Qingming Festival, also known as the Qingqing Festival, Xingqing Festival, March Festival, Ancestor Worship Festival, etc., is one of the 24 solar terms and the fifth solar term in spring. When the sun reaches 15° of ecliptic longitude, it is clear. The Qingming Festival originated from the ancestral beliefs of early human beings and is the most grand ancestor worship festival of the Chinese nation. Qingming Festival has both natural and humanistic connotations, which is not only a natural solar term, but also a traditional festival. Tomb sweeping and ancestor worship and outing are the two major ritual themes of the Qingming Festival, and these two traditional customs have been inherited in China since ancient times.
1. The meaning of solar terms
Qingming Festival is the most grand and grand ancestor worship festival of the Chinese nation, and it belongs to a kind of cultural traditional festival that respects ancestors and chases the distance cautiously. The Qingming Festival embodies the national spirit, inherits the sacrificial culture of Chinese civilization, and expresses people's moral feelings of respecting ancestors and ancestors. The Qingming Festival has a long history, originating from the ancestral beliefs and spring rituals of early humans. According to the research results of modern anthropology and archaeology, the two most primitive beliefs of human beings are the belief in heaven and earth, and the belief in ancestors. According to archaeological excavations, the tomb of 10,000 years ago was found at the Qingtang site in Yingde, Guangdong, which is the earliest confirmable burial style tomb in China, indicating that the ancient ancestors had a clear conscious tomb behavior and ritual concept 10,000 years ago. The "tomb sacrifice" ritual has a long historical origin, and the Qingming "tomb sacrifice" is the synthesis and sublimation of the traditional spring festival customs. The formulation of the ancient Ganzhi calendar provided the prerequisites for the formation of festivals, and ancestor belief and sacrificial culture were important factors in the formation of ancestor worship customs during the Qingming Festival. The Qingming Festival is rich in customs, which can be summed up as two major festival traditions: one is to pay homage to the ancestors and be cautious in the end, and the other is to go on outings and get close to nature. The Qingming Festival not only has the theme of sacrificing, remembrance and remembrance, but also the theme of outing and enjoying the body and mind, and the traditional concept of "the unity of heaven and man" has been vividly reflected in the Qingming Festival. Sweeping the tomb, that is, the "tomb sacrifice", is called the "respect for the time" of the ancestors, the spring and autumn sacrifices, there have been in ancient times. Through historical development, the Qingming Festival in the Tang and Song dynasties integrated the customs of the Cold Food Festival and the Shangsi Festival, mixed with a variety of folk customs in many places, and had extremely rich cultural connotations.
2. Stories and legends
When it comes to "Qingming" and "cold food", people often mention Jie Zitui. In fact, in China, there are generally festivals first, and then legends. Legend "Qingming", "cold food" is the Spring and Autumn Period Jin Wengong in order to commemorate Jie Zi Tui set up, Jin Wen Gong will Jie Zi Tui in the fire Mianshan died on this day as the "Cold Food Festival", and the day after the Cold Food Festival is set as the "Qingming Festival". In the Quwo area where Jin Wengong is located, the Cold Food Festival is already full of spring, and in the places with higher dimensions, spring has not yet arrived. The most important thing in the Cold Food Festival is to cut off the fire, because people can't use fire, so people can only eat cold rice. In the literature works, there are indeed records of Jie Zitui and his person, but in the records of historical books such as "Zuo Chuan" and "Historical Records", there is no plot of Jie Zitui being burned to death. Moreover, the Cold Food Festival originated from the commemoration of Jie Zitui, and this statement was not recorded until the turn of the Han Dynasty at the earliest (see Huan Tan's "New Treatise"). Many scholars believe that this was a follow-up to the Later Season's attempt to explain the Winter Food Festival. According to research, the origin of the Qingming Festival has nothing to do with Jie Zitui. Qingming, as a spring festival, has been determined long before the Zhou Dynasty. China has a vast territory, the customs of the north and south of the pre-Qin period are different, the literature mainly records the northern customs, the Tang Dynasty is the period of integration of the customs of tomb sacrifices in various places, and then the tomb sacrifice customs of the Qingming Festival gradually appear in the literature. In the historical development and evolution, most traditional festivals will be attached to a legend as the "origin", but in practice, these statements are far later than the birth of festivals.
3. Development and evolution
Qingming Festival is the spring festival of the Chinese nation, and the corresponding spring festival of Qingming is the Chongyang Autumn Festival, the Spring and Autumn Festival, which has existed in ancient times. The Qingming Festival has a long history, it has changed with the development of the times, and then gradually integrated the customs of the Cold Food Festival and the Shangsi Festival. In ancient times, the customs of the north and south of China were different, and before the Tang Dynasty, the tomb worship in northern China was mainly in the cold food festival and the winter clothes festival. Judging from the records of the "Book of Rites" and other documents, there was no routine of tomb sacrifice and sweeping on the Qingming Festival in northern China before the Tang Dynasty, and it has become a custom to go to the tomb on the Qingming Festival in the Tang Dynasty. The Tang Dynasty was a period of integration of tomb sacrifice customs in the north and south of China, following the tomb sacrifice customs of the Qingming Dynasty and expanding to all parts of the country. After the Tang Dynasty, the Cold Food Festival gradually declined, because it was close to the date of the Qingming Festival. During the Song and Yuan dynasties, the status of the Qingming Festival rose throughout the country, and it incorporated the customs and contents of the cold food festival such as banning fire and cold food.
In the Song and Yuan dynasties, the Qingming Festival, which integrated the customs of cold food and Shangsi, was formed in the Song and Yuan dynasties, with the worship of ancestors and tomb sweeping as the center, and the customs of banning fire and cold food and outing in Shangsi were integrated and stereotyped; The Ming and Qing dynasties generally inherited the old system of the previous generation, and the Qingming Festival still adhered to and developed its status as an indispensable festival in spring life. During the Republic of China, on the day of the Qingming Festival, in addition to the original customs such as tomb sweeping and outing, tree planting was also determined as a regular project, which was actually just an official recognition of the long-term continuation of the folk tree planting custom.
4. Precautions
1. Tomb sweeping time: (1) Tomb sweeping should be done sooner rather than later. (2) Generally, one or two days in advance is the best. (3) It is best to --- 12 o'clock in the morning, at least before 3 o'clock in the afternoon. (4) It is better to sweep the tomb for seven days, that is, the first three days and the last four days of the Qingming Festival. This is known as the "first three and last four".
2. Avoid heavy makeup and wear red and purple flowers. It must be plain.
3. Do not allow patients, pregnant women (including menstrual periods), and children under the age of eight to participate in tomb sweeping.
4. Outsiders do not go to the grave. Not your own family. People who are in love also can't participate.
5. Do not trample on other people's graves.
6. Avoid scolding and talking about ancestors.
7. The "three do not bring" :(1) do not bring fruits with bad homophony. Such as: pears, persimmons, grapes, etc. (2) Do not bring hollow food as offerings. (3) Do not bring peach wood, ancient money and other ornaments to sweep the tomb.
8、忌坟头长杂草、树枝、竹子、洞穴。
9. Remember to add soil to the grave. This year is a springless year, and the grave soil is not moved.
10. Don't eat raw or cold food.
11. The incense must be singular, one bunch or three bunches. The singular number is yang and the even number is yin. Be sure to be positive. 12. No waste, no disputes, no happy Qingming Festival!
13. Pay attention to fire prevention and clean up the scene. Stay safe on the road.
14. Families cannot sweep the grave in batches, they must gather together to sweep the grave. You can't talk about it.
15. Photographs cannot be taken at the cemetery.
16. The remote sacrifice is a sacrifice that cannot return to the hometown in the field, and it can be done on the balcony at home, but it must be in the direction of the hometown. If you are at a neighborhood intersection at home, draw a circle first, leaving an opening in the direction of your hometown.
17. When leaving the cemetery after the sacrifice burns the paper, you should take three steps back and then turn around.
18. After returning home, it is best to drink a cup of defiled water, this water is yin and yang water, yin water is underground water, and yang water is the water of the river on the ground, and these two are combined to drink a cup. If it is far away from the river, how to do this yin and yang water? Use tap water to add boiling water, the water received from the water pipe is yin water, and the boiling water is yang water, which together is yin and yang water. Note that cold boiled water cannot be used.
19. After going home from the grave, clean up the soil on your shoes.
5. Life and health
During the Qingming season, we should pay attention to these problems. The body has to move. Approaching Qingming, the liver qi in the body gradually reaches its peak, in daily life, you should go to bed late and get up early, but not stay up late. You can wear loose clothes, go to places with fresh air, such as parks, slow walking, boxing, and exercises; However, it is necessary to do exercise according to one's ability, and the amount of exercise should not be too large; pay attention to the prevention of high blood pressure, pollen allergies, skin diseases, catarrhal conjunctivitis, etc., and eat more light vegetables and fruits, such as celery, fungus, camellia, toon, bitter chrysanthemum and other seasonal wild vegetables.
"Qing Ming"
Text/Cao Xianmin
Qingming season rain,
Moisturizing things silently.
Plants and trees grow new green,
The country is like a picturesque screen.
Worship the tombs of our ancestors,
The mood is self-contained.
Health is the most precious,
Self-reliance.
The diet should be light,
Orderly living and walking.
Exercise is indispensable,
The mood needs to be peaceful.
disease prevention,
Wellness is balanced.
May you take care,
Longevity and eternal peace.
Carry forward the excellent Chinese culture
Promote the progress of social civilization!
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