Tomb-Sweeping Day is one of the 24 solar terms around April 5th in the Gregorian calendar. Among the 24 solar terms, Qingming is the only solar term that is both a solar term and a festival. Because the 24 solar terms objectively reflect the changes of temperature, rainfall and phenology throughout the year, ancient working people used them to arrange agricultural activities. "Huainanzi Astronomical Training" says: "Fifteen days after the vernal equinox, the bucket refers to B, and the Qingming wind is coming." According to the centenarian question, "everything grows clean and bright at this time." So it is called Qingming. " As soon as Qingming arrives, the temperature rises and the rainfall increases, which is a good time for spring ploughing and planting. Therefore, there is an agricultural proverb that "before and after Qingming, point melons and plant beans" and "planting trees is not as good as Qingming". It can be seen that this solar term is closely related to agricultural production.
However, Qingming, as a festival, is different from pure solar terms. Solar terms are symbols of phenological changes and seasonal order in China, while festivals contain certain customs and activities, which have certain commemorative significance.
Tomb-Sweeping Day is a traditional festival in China, and it is also the most important festival to worship ancestors and sweep graves. Grave-sweeping is commonly known as going to the grave and offering sacrifices to the dead. Most Han people and some ethnic minorities visit graves in Tomb-Sweeping Day.
According to the old custom, when sweeping graves, people should bring food, wine, fruit, paper money and other items to the cemetery, offer food to the graves of their loved ones, then burn the paper money, cultivate new soil for the graves, break some green branches and insert them in front of the graves, then kowtow and worship, and finally go home after eating and drinking. The poem Qingming written by Du Mu, a poet in the Tang Dynasty, said: "There are many rains during the Qingming period, and pedestrians on the road want to break their souls. Ask local people where to buy wine? The shepherd boy pointed to Xinghua Village. " Write about the special atmosphere in Tomb-Sweeping Day.
To this day, the custom of worshipping ancestors and mourning the dead relatives in Tomb-Sweeping Day is still very popular.
The origin of Tomb-Sweeping Day
The Origin and Legend of Tomb-Sweeping Day
The traditional Tomb-Sweeping Day in China began in the Zhou Dynasty and has a history of more than 2,500 years. Tomb-Sweeping Day is first of all a very important solar term. As soon as Tomb-Sweeping Day arrives, the temperature rises, which is a good season for spring ploughing and planting. Therefore, there is a saying that "melons and beans are planted before and after Qingming". Agricultural proverb "Planting trees is not as clear as Qingming". Later, as the days of Qingming and cold food approached, cold food was the day when people banned fire to sweep graves. Gradually, cold food and Qingming became one, and cold food became another name of Qingming and became a custom of Qingming. On Qingming Day, there are no fireworks, only cold food.
There is a legend about cold food:
According to legend, in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, Jin Xiangong's concubine killed the prince in order to let her son inherit the throne, and Shen Sheng was forced to commit suicide. Shen Sheng's younger brother, Zhong Er, went into exile to escape the scourge. During his exile, Zhong Er suffered humiliation. Most of the courtiers who went out with him went out one after another. Only a few loyal people have been following him. One of them is called meson push. On one occasion, Zhong Er fainted from hunger. In order to save Zhong Er, Jiezitui cut a piece of meat from his leg, cooked it with fire and gave it to Zhong Er. Nineteen years later, Zhong Er returned to China and became the monarch, that is, Jin Wengong, one of the famous five tyrants in the Spring and Autumn Period.
After Jin Wengong came to power, in addition to meson push, he offered many rewards to courtiers who shared his joys and sorrows. Someone defended meson in front of Jin Wengong. Jin Wengong suddenly remembered the past and felt guilty. He immediately sent someone to ask meson to take the imperial court to be rewarded as an official. However, after several trips, the meson could not be pushed. Jin Wengong had to please. However, when Jin Wengong came to the meson pusher's house, he saw that the door was closed. Jiezitui didn't want to see him, and had already been hiding in Mianshan (now southeast of Jiexiu County, Shanxi Province) behind his mother's back. Jin Wengong asked his body guard to search Mianshan, but he couldn't find it. So, someone had an idea, saying, it is better to let Yamakaji go, set fire on three sides, leave one side, burn it and the meson will come out. Jin Wengong ordered the promotion of Yamakaji. Unexpectedly, the fire burned for three days and nights. After the fire was put out, the meson was not pushed out after all. Looking up the mountain, the mother and son were holding a charred willow tree and were dead. Jin Wengong looked at meson push's body and cried for a while. Then I buried the body and found that the back of meson push was blocked by a willow hole, as if there was something. Take out a look, turned out to be a skirt, with a blood poem:
I hope your master is always clear.
It is better to be a ghost than to accompany you as an exhorter.
If your master has me in his heart, remember that I often reflect.
I have a clear conscience in Jiuquan, diligent and honest.
Jin Wengong hid the bloody book in his sleeve. Then meson tui and his mother were buried under the charred willow tree. To commemorate Jiexiu, Jin Wengong ordered Mianshan to be changed to Jiexiu Mountain, and an ancestral temple was built on the mountain, and the day when Yamakaji was released was designated as the Cold Food Festival, telling the whole country that it is forbidden to set off fireworks and firecrackers on this day every year and only eat cold food.
When he left, he cut a charred willow and made a pair of clogs in the palace. He looked at it every day and sighed, "What a pity." The "first step" is the name of ancient people's subordinates respecting each other between superiors or peers, which is said to come from it.
The following year, Jin Wengong led his ministers to go hiking in plain clothes to show their respect and condolences. Walking to the grave, I saw the dead old willow tree resurrected, with thousands of green branches dancing in the wind. Jin Wengong looked at the resurrected old willow tree and seemed to see the meson push. He walked up to him respectfully, lovingly squeezed a branch, braided it into a circle and put it on his head. After the sacrifice, Jin Wengong named the revived old willow "Qingming Willow" and named it Tomb-Sweeping Day.
Later, Jin Wengong often took a bloody book with him as a souvenir, urging himself to take power. He is diligent and honest, and strives to govern the country well.
Since then, the people of Jin have been able to live and work in peace and contentment, and they are very nostalgic for Jietui, who has made outstanding contributions and is not looking for wealth. On the day of his death, it is forbidden to set off fireworks in memory of him. It is also made of flour and jujube paste into the shape of a swallow, strung with willows and inserted in the door to summon his soul. This thing is called "pushing swallows" (also called intermediary pushing). Since then, cold food and Qingming have become grand festivals for the people of the whole country. Whenever there is cold food, people don't make a fire to cook, but only eat cold food. In the north, people only eat cold food prepared in advance, such as jujube cakes and wheat cakes. In the south, there are mostly green balls and glutinous rice and sugar lotus roots. Every time I go to Tomb-Sweeping Day, people put wicker in a circle and put wicker branches in front of the house to show their memory.
In March and April, when spring is bright, pink and green, one of the most important festivals in China's traditional customs is Tomb-Sweeping Day. Tomb-Sweeping Day is now a national grave-sweeping festival. According to Sunday, it is around April 5, and according to the lunar calendar, it is the first half of March. The ancients divided a year into 24 solar terms and used this calendar to sow and harvest. Qingming is one of the twenty-four solar terms, fifteen days after the vernal equinox. According to the saying of "always asking questions": "Everything is long, clean and bright at this time. So it is called Qingming. " Therefore, "Tomb-Sweeping Day" was originally a solar term. Later, the custom of forbidding cold food and fire and beating graves was added, and Tomb-Sweeping Day was formed.
Originally, the Cold Food Festival and Tomb-Sweeping Day were two different festivals. In the Tang Dynasty, the day of sweeping graves was designated as the Cold Food Festival. The correct date of the Cold Food Festival is from winter to the future 105, around Qingming, so Qingming and cold food are combined into one!
The custom of offering sacrifices to ancestors and sweeping graves in front of graves originated very early in China. As early as the Western Zhou Dynasty, people attached great importance to tombs. Mencius' article about Qi people in the Eastern Zhou Dynasty and the Warring States Period also mentioned a ridiculed Qi person, who often went to the tomb of Dongguo to ask for tomb offerings, which shows that the custom of sweeping graves was very popular in the Warring States Period. When I arrived in Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty, I designated cold food sweeping the grave as one of the "five rituals". Therefore, whenever Tomb-Sweeping Day comes, "the fields and roads are crowded with scholars and women, and the servants and beggars of soap merchants get their parents' graves." (Liu Zongyuan's Book with Xu Jingzhao) Grave sweeping has become an important social custom.
In spring, when it is still cold, it is forbidden to make a fire to eat cold food, for fear that some old, weak women and children can't stand the cold. In order to prevent cold food from harming their health, outdoor activities such as hiking, outing, swinging, playing football, playing polo, inserting willows, tug of war, fighting cocks, etc. It has been decided that everyone should come out to bask in the sun, exercise their bones and muscles and increase their resistance. Therefore, in addition to ancestor worship and grave-sweeping, there are various outdoor fitness activities in Tomb-Sweeping Day, which make this festival not only have emotional appeal, but also have a joyful atmosphere of spring outing. There are both sad and sour tears in Where Are You Going, and vivid and bright scenes everywhere. This is really a very special festival.
Grave-sweeping in Tomb-Sweeping Day is a festival custom related to funeral customs. According to records, in ancient times, "tombs were not graves", that is to say, only graves were dug and graves were not built, so sacrifices were not recorded. Later, graves and graves, the custom of offering sacrifices to sweep graves, were supported. During the Qin and Han Dynasties, tomb sacrifice has become an indispensable ritual activity.
According to the biography of Yan Yannian in the Han Dynasty, although Yan is thousands of miles away from Beijing, her family will still return to the East China Sea Tomb in Qingming. Yan Yannian's behavior is reasonable in terms of the development and strengthening of ancestor worship and consanguinity consciousness of China people. Therefore, the tomb sacrifices that were not included in the norms in ancient times were also included in the Five Rites: "It is appropriate for a scholar to go to the grave and be included in the Five Rites, and it will always be a routine." With the official affirmation, the wind of tomb sacrifice is bound to prevail.
Tomb-Sweeping Day is a festival in memory of ancestors. The main memorial ceremony is to sweep the grave, which is a concrete embodiment of being cautious in pursuing the future and caring for the family. Based on the above significance, Tomb-Sweeping Day has become an important festival for China people.
Tomb-Sweeping Day is at the turn of mid-spring and late spring, that is, after the winter solstice 106 days. Grave-sweeping activities are usually held 10 days before or 10 days after Tomb-Sweeping Day. Some people in their hometown have been sweeping graves for a month.
Commemorative way
Tomb-Sweeping Day commemorates his ancestors in many ways:
Grave-sweeping is the earliest custom in Tomb-Sweeping Day, which continues to this day and is gradually simplified with the progress of society. On the day of grave-sweeping, the descendants first pruned the graves of their ancestors and the weeds around them, and then offered food and flowers.
As the cremation of human remains is becoming more and more common, the custom of sweeping graves is gradually replaced by the way of offering sacrifices to ancestors with ashes.
Chinese Singaporeans also set up a main card for the dead in the temple, and the temple has thus become a place to worship ancestors in Qingming.
On that day in Tomb-Sweeping Day, some families also worshipped their ancestors at home.
On this day in Tomb-Sweeping Day, you can bow silently in front of ancestors' graves, places where ashes are placed or temples.
No matter what form of commemoration, the most basic ceremony in Tomb-Sweeping Day is to remember the ancestors in front of the grave, where the ashes are placed or in front of the coffin. In order to make the ceremony of commemorating ancestors more meaningful, we should let the younger generation of family members know about the past struggle history of our ancestors.
Now the solar terms on the calendar seem to be based on the solar calendar.