap month is nothing, if buried at this time, then it is a taboo of "heavy burial", so including going to the grave, erecting monuments, moving graves and so on are unlucky.
Regarding these statements about the Qingming Festival in leap February, it is indeed not very scientific at a simple glance, on the contrary, it is still very superstitious, at that time, from the perspective of traditional Chinese virtues, this actually has a certain truth, fully showing the Chinese people's admiration and respect for the ancestors of the ancestors, even if the ancestors are no longer there, but there should be love, there should be righteousness.
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