China News Service, Jinan, April 2 (Reporter Zhao Xiao) In April, "Pear Blossoms Rise", the Qingming Festival is approaching, and I am busy worshipping ancestors and making outings.

As a traditional festival that has been passed down for more than 2,000 years in China, the Qingming Festival has diverse and rich customs, and changes with the times, renovating its form, extending its connotation, and integrating with modern life.

The ancients are happy to go out and today's "fancy tour"

　　"The current Qingming Festival is actually the result of the integration of three solar terms and festivals, such as the Qingming Festival, the Cold Food Festival and the Shangsi Festival in ancient China. The tradition of outing and outing that continues to this day comes from the Shangsi Festival." Secretary-General of Shandong Folklore Society, Qi Lu Zhu Zhenhua, associate professor of Teachers College, said in an interview with a reporter from Chinanews.com that the Qingming Festival in the eyes of the ancients, "Spring City is full of flowers", everything is full of vitality, walking into nature and embracing nature are the instinctive impulse of the harmony between man and nature. Folk activities such as kite flying can raise one's spirits.

　　Today, outings are still a specific ceremony for modern people to celebrate the Qingming Festival, but more new formats and new fashions have emerged.

　　With the Qingming holiday approaching, China's tourism market welcomes a peak in bookings.

According to the "2022 Qingming Holiday Travel Trend Insights" released by a travel platform, fancy local travel and cloud travel have become the most eye-catching trends in this year's Qingming travel.

Under the epidemic, short-distance surrounding tours are still the mainstream, but compared with previous years, consumers have unlocked "fancy" gameplay locally.

Small and beautiful boutique homestays, exquisite camping and other niche travel methods are popular.

　　"Close-up, small scale, no push, unique experience, niche and exquisiteness have become the new characteristics of people's travel under the normal situation of the epidemic." Li Sheng'e, general manager of Shandong Guoxin International Travel Agency, told reporters that on the eve of Qingming Festival, the reservation rate of country houses and parent-child resort hotels Higher, reflecting that consumers pay more attention to safety and quality enjoyment.

Affected by the epidemic, most of the travel agency business pressed the "pause button" and moved to online promotion and promotion of natural and cultural attractions in various places, which also attracted a group of people to enjoy the spring in the "cloud".

On April 1, a couple of newlyweds took wedding photos on the Furong Bridge in Daming Lake.

Photo by Liang Ben

In ancient times "paper ashes flew", now "flowers bloom"

　　Qingming has both natural and humanistic connotations. It is not only a natural solar term, but also a traditional Chinese spring festival.

　　Zhu Zhenhua introduced that since the Tang and Song Dynasties, the Qingming Festival has basically completed the historical task of integrating the Cold Food Festival and the Shangsi Festival.

Since the beginning of the Tang Dynasty, everyone from princes and nobles to ministers of civil and military affairs has had Qingming holiday, which is a "legal holiday" set up by the ancient Chinese court, which is convenient for officials to return to their hometowns to sweep tombs, pay respect to ancestors, and follow the end carefully. The specific ceremonies include worship at the tomb, Hanging paper to burn money, repairing tombs, offering sacrifices, etc.

　　At present, the traditional way of worship is quietly changing. Under the advocacy of green, low-carbon and other environmental protection concepts, it is difficult to see "paper ashes flying" during the Qingming Festival, and instead "flowers blooming" and "ribbon flying".

The new winds of civilization such as "cloud sacrificial offerings", "substituting sacrificial sweeping" and water-soluble sacrificial offerings are blowing everywhere.

　　According to Peng Lei, director of the ashes management department of the Second Funeral Home in Jinan City, due to the impact of the epidemic, since March 21, the hall has suspended offline farewells, wake-ups, memorial services and other activities to help citizens in the "Cloud Remembrance · Jinan Sacrificial Sweep Net" ”, the funeral home WeChat official account and the website opened the “Cloud Sacrifice Scan” platform.

As of 9:00 on April 2, the "Cloud Memorial·Jinan Sacrificial Sweep Network" opened by the Jinan Civil Affairs Bureau has accumulated more than 130,000 registered users, more than 2.2 million people participated, more than 70,000 memorial halls have been created, and more than 200,000 messages have been left. .

"It is expected that there will be a peak of memorial service from April 3 to 5. At the same time, we will hold a memorial ceremony for the Qingming Dynasty to convey condolences to the deceased on behalf of their families and ferry their thoughts."

　　Peng Lei said that under the leadership of Jinan Civil Affairs Bureau, Jinan No. 2 Funeral Home undertook the "Telling the Story of Life" award-winning essay writing activity, carried out ecological burial and sea burial publicity activities, and carried out "Spring City-Old View" Online live broadcast, publicize and popularize the funeral and burial benefits and ecological burial policies of the festival land, and interpret the funeral service process.

　　Talking about the rise of new forms of sacrifice, Zhu Zhenhua said that since the beginning of the new century, China's traditional farming civilization and labor patterns have undergone tremendous changes. The rapid population movement and the accelerated pace of life have made the phenomenon of "leaving the soil and leaving the hometown" more common, which in turn led to tomb sweeping during the Qingming Festival. The traditional model of ancestor worship is facing a test.

　　Zhu Zhenhua believes that the ancients emphasized human relations and filial piety, attached importance to "li" and "respect", and traditional ritual activities such as tomb sweeping and worship had deeper cultural connotations. .

"Now we put more emphasis on 'large support and low burial' and "large support and low sacrifice". When elders are alive, giving them more material preferential treatment and spiritual comfort is far more important than the sense of ritual after death."

　　In the view of Song Huayu, a lecturer at the School of History and Culture of Shandong Normal University, although the online memorial uses a virtual space, it can also place real emotions and release the grief and nostalgia for the deceased in the heart, but it lacks the sense of on-site ceremony.

It is the so-called "sacrifice as present, sacrifice to god as if god is present" "I do not offer sacrifice, if not sacrifice".

"Sacrificing and sweeping on the spot can convey emotions in a more tangible way, so that the cultural connotations of family tradition, filial piety and gratitude carried by Qingming Festival can be continued." (End)