Now that it has entered the seventh month of the lunar calendar, in the countryside of our country, people call the seventh month of the lunar calendar "ghost month", saying that the ghost door is often open and closed during this month, and the ghosts can travel to the human world. In addition, in the countryside, there are also "three major ghost festivals", namely Qingming, Zhongyuan, and Winter Clothes, do you know these festivals? Let's talk about it now!
1. Qingming Festival
The original Qingming Festival was one of the twenty-four solar terms, which gradually developed in the later development of history and culture by combining the customs of the Shangwei Festival and the Cold Food Festival. And because of the Qingming Day, we must sweep the tomb, step on the green, and worship the ancestors. It has become one of the three major ghost festivals in China.
Ming wants to go to the grave, and at the same time there is a custom of stepping on the green. In the past, Qingming was also called the Cold Food Festival, which lasted for 100 days, Cao Cao changed it to one day, Tang changed it to three days before Qingming, all fires had to be extinguished, and after the cold food, new fires came out of the palace. Most of them are on the 108th day after the winter solstice (that is, around the first day of March). Qingming also had to plant willow branches, wear wicker hats, fly kites, swing, ban fires, sweep tombs, and other activities such as stepping on greens, bowing, playing polo, shooting willows, and silkworm flower clubs!
2. Zhongyuan section
That is, the "July and a Half" ghost festival that we often call it, it is also the largest of the three major ghost festivals in China. Zhongyuan (July 15) was originally a day of folk ancestor worship, and then set as the Christmas of the underground palace, and the underground palace was in charge of the gate of hell, this heaven and earth palace opened the door of the earth palace, but also the day when the underground government opened the door, the deceased ancestors can go home for reunion, so it is also the ghost festival, which is the most important of the three major festivals in China, with a dojo, put steamed bread for the lone soul wild ghost to eat, this day to worship the ancestors, go to the grave, light the lotus lamp for the deceased to illuminate the way home. The Taoist Temple holds a grand festival to pray for the auspicious dojo, the content of which is to exceed the soul of the deceased.
This Buddhist day is the day of the Obon Society, and the content is also for the undead, and the original meaning of Oban is to liberate the upside down, which comes from the story of Mu Lian's rescue of his mother.
Zhongyuan Festival is the Christmas Day of the Three Officials emperor Zhongyuan Diguan, on this day, Taoism will carry out the transcendence of ancestors, the removal of the soul of the dead, so-called: the blessing of the heavenly official, the release of the earth official, the water official to relieve the evil.
3. Winter Clothing Festival
Every year on the first day of the tenth month of the lunar calendar, it is called the "October Dynasty", also known as the "Ancestor Worship Festival". For the Winter Clothing Festival. Also known as the Festival of Hades, this day, special attention is paid to the sacrifice of the first deceased, called the sending of cold clothes. Together with the Qingming Festival in spring and the Zhongyuan Festival in autumn, it is known as the three "ghost festivals" of the year. In order to prevent the ancestors from being cold and frozen in the Yin Cao Mansion, on this day, people would burn five-colored paper, send them clothes to keep warm, and bring warmth to the lone ghosts. On the first day of October, the cold clothes are burned, which carries the memory of the deceased by the present people and the compassion of the living for the deceased. At the same time, this day also marks the arrival of severe winter, so it is also a day when parents and lovers send warm clothes to those they care about.