Traditional activities in Tomb-Sweeping Day
Worship ancestors and sweep graves
In normal life, Tomb-Sweeping Day, a traditional festival, belongs to grave-sweeping activities in Tomb-Sweeping Day, which is an indispensable activity during Tomb-Sweeping Day. Because Tomb-Sweeping Day itself is a traditional festival to commemorate the deceased relatives, it is definitely indispensable to carry out ancestor worship and grave-sweeping activities in Tomb-Sweeping Day, so the traditional festival in Tomb-Sweeping Day in normal life belongs to grave-sweeping activities in Tomb-Sweeping Day, which can be tried in normal life.
There is no fire or cold food.
In daily life, related activities in Tomb-Sweeping Day are required by the Cold Food Festival, which is also one of the traditional activities in Tomb-Sweeping Day. Before some sacrificial activities appear in daily life, cold food will be changed into fire, which is one of the very traditional and rigorous sacrificial activities and can be tried in daily life.
Taqing amusement
In our daily life, we can also do some outings around Tomb-Sweeping Day, because the weather around Tomb-Sweeping Day belongs to the period of spring blooming, so we can also choose three or five friends to go out for an outing around Tomb-Sweeping Day, so we can try to do some sightseeing activities in our daily life to help relieve the work pressure of the day.
Chuanliuzhi
When you are in Tomb-Sweeping Day, you can also choose to fold willow, because when you are in Tomb-Sweeping Day, folding willow can play a very good role in ward off evil spirits. There is a saying that Tomb-Sweeping Day folded willows in front of your house, or made them into bracelets to wear on your head or hands, which has a very good effect of ward off evil spirits, so you can choose to fold willows in Tomb-Sweeping Day to celebrate Tomb-Sweeping Day.
fly a kite
On this day in Tomb-Sweeping Day, people not only fly kites during the day, but also fly kites 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 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.
play on the swing
This is the custom of ancient Tomb-Sweeping Day in China. Swing, that is, lift the rope, move. It has a very long history. It was originally called Qian Qiu, but later it was changed into 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. Playing swing can not only improve health, but also cultivate courage, which is deeply loved by people, especially children.
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 a popular game in ancient Tomb-Sweeping Day. According to legend, it was invented by the Yellow Emperor with the original purpose of training warriors.
plant trees
Before and after Tomb-Sweeping Day, the spring is bright, the spring is bright, and the spring rain is falling. The planted seedlings have high survival rate and fast growth. Therefore, China has the habit of planting trees in Qingming since ancient times. Some people even call Tomb-Sweeping Day Arbor Day. The custom of planting trees has been passed down to this day. 1979, the National People's Congress Standing Committee (NPCSC) stipulated March 12 every year as China's Arbor Day. This is of great significance to mobilize people of all ethnic groups in China to actively carry out activities to green the motherland.
Qingming health tips
1, eat more foods that protect the liver and nourish the lungs.
During the Qingming period, in terms of diet, some places still maintained the habit of banning fire and eating cold food during the Qingming period. However, some people are not suitable for eating raw and cold food. During the Qingming period, the diet should be warm and eat more vegetables and fruits, especially seasonal vegetables. Besides, Tomb-Sweeping Day's delicious food, such as shepherd's purse, spinach and yam, is good for your health. Eat regularly and quantitatively, and don't overeat. In spring, it is advisable to eat less acidic foods such as mutton, and appropriately "sweeten" that is, eat more sweets to keep healthy. But obese people should reduce sweets, limit calorie intake and eat more fruits and vegetables.
2. Avoid "Mao"
In spring, with the deepening of spring, the liver qi in the body becomes more and more abundant, reaching its peak at Qingming time. As the saying goes, excessive liver qi will have adverse effects on the spleen and stomach, hinder the normal digestion and absorption of food, and also cause emotional disorder and poor circulation of qi and blood, which will lead to various diseases.
Therefore, Tomb-Sweeping Day should not eat bamboo shoots, chicken and so on. "The hair with hyperactivity of wind and rising yang" refers to the hair that easily stimulates liver wind and rises qi and rising yang. Hair will move wind and produce phlegm, and poison will help fire evil. People with chronic diseases should not eat. "Hair" includes marine fish, shrimp, crab, pickles, bamboo shoots, bamboo shoots, mutton and roosters, and you can eat some cold foods appropriately. Therefore, the "Cold Food Festival" also has certain health principles. Because there is much rain and high humidity in Tomb-Sweeping Day, we should pay attention to choose some foods that warm the stomach and remove dampness, such as Chinese cabbage, radish and taro.
3, should not eat acidic food.
Because the liver qi in the human body will flourish with the arrival of spring, and it can reach its peak in the Qingming period in late spring. At this time, if the liver qi is excessive, it is easy to damage the spleen and stomach. Liver corresponds to "acid" in five flavors. At this time, if you eat more acidic food, it will be bad for the function of the spleen and stomach and affect digestion and absorption. Therefore, people should eat less acidic foods such as mutton, dog meat, quail, fried peanuts, fried melon seeds, marine fish, shrimps and crabs.
What are the forms of Tomb-Sweeping Day?
Qingming sacrifice
From the spatial form of sacrifice, sacrifice can be divided into temple fair sacrifice, altar sacrifice, shrine sacrifice, family sacrifice, hope sacrifice and grave sacrifice. The most important way of offering sacrifices in Tomb-Sweeping Day is to sweep graves, that is, to offer sacrifices to graves where the remains or ashes of relatives or ancestors are buried.
In traditional farming society, the Spring Festival, as the first day of the year, is of great significance. In many areas with strong clan concept, grave-sweeping is started from February vernal equinox to worship ancestors, and it ends at Qingming at the latest; Before sweeping the grave, adult men all over the country should hold ancestor worship ceremony in the ancestral temple; After the ancestor worship, they will also sweep graves according to family branches and houses. Sacrifice in ancestral temple is often a large-scale ritual of sweeping, and moving steel is dispatched by the whole family or even the whole lining. Traditionally, the main contents of ancestor worship include people burning incense, kowtowing and offering sacrifices, as well as the format and fixed content of the blessing words read by priests in public. Moreover, according to the ancient tradition recorded in Li Zhouguan Chunzongbo: "Brothers are related by food." Dongtang Festival usually ends with family dinner or sharing pork, or "eating Qingming".
Family ceremony (in memory of ancestors)
Family sacrifices, also called sleeping sacrifices, are sacrifices made by God at home. The main object of family sacrifice is ancestors who died within two generations, such as grandparents or parents. Family festivals are often held because the family structure is relatively simple or too far away from the ancestral graves. There is a cloud in the third volume of Ting Anne Lu: "People, rich or poor, are sacrificed first, and customs call festivals, which are natural. Covered with beautiful soil, family festivals take Qingming, July 30th and October 1st as ghost festivals.
Wangjiashan Festival
One climbed up the mountain, looked at the direction of the ancestral grave and withdrew the paper money into the air. Song Yu's "Chicken Ribs" volume: "Cold food is buried, and there is no fragrance. Paper money hangs on the tree. People who go to the countryside climb mountains to watch sacrifices. Breaking in the air is called breaking money. However, due to the four directions of Shi Jing, a wine bowl (turn, rice) was set up, and the family took a spring outing. "
Second, offering sacrifices by the water: worshippers set sacrifices in the direction where the ancestral graves are located, hoping to send their thoughts to the ancestral graves in their hometown along the waterway. In the Tang Dynasty, Wang Jian described the so-called "cold food trip" as "a far-away man who had no grave to worship the heavens and led his wife back to his hometown".
"Watching sacrifices", which is not limited by geographical space, has more special significance in modern society. With the spread of Chinese in the world, overseas Chinese worship at home has become a method of clan identification. For example, China people who live in Huonu Lu Lu badminton often burn paper sacrifices at the seaside of their ancestors' hometown.