Traditional activities in Tomb-Sweeping Day
spring outing
The Chinese nation has had the custom of going for an outing in Qingming since ancient times. In ancient times, it was called spring outing, spring seeking and so on. Spring outing, also known as spring outing, refers to going for a walk in the suburbs in early spring. Outing, a seasonal folk activity, has a long history in China, and its source is the ancient Spring Festival custom of farming sacrifice, which has a far-reaching influence on later generations. There are both solar terms and festivals in Tomb-Sweeping Day, and the atmosphere in Tomb-Sweeping Day provides important conditions for the formation of the Qingming outing custom in terms of time and meteorological phenology. During the Qingming Festival, spring returns to the earth, and nature presents a vibrant scene everywhere, which is a good time to go for an outing. People use the opportunity of sweeping graves to have fun with their families in mountainous areas and rural areas.
plant trees
Before and after Tomb-Sweeping Day, the spring was bright and the spring rain was falling, and the survival rate of planted seedlings was high and the growth was fast. So there is a habit of planting trees in Tomb-Sweeping Day, and some people call Tomb-Sweeping Day Arbor Day. The custom of planting trees has been passed down to this day. The custom of planting trees in Tomb-Sweeping Day is said to have originated from the custom of crossing willows and inserting willows in Qingming Festival.
fly a kite
Kites are also called "paper kites" and "kites". Flying kites is the most popular activity in Tomb-Sweeping Day. During their stay in Tomb-Sweeping Day, people not only wore it during the day, but also at night. At night, a string of colored lanterns is hung under the kite or on the wind-stabilizing stay, like twinkling stars, which is called "magic lamp". Someone used to put kites in the blue sky, then cut the strings and let the breeze send them to the ends of the earth. It is said that this can eliminate diseases and disasters and bring good luck to yourself.
Worship of tomb ancestors
Tomb-Sweeping Day's grave-sweeping, which means "grave-sweeping sacrifice", is a "respect for time and thought" for ancestors. Sacrificing ancestors is a way of remembering ancestors, and its custom has a long history. Tomb-Sweeping Day is a cultural tradition of paying homage to his ancestors and pursuing the future with caution, mainly offering sacrifices to his ancestors and expressing his filial piety and yearning for them.
Chuanliuzhi
Tomb-Sweeping Day and China have the folk custom of inserting willows. Another way of saying it is to exorcise ghosts and evil spirits. Tomb-Sweeping Day, Mid-Autumn Festival and Cold Clothes Festival are collectively called "Three Ghosts Festival" in some places in northern China. Influenced by the Buddhist avalokitesvara, many people think that wicker has the function of exorcising ghosts and evil spirits, and call it "ghost wood".
a rat race
Tug of war was called "tug of war" in the early days and "strong hook" in the Tang Dynasty. It is said that it was invented at the end of the Spring and Autumn Period, which began to prevail in the military and later spread among the people. During the reign of Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty, a large tug-of-war was held in Tomb-Sweeping Day. Since then, tug-of-war has become a part of the Qingming custom.
play on the swing
Swing is one of the customs of ancient Tomb-Sweeping Day in China. Swing has a very long history. It was originally called Qian Qiu, but later it was changed to a swing to avoid taboos. In ancient times, swings were made of branches and tied with ribbons. Later, it gradually developed into two ropes, a pedal swing. Swing can not only improve health, but also cultivate courage, which is deeply loved by people, especially children.
gamecock
In ancient times, cockfighting competitions prevailed in Qingming, which began in Qingming and lasted until the summer solstice. The earliest record of cockfighting in China can be found in Zuo Zhuan. In the Tang Dynasty, cockfighting became a common practice, not only among the people, but also among the emperors. For example, Tang Xuanzong likes cockfighting best.
Liu She
Shooting willow is a game to practice archery. According to the records of the Ming Dynasty, pigeons were placed in gourds, then the gourds were hung high on willow trees, and the gourds and pigeons flew out with bows, and the victory or defeat was judged by the height of the flying pigeons.
play football
Bow is a rubber ball, the skin of which is made of leather, and the ball is stuffed with wool. Cuju is kicking the ball with your feet. This is the favorite game of northerners in ancient Tomb-Sweeping Day. According to legend, it was invented by the Yellow Emperor with the original purpose of training warriors. There were polo in the Temple of Heaven in Qing Dynasty, and polo didn't disappear until the middle of Qing Dynasty.
Qingming health care skills
Cultivate moral quality
In spring, the human body yang rises, and so does the human body yang. In order to help yang, we should pay attention to eating onions, coriander, black beans, dates, stilbene and so on. And eat more foods that strengthen the spleen, tonify the kidney and moisten the lungs, such as loquat, pear, lotus seed, lily, jujube, walnut and honey. This will help to relieve the symptoms.
Nourish spleen
Chinese medicine also believes that "acid should be preserved and sweetened in spring to nourish temper." This is because when the liver-qi is strong in spring, the liver-qi will affect the spleen, so it is prone to spleen and stomach weakness in spring, and eating sour food will make the liver-yang hyperactive. Therefore, the spring diet should choose pungent and warm products, avoid acidity and eat more vegetables and wild vegetables.
Yang Yang
In spring, Yang Can is characterized by plain and clear diet as a supplement, such as warm food.
Light diet is suitable for normal people and weak people, such as buckwheat, coix seed, soybean milk, mung bean, apple, sesame and walnut. Food supplement refers to the diet cooked with foods with cold eating habits, such as pears, lotus roots, shepherd's purse, lilies and so on.
Nourishing kidney
The comfortable weather in spring is a good opportunity for patients with poor renal function to nourish and recuperate. At this time, taking Bushen recipe and Bushen medicated diet has a high curative effect on early renal function damage. Patients should pay attention to spring life conditioning, and the diet is mainly light and sweet. Edible light fruits and vegetables, such as mangosteen, lotus root, coix seed, cucumber, cantaloupe and so on.
nourishing the liver
In Huangdi Neijing, it is recorded that "people lie in blood and return to the liver", but in spring, they should lie at night and get up early. Nourishing the liver is more important than sleeping, so it is necessary to conform to the prosperous scene of nature, go to bed early and get up early, take a walk in the morning to relax, and relax the body and adjust the mood as a health preservation method.
treat yin deficiency by reinforcing body fluid and nourishing the blood
People with yin deficiency and internal heat can choose rice porridge, red bean porridge, lotus seed porridge, green vegetable paste and other foods, and do not eat big sweet and greasy, fried and fatty, cold and rough food.
Bunao
In spring, people with hyperactivity of liver yang are prone to headache and dizziness, which is the reason why Chinese medicine says that "all diseases in spring are in the head". Its diet prevention method is: eat 250 ~ 500 grams of bananas or oranges every day; Or use banana peel 100g instead of tea and decoct with water. In addition, 250 grams of celery and red dates 10 can be used instead of tea.
nourishing the stomach
You should avoid greasy pork soup, chicken soup, fish soup, beef soup, spinach, beans, animal offal and irritating condiments in your diet, because these foods have a strong stimulating effect on the secretion of gastric juice and are easy to form gas, which will lead to abdominal distension and increase the burden on the stomach. The diet should be light and easy to digest, and the above honey therapy can be used.
Tomb-Sweeping Day's Food Culture
In ancient times, Tomb-Sweeping Day had the habit of eating "baked barley porridge". According to Jingchu Chunqiu, cold food is "three days without fire, barley porridge baked". The method of this porridge is to grind barley into wheat pulp and cook it, then mix the mashed almonds, concentrate them and cut them into blocks. Pour syrup on it when eating. "soup" means syrup. This is the earliest recorded food in Tomb-Sweeping Day.
In the Book of Qi Yao Min, Jia Sixie of the Northern Wei Dynasty also introduced a kind of cold food in Tomb-Sweeping Day, which is called "cold food utensils", which is actually a kind of sweet bread. "Mix the water and honey. If there is no honey, cook the juice with jujube. Cattle and sheep cream is also available. It is also good to make cakes with cow and goat milk, which is crisp and beautiful. " This is also a cold food, which tastes sweet and crisp.
In the Five Dynasties, in addition to the general cold porridge cakes, the custom of making "artistic" eggs was added. Tomb-Sweeping Day's "artistic" eggs can be roughly divided into two types. One is "painting eggs", that is, dyeing eggshells in various colors, similar to today's "red eggs", but with different colors. The other is "carving eggs", which requires superb technology to carve pictures on eggshells. This kind of egg is just for enjoyment.
Today, Tomb-Sweeping Day is called the Cold Food Festival, because most of the food people eat at this time is cold food. "Cold swallow" is the traditional pasta of the Cold Food Festival. According to legend, in order to commemorate Jiexiu, who was burned to death, Jin Wengong ordered no cooking with fire for three days, so people cooked this cold food. "Cold swallow", also known as "purple-legged swallow", can still be seen among the people in the north. "Dream of China in Tokyo" records: "Jujube is made of flour, willow branches wear it, and it is inserted in the lintel, which means that the son pushes the swallow." This kind of food in Shanxi and other places is made by mixing flour with water, kneading it into the shape of a swallow, steaming it in a cage, and eating it after cooling, so it is called "cold swallow". It is put on with wicker during Qingming Festival and hung on the lintel to commemorate meson push.
There is also a kind of pasta in the south of Shanxi called Zifu. It is made by inserting an egg or a walnut into a big steamed bread, kneading the dough into the shapes of snakes, scorpions and centipedes, wrapping it around the egg, shaping it, and steaming it in a cage. On that day in Tomb-Sweeping Day, people used "Zi Fu" as a sacrifice to their ancestors. After the sacrifice, everyone shared the food. It is said that eating "Zi Fu" can bring happiness to future generations.
In Huoxian County, Shanxi Province and Jiaodong, Shandong Province, there is a kind of dough plastic food called "snake dish". Knead the dough into a one-headed snake or a two-headed snake, steam it, cool it, and take it to the ancestral grave as a sacrifice. When offering sacrifices, people hold a "snake tray" and walk around the tomb first, and then they can eat it after the sacrifice. Bite off the snakehead when eating, which means "kill the virus to avoid disaster"
Jujube cakes and prickly heat are also foods in northern Tomb-Sweeping Day, which used to be called "pushing cakes". The method is to ferment flour, knead it into dough and make it into various shapes, such as swallows, mice, snakes, or simply make it into round cakes. They are steamed in cages and eaten cold to commemorate meson push.
In the south, glutinous rice flour is generally used to make Tomb-Sweeping Day food. In Lin 'an, Zhejiang, people often mix tender lotus and wax powder to make the shape of a dog, which is called Qingming Dog when steamed. How many people in the family make a few, and everyone eats one. There is a folk saying that "eating Qingming dogs will keep you healthy all year round." It is also good luck. In Suzhou and Shanghai, there is a custom of having a reunion dinner. "Jia Qinglu" says: "Violet seeds and cooked lotus roots are sold in the market, which is the first product sacrificed to the people in Qingming Festival ... Now, if you use violet seeds and red lotus roots, you can eat them cold and still follow the legacy of banning fire." Nowadays, green balls are generally squeezed with vegetables and dyed with green glutinous powder, which contains stuffing such as bean paste; Or steamed with green mugwort and flour into mugwort dumplings, also called green dumplings. The youth league has been passed down to this day and its charm remains the same.
Today, people not only use it to sweep graves and worship ancestors tomorrow, but also can see this kind of food at ordinary daily festivals or weddings. Nowadays, this kind of "dumplings" is also sold in Tomb-Sweeping Day. In Chengdu, Sichuan, fried rice is used to make jiaozi, which is worn with thread and dyed with color. It is called Happy jiaozi. In the past, there were many shops and stalls selling happy groups outside the north gate of Chengdu to around Xi 'an. There is a poem in the Qing Dynasty's "Records of Jin Chengzhu": "Music is in front of the temple, and you are worried when you buy it in the spring suburbs." Village drama is better than Jin Shengsheng, and many people are drunk. "This should be a vivid portrayal of Happy Group.