Chinanews Client Beijing, April 4th (Reporter Shangguan Yun) "When the swallows came to Xinsha, Lihua was behind Qingming." Qingming Festival is in spring, and people will travel with their friends and relatives to travel and kite. In addition, it is also a day of remembering the dead and remembering the ancestors.
According to folklore experts, the Qingming Festival is actually a combination of ancient festival customs in spring. It also has its own seasonal foods, of which the "Green Youth League" is one.
Data map: Shanghai veteran brand launches the Internet Red Youth League to attract people to queue up for "early taste." Photo by Tang Yanjun
From solar terms to festivals
Qingming was initially only a solar term. In ancient times, there are two important festivals close to their dates, one is the Cold Food Festival and the other is the Shangli Festival, both in early March of the lunar calendar.
For a long time, the two festivals and one solar term basically did not interfere with each other. It was not until the Tang Dynasty that Qingming absorbed the customs of Shangli Festival and Cold Food Festival, and they tended to merge.
According to historical data, both Tang scholars and civilians in the Tang Dynasty regarded the cold grave festival as an important ritual of cautious pursuit. As Qingming is very close to the cold food festival, people often extend the grave sweep to Qingming.
At that time, the court considered that it was a habit to have both cold food and Qingming. It was officially stipulated in the form of official documents that when Qingming arrived, they could take a holiday with the Cold Food Festival.
Some customs of the Shang festival have gradually moved to Qingming. For example, when grave sweeping is going to the suburbs, while remembering their ancestors, people will take advantage of the bright spring, enjoy the flowers and set foot on the ground, and adjust the grief caused by their loved ones. The Tang Dynasty poet Wang Wei wrote: "The young man travels by day.
Eventually, during the Song and Yuan dynasties, Qingming formed an important traditional festival centered on ancestor worship and tomb sweeping, combining cold food customs with activities such as Shangli Taqing, which has continued to this day.
Qingming Festival and these customs
Qingming is in a vigorous and vigorous season. In ancient times, Qingqing was an important folk custom in Qingming. At this time, the earth was full of vitality. One of the significance of outings is to conform to the times.
Data Map: The neatly arranged "Qingming Dumplings" have been produced. Photo by Wu Jianping
Kite flying is another popular activity. The kite is also called "paper kite". It takes bamboo rafters and other materials as a skeleton, then pastes paper or silk, and fastens it with a long thread. Some people will cut the kite line while flying the kite and let the kite fly away, implying that the disease is eliminated.
Inserting willows into the portal is a unique festival of Qingming Festival. Willows have a strong vitality, and they often spit out new buds first in the spring. In "Qi Min Yao Shu", there is also a saying that "willow branches will be taken to the house, and no ghost will enter the house." There is a saying that the custom of inserting willows means that the disease can be eliminated.
Qingming also has the custom of Dai Liu. The folk proverb says: "If you don't wear willows in the clear and bright, you will be the first person to have a beautiful face." If you insert green willows at the corners, you will also "stay green", hoping to keep your youthful appearance and vitality.
Civilization Festival sweeps the tree new wind
Tomb sacrifice is also an important custom of the Qingming Festival. Today, the sacrifice custom of burning paper money and paper people and paper horses in the old days can be replaced by some modern civilization sacrifices.
In recent years, "online sacrifice sweeping" has become a new form of grave sweeping on the Qingming Festival: people who cannot return home for various reasons choose to light candles on the Internet to support mourning, which is also considered as a method of civilized sacrifice sweeping.
Qingming PC. On March 25th, the Xianling Cemetery in Nanjing held a 2020 Qingming collective sacrifice and sweeping ceremony. The staff presented flowers, worships, bows, silence, and lit lotus lights in order to pray for the deceased. The picture shows the staff put a lotus lamp. Photo by China News Agency reporter Bo Bo
In addition, people are advocating a new style of sacrifice and sweeping for environmental protection, and the sacrifice and sweeping approach based on flowers is slowly being accepted. Although the form of grave sweeping has changed, what remains unchanged is the thought of the deceased and the memory of the ancestors.
It has been said that adopting a low-carbon, civilized sacrifice and sweeping method can avoid many problems, such as avoiding accidents such as forest fires, reducing environmental pollution, and contributing to the protection of green water and blue sky.
In fact, the core significance of the Tomb Sweeping in Qingming is to be cautious. Cultural scholar Zhang Yiwu also said that thinking about his ancestors was to better commemorate his historical achievements and to remember the lineage from the blood. (Finish)