To commemorate meson tui, Jin Wengong designated this day as Cold Food Festival. In the second year, Jin Wengong climbed a mountain to pay homage, and the willow tree actually came back to life, so he gave the old willow the title of "Qingming Willow" and took the day after the cold food as Tomb-Sweeping Day.
After more than two thousand years' evolution, Tomb-Sweeping Day has gone beyond the meaning of solar terms and has extremely rich connotations. Different customs have been developed in different places, and sweeping graves to worship ancestors and outing are the basic themes.
Grave-sweeping originated in Shang Dynasty, but not necessarily in Tomb-Sweeping Day. Tomb-Sweeping Day's grave sweeping didn't become popular until the Tang Dynasty, and it was handed down from generation to generation. From the Tang Dynasty, from princes and ministers to ordinary people, we should pay homage to the dead souls of our ancestors on this festival. When sweeping the grave, we must first repair the grave, mainly to remove weeds and add new soil.
On the one hand, this ceremony can express the filial piety and care for the dead; On the other hand, the ancients believed that the graves of ancestors were closely related to the rise and fall of future generations, so tomb repair was an extremely important memorial ceremony.
Extended data:
The name of Tomb-Sweeping Day is related to the weather and climate characteristics at this time. The Western Han Dynasty's "Huainanzi Astronomical Training" said: "On the fifteenth day after the vernal equinox, the bucket refers to B, and the Qingming wind is coming." "Qingming Wind" is a refreshing and clear wind. "When I was in 100 questions" said, "Everything grows at this time, clean and bright. So it is called Qingming. " Although Qingming, as a festival, was only formed in the Tang Dynasty, Tomb-Sweeping Day Qi, as a symbol of time sequence, has long been known by the ancients and clearly recorded in the Han Dynasty.
Twenty-four solar terms are the climatic laws summed up by astronomers and people in ancient China in their life and production practice, which appropriately reflect the changes of temperature, phenology and rainfall throughout the year, and have indispensable guiding significance for people to arrange farming and sericulture activities on time. By Qingming, the temperature is getting warmer and the rainfall is increasing, which is a good season for spring ploughing and spring planting.
Therefore, Qingming is an important solar term in ancient agricultural production. The farmer's proverb says, "Before and after Qingming Festival, point melons to plant beans" and "Planting trees is nothing more than Qingming Festival", which is precisely the truth. In the Eastern Han Dynasty, Cui Mang's Moon Order for Four recorded: "Tomb-Sweeping Day ordered a silkworm concubine to stay in the silkworm room ..." It is said that it was at this time that he began to prepare for sericulture. The "Tomb-Sweeping Day" described in this article is only a solar term, not a festival.
References:
Baidu Encyclopedia: Tomb-Sweeping Day