Tomb-Sweeping Day's famous historical customs and dietary customs.

Tomb-Sweeping Day is rich in folk activities. Qingming customs mainly include grave-sweeping, cold food and fire-sending, spring outing, cuju, swinging, flying kites, bird shooting, tug-of-war, giving eggs, eating green balls, eating lotus roots and planting trees. Of course, the most important custom is to worship ancestors and mourn their loved ones.

Swinging willows through willows is related to the ancient concept of exorcism. Willow has the function of exorcising evil spirits in the hearts of the ancients, which can prevent ghosts from invading.

According to records, there was also a proverb in the Qing Dynasty that "a beautiful woman is proud of her head". It can be seen that in the past, inserting willows and wearing willows were necessary decorations for Qingming.

In addition, the sunny weather around Tomb-Sweeping Day is a good day for spring outing, swinging, flying kites and planting trees.

Folklore scholars believe that with Tomb-Sweeping Day being listed as a national statutory holiday, the rich cultural connotation of Qingming will gradually return to people's lives.

Traditional custom 1: cold food

Cold Food Festival, also known as "Smoke-free Festival", "Cold Food Festival" and "15th Festival", is usually held from the winter of the summer calendar to the next105th day, later than Shangsi Festival and earlier than Tomb-Sweeping Day.

The Han Dynasty was held three days before Tomb-Sweeping Day, and the Tang and Song Dynasties were changed to the day before Tomb-Sweeping Day.

Smoking is not allowed to make a fire at the Cold Food Festival, and only cold food is eaten.

There are different opinions about the origin of the Cold Food Festival, and the most popular one is to commemorate the meson push of Jin State in the Spring and Autumn Period.

Zhong Er, the son of the State of Jin, has been in exile for more than ten years, and meson pushed him to escort him.

After Zhong Er returned to China and acceded to the throne, Jiezitui hid in the mountains to avoid officials.

Zhong Er released Yamakaji, hoping to squeeze out the meson thrust, but he was burned to death.

Later generations urged people to commemorate mesons, so they banned fire and formed a special commemorative festival-Cold Food Festival.

Folklore experts said that the Cold Food Festival was the day before Tomb-Sweeping Day, and the ancients often extended the activities of the Cold Food Festival to Qingming. Over time, people combine cold food with Qingming.

During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the Cold Food Festival no longer banned fire, and people were not required to eat cold food.

Traditional custom 2: sweeping graves to worship ancestors

In the history of China, it has long been a custom to eat cold food and forbid fire and pay homage to ancestors.

After the Tang Dynasty, the Cold Food Festival gradually declined, and Tomb-Sweeping Day's grave-sweeping and ancestor worship became a continuous festival tradition.

Bai Juyi, a great poet in the Tang Dynasty, wrote in his poem "Cold Food and Wild Hope": "Who cries when birds are singing? The wind blows the paper money in the wilderness, and the ancient tomb is full of spring grass.

The flowers in Li Tang reflect the poplars, which are full of places where life and death leave.

The mysterious desert and the heavy spring day cry without hearing, and the rustling rain makes people go home. Koguryo, a poet in the Song Dynasty, once wrote in a poem: "There are many tombs in the north and south mountains, and Qingming is different.

Paper ashes fly into white butterflies, and tears are dyed into red azaleas.

At sunset, on the fox's sleeping grave, a drop once reached Jiuquan! Even in today's society, before and after Tomb-Sweeping Day, people still have the custom of paying homage to their ancestors: uprooting weeds, placing offerings, burning incense and praying in front of graves, burning paper money and gold ingots, or simply offering a bunch of flowers to express their memory of their ancestors.

Traditional custom 3: outing

Since the Tang Dynasty, Tomb-Sweeping Day's grave sweeping has been accompanied by an outing, so Tomb-Sweeping Day is also called an outing festival.

Because Tomb-Sweeping Day coincides with the best spring, there has been a tradition of Qingming outing since ancient times. People often take food and wine to the countryside of Lin Yuan with their families to get close to nature.

Common activities in hiking include swinging, tug-of-war, butterflies flapping their wings, picking herbs, flying kites, inserting willows and planting trees.

In the traditional Qingming custom, inserting willows and wearing willows are also unique customs in Qingming.

Willow is a good tree in spring, and it is said that the transmission of new folk fires is also carried by wicker.

Tradition 4: Swing

Tomb-Sweeping Day is also called "Swing Festival". It is said that swinging can drive away all diseases. The higher you swing, the better your life will be. Popular in the Southern and Northern Dynasties, it has been popular in the north and south of the Yangtze River since the Tang Dynasty.

This is a custom in ancient Tomb-Sweeping Day.

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.

Traditional custom five: Cuju

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.

Traditional custom six: flying kites

Flying kites is a popular custom in Tomb-Sweeping Day.

Pan Rongbi, a writer in A Qing, wrote in "Ji Sheng at the Age of Emperor Jingdi": "When sweeping graves in Qingming Festival, men and women in the whole city flocked out from the suburbs, carrying boxes and wheels facing each other.

Everyone takes a kite spool, and after the sacrifice, it is best to throw it in front of the grave. "The ancients also thought that the Qingming wind was very suitable for flying kites.

Jia Qinglu said: "The wind of spring is from bottom to top, and kites rise because of it, so there is a proverb" Clear and clear ". "In ancient times, flying kites was not only an entertainment activity, but also an act of witchcraft: they thought flying kites could release their bad breath.

Therefore, when flying kites in Tomb-Sweeping Day, many people will write all the disasters they know on paper kites. When the kite flies high, they cut the kite string and let the kite float away with the wind, symbolizing that their illness and dirty air have been taken away by the kite.

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.

Traditional custom seven: tug of war

It was called "tug of war" in the early days and "strong hook" in the Tang Dynasty.

It was invented at the end of the Spring and Autumn Period, which became popular 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.

Tug-of-war is held in the Qingming period when spring ploughing and spring planting are in full swing, which means praying for a bumper harvest.

Traditional custom eight: inserting willow into willow.

In the concept of the ancients, willow has magical power. If you put a willow branch on the house, a hundred ghosts can't get into the house.

People in the Tang Dynasty believed that wearing willow branches when offering sacrifices by the river on March 3 could get rid of the harm of poisonous insects.

After the Song and Yuan Dynasties, the custom of inserting willows in Tomb-Sweeping Day was very popular.

It is also recorded in Jia Sixie's "Qi Yao Min Shu" in the Northern Wei Dynasty: "Take a willow branch and put it on the house, and a hundred ghosts will not enter the house."

Traditional custom 9: planting 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.

In Taiwan Province Province and southern Fujian, people still like to plant acacia trees, so that the dead relatives can have a home and the living can have the sustenance of missing.

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.

Traditional customs 10: cockfighting

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 the emperor.

For example, Tang Xuanzong likes cockfighting best.

Top Ten Food Customs in Tomb-Sweeping Day

According to experts, besides sweeping graves to worship ancestors, Tomb-Sweeping Day's food customs are rich and colorful.

Traditional diet custom 1: eat eggs

In some places, eating eggs in Tomb-Sweeping Day is as important as eating zongzi on the Dragon Boat Festival and eating moon cakes on the Mid-Autumn Festival.

According to folk custom, Tomb-Sweeping Day has good health all year round after eating an egg.

According to reports, the custom of eating eggs in Qingming has a history of thousands of years.

Folklore experts say that this reflects people's awe and reverence for life and fertility.

Experts say that eating eggs originated from the ancient Shangsi Festival.

In order to get married and have children, people cook eggs, duck eggs, bird eggs and other eggs and paint them in various colors, which are called "multicolored eggs". They came to the river, threw colorful eggs into the river, and then washed them down with water, so that people downstream could grab and eat them, and then they could get pregnant.

Eating eggs in Tomb-Sweeping Day now symbolizes satiety.

In some rural areas, there is also the custom of "knocking eggs" between children.

If we want to explore the symbolic significance of Tomb-Sweeping Day's eating eggs, we should also include people's awe and belief in life and fertility.

Traditional Diet Custom 2: Eat Green jiaozi.

During his stay in Tomb-Sweeping Day, Jiangnan had the custom of eating green jiaozi.

Green jiaozi is to mash a wild plant called "Pulp Wheat Straw" to squeeze out juice, then mix this juice with dry pure glutinous rice flour, and then wrap it in jiaozi.

Jiaozi's stuffing is exquisite sugar bean paste, and a small piece of sugar lard is added when filling.

Jiaozi cooked it and steamed it in a cage. When they come out, brush the cooked vegetable oil evenly on the surface of jiaozi, and you're done.

Green glutinous rice balls, green as jade, sticky and soft, fragrant, sweet but not greasy, fat but not full.

Green jiaozi is also a necessary food for people to sacrifice their ancestors in Jiangnan area. Because of this, green jiaozi is particularly important in the folk food customs in the south of the Yangtze River.

Traditional diet custom three: eating prickly heat

Tomb-Sweeping Day has the custom of eating prickly heat in both north and south of China.

"Zanzi" is a kind of fried food, crisp and delicate, and was called "cold ware" in ancient times.

The custom of forbidding fire and cold in the Cold Food Festival is not popular in most parts of China, but the prickly heat related to this festival is deeply loved by the world.

The prickly heat that is popular in Han areas is different from the north and the south: the prickly heat in the north is generous and free, with wheat flour as the main material; The southern prickly heat is exquisitely made, mainly rice and flour.

In ethnic minority areas, there are many kinds of prickly heat with different flavors, especially in * * * Er, Dongxiang, Naxi and Ningxia.

Traditional Diet Custom 4: Qingming Snail

Tomb-Sweeping Day is the best time to eat snails. Because at this time, the snails have not yet propagated, and they are the most plump and plump, so there is a saying that "the snails in Qingming are worth a goose".

Snails can be eaten in many ways. They can be fried with onion, ginger, soy sauce, cooking wine and sugar. You can also cook, pick snail meat, mix, drink, rot and simmer.

If you eat properly, it can really be called "a snail is not worth a thousand things, and wine is not as good as food."

Traditional diet custom five: eat pancakes and steam vegetarian seeds.

Chaoshan people have crossed Tomb-Sweeping Day and have a strong local color.

Qingming cake is very popular in Chaoshan, and almost every household is no exception.

Peel pancakes.

The stuffing consists of two parts. The skin is made of flour and water, stirred into a thick paste, and baked into a round cooked dough sheet in hot soil, as thin as paper.

There are two kinds of fillings, namely, egg, meat, liver and bacon.

Mushrooms, bean sprouts, leeks and other clinker are mixed into stuffing called salty stuffing; Sugar and maltose are specially processed into "sugar onions" for sweet stuffing.

When eating, roll the pancake skin into a cylinder to eat.

Steamed pine nuts.

There is a tree in Chaoshan called Puzi Tree (also called Puding Tree, belonging to Ulmaceae), which has oval leaves and sweet fruit as big as mung beans.

Legend has it that ancestors used this leaf to satisfy their hunger in famine years.

During the Qingming period, the climate is getting warmer and the vegetation is lush, and the leaves of Puccinia stipulata are full of light green.

Later generations did not forget the past, so they picked this leaf in Tomb-Sweeping Day, pounded it into powder with rice chaff, fermented it with sugar, and steamed it in a pottery mold, making it into plum blossom shape and peach shape, also called bowl-stuffed peach.

It is light green and very sweet. It is said that eating it can relieve accumulated heat and cure diseases.

Traditional diet custom six: moisten cake dishes

Every time in Tomb-Sweeping Day, Quanzhou people have the custom of eating "cake-moistening dishes".

It is said that this is the legacy of the ancient Cold Food Festival.

The proper noun of "cake-moistening dish" should be spring cake.

Tomb-Sweeping Day's eating moist cakes is not only unique to Quanzhou, but also popular among Xiamen people.

According to legend, Cai, governor of Yunnan, Guizhou and Huguang in Ming Dynasty, was the pioneer of this way of eating.

At that time, it was under the jurisdiction of Quanzhou government, so this way of eating spread and became a famous product in southern Fujian.

However, the forms of spring cakes in different parts of southern Fujian are the same, but the contents are quite different.

Quanzhou's "cake-moistening dish" is baked with flour into thin skin, commonly known as "cake-moistening" or "cake-smearing". Spread out the skin when eating, and then roll in shredded carrots, shredded pork, fried clams, kohlrabi and other mixed dishes. It is simple to make and tastes sweet and delicious.

Jinjiang's "cake-moistening dish" is much more complicated, and the main ingredients of that bag of "cake-moistening dish" must be varied and filled with a table.

There are some main courses: peas, bean sprouts, dried beans, fish balls, shrimps, diced meat, fried oysters and radish dishes.

There are also some ingredients: crispy seaweed, shredded fried eggs, peanut seasoning, radish and shredded garlic.

When eating, you must have two "cake skins" to ensure that they are not broken by rich content.

This kind of crisp, sweet, mellow and beautiful food is enough for ordinary people.

Traditional diet custom 7: black rice

Regarding the Qingming diet custom, we can't help but mention the "black rice" of the She nationality, because eastern Fujian is the settlement of the She nationality.

On the third day of March every year, every household of the She nationality cooks "black rice" and presents it to relatives and friends of the Han nationality. Over time, the local Han people also have the custom of eating "black rice" in Tomb-Sweeping Day.

Especially in Kurong County, people sacrifice "black rice" every year, which shows that China has been a big family where all ethnic groups live in harmony since ancient times.

According to the folklore of the She nationality, in the second year of the Tang Dynasty, Lei Wanxing, a hero of the She nationality, led her army to fight with officers and men, and was trapped in the deep mountains, which was in the severe winter.

She army had to pick barnyard grass to feed their hunger, so Lei Wanxing led the people down the mountain on the third day of the third lunar month and rushed out of the tight encirclement.

From then on, every "March 3", Lei Wanxing always called the soldiers to hold a banquet to celebrate the breakthrough victory.

He also ordered the soldiers of the She army to pick up the leaves of the black barnyard grass, let the military chef cook "black barnyard grass rice" and let the whole army have a full meal as a souvenir.

The method of making this "black rice" is not complicated. Wash the picked leaves of black rice, boil them in clear water, and take out the leaves. Then, soak the glutinous rice in black rice soup for 9 hours, take it out, put it in a cooking cage, and eat it when it is cooked.

The "black glutinous rice" is not very beautiful in appearance, and the color is dark, but the smell of rice is different from ordinary glutinous rice.

In order to commemorate this national hero, she people have steamed "black rice" every year since March 3, which has become the custom of she people.

In eastern Fujian, she lives with the Han people. People get along well with each other from generation to generation and often get married. Therefore, eating "black rice" has become a Qingming food custom shared by all ethnic groups in eastern Fujian.

Traditional Dietary Custom 8: Pushing steamed buns

"Zi Tuimo", also known as Lao Momo, is similar to the helmet of ancient military commanders and weighs about 250-500 grams.

Eggs or red dates are wrapped inside and have a top on them.

The top is covered with flowers.

Hua Mian is a dough-shaped steamed stuffed bun with the shape of swallow, worm, snake, rabbit or Four Treasures of the Study.

The round "push buns" are for men to enjoy.

Married women eat long "shuttle buns" and unmarried girls eat "catch buns".

Children have flowers such as swallows, snakes, rabbits and tigers.

"Big Tiger" is specially for boys, and it is also their favorite.

Parents string various small flowers with pear branches or fine twine and hang them on the ceiling of the cave or next to the window frame for children to enjoy slowly.

Air-dried noodles can be stored in Tomb-Sweeping Day the following year.

Making flour flowers is a specialty of women in northern Shaanxi.

With their dexterous hands, they can knead fermented white flour into flour flowers of various shapes.

Tools are just daily necessities such as combs, scissors, awls and tweezers, and accessories are red beans, black beans, peppers and food pigments.

Steamed noodles are lifelike, especially like art treasures, which makes people reluctant to put it down and eat it at once.

"Zituimo" and flour flowers are not only eaten by themselves, but also given as gifts to relatives and friends.

When a mother wants to give it to her daughter who got married that year, it is called sending cold food.

Children in rural areas give them to their teachers, so that gardeners who leave home to teach and educate people in remote mountain villages alone can share holiday food.

Traditional Diet Custom 9: Steamed Noodle Banquet

Also known as "purple-legged swallow", it is shaped like a swallow and mixed with jujube paste. The production process is similar to steaming steamed bread. String together wickers and insert them on the door in memory of mesotui.

Traditional Diet Custom 10: "Qingming Dog"

This is a kind of food that Zhejiang people cooked when they were in Tomb-Sweeping Day.

Pick some tender lotus seeds first, then mix them with glutinous rice flour, and it's ready. A few people in the family will cook a few and hang them until they are cooked in the long summer, so they can eat them. There is a folk saying that "eating Qingming dogs keeps you healthy all year round".

In addition, in some areas, Tomb-Sweeping Day has the custom of eating cakes, Qingming fruits, sandwich cakes, Qingming zongzi, steamed cakes, Qingming cakes, dried porridge and other foods.

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