Tomb-Sweeping Day sweeps graves from winter to Sunday.

Most of the ancestors of the Han people in the south moved to the south from the war in the north, so they kept the fine traditions of the Han people in the ancient Central Plains. Most of the north was assimilated by wars and alien invasions, and it has long been assimilated to Qingming and spring ploughing to sweep graves. This is especially true in Fuzhou. The ancestors of Fuzhou people are complicated, and this traditional custom was not completely preserved in the early Central Plains Heluo area (now Henan). In addition, different northerners moved south to Fuzhou in the later period, and these people themselves did not have this custom. After living with native Fujian people and Vietnamese people, they have long forgotten Tomb-Sweeping Day, which is the most important festival in ancient times.

Let's talk about the so-called orthodox Tomb-Sweeping Day, which most people call "city people sweeping graves". According to the lunar calendar, there is neither a fixed month nor a fixed date in Tomb-Sweeping Day, but it can be inferred that the winter solstice is on Qingming Day after 106, usually on April 5 in the solar calendar. The Qingming period coincides with the spring in most parts of China, at the turn of mid-spring and late spring, so the weather is not necessarily clear and empty, so the source of the meaning of Qingming cannot be simply defined, and many poems in history also describe "successive rains", so the weather of this festival is not fixed. At the same time, Qingming is the traditional farming season. The working people in ancient China basically had no leisure to give up farming and sowing, but paid homage to the graves of their ancestors and wrote the so-called Qingming boring poem "The Shepherd refers to the Xinghua Village". However, in the hometown of overseas Chinese in southern Fujian, Tomb-Sweeping Day is highly valued. It is a festival that traces the roots of folk traditions, and its main activities are grave sweeping and ancestor worship. It is generally believed that sweeping graves originated in the Qin Dynasty (or existed before the Qin Dynasty), but in ancient times, sweeping graves was not necessarily in Qingming. For example, during the Sui and Tang Dynasties, people mostly visited graves in the first one or two cold food festivals in Tomb-Sweeping Day. Later, the tomb sweeping of the Cold Food Festival was gradually changed to Qingming, and the Cold Food Festival was forgotten. In Shijing, Nan 'an, the hometown of national hero Zheng Chenggong, Tomb-Sweeping Day was changed to the third day of the third lunar month, commonly known as the "March Festival" legend. Because Zheng Chenggong fought against the Qing Dynasty and recovered his eyesight, he avoided putting the word "Qing" on the word "Ming". However, there is a saying in the spring custom that "if you don't go home during the winter festival, there will be no ancestors and no sects", so everyone who goes out will try to go home for the New Year. Sacrifice ancestors at noon, offering five flavors of meat and vegetables. In the evening, if a family sacrifice is held, such as New Year's Eve, there must be tender cakes and vegetables in the offerings. In spring, only the Winter Festival and New Year's Eve in a year, Tomb-Sweeping Day should prepare tender cakes, which means "covering gold with silver", hoping that the family will prosper. A large number of aristocratic families also opened the doors of ancestral temples and held ancestor worship ceremonies, which were called Spring Sacrifice and Winter Sacrifice together with ancestor worship in Tomb-Sweeping Day. Therefore, it is difficult to have a reliable account of the origin of ancient Han Chinese grave-sweeping, but it does not rule out that other nomadic aliens ruled the north or were forced by the ruling class, such as ruling bureaucrats and nobles.

"When the yin arrives, the yang begins to grow" is the characteristic of winter solstice, which is suitable for living in peace. There is also the poem "Winter Solstice" by Tang Dynasty poet Bai Juyi-"Why can't I sleep alone for the longest night?" It is inevitable that people will add a little melancholy and reverence to the solar term of winter solstice, which has the shortest day and the longest night. Why? The shortest sunny day and the longest cloudy day are the solstice of winter. The longest diary of the night is most suitable for old friends who left first, and also for paying homage to their ancestors. China's so-called positive is positive and negative is negative; Sunny and cloudy at night; Life is yang, death is yin; It actually makes sense.

Winter solstice is one of the 24 solar terms of the lunar calendar. In winter solstice, the northern hemisphere has the shortest day and the longest night. In addition, this day is the day when the sun germinates for the first time, and winter is the end of spring, so it is called "winter solstice". Winter Festival is the day of winter solstice in the 24 solar terms, and it is also the name of a traditional festival in China, which is also called "Dragon Solstice Festival", "Happy Winter Festival" and "Asian New Year". It is called "long to the sun" because of the ancient people's observation of the changes in the sky: the so-called "south day, short day, long shadow, so it is called the winter solstice day", and the day has been extended day by day since then. It is called "sub-year-old", second only to New Year's Day (that is, today's Spring Festival). There is a saying in China that "the winter festival is greater than the year".

The tradition of celebrating winter solstice has a long history. In the Zhou Dynasty, November was the first month, and the winter solstice was the beginning of the year. The Qin dynasty followed its system, and the winter solstice was also called off-year. After the Han Dynasty, the winter solstice became a winter festival. On this day, the emperor held a suburban festival and the officialdom held a ceremony to celebrate the festival, which was called "Hedong". Hundreds of officials took a holiday and were congratulated the next day. At that time, winter solstice, summer solstice, Shangyuan Festival, Shang Jie Festival and social sacrifice became more grand festivals. At that time, there were fewer festivals, and the winter solstice was naturally more grand. There are customs such as eating wonton, glutinous rice balls and red bean porridge. This rule has been in use ever since. During the Wei and Jin Dynasties, the solstice of winter was used as a greeting, and some courtiers presented shoes and socks to the emperor, indicating that they would usher in happiness and growth. In the Song Dynasty, the solstice winter was the most important. In the Northern Song Dynasty, Mr. Meng wrote in Tokyo Dream: "November and winter are the most important festivals in Beijing. Although it is for the poor, it is easier to accumulate false loans within one year. Today, it is easier to prepare new clothes, prepare meals and worship ancestors ... "Especially in the Southern Song Dynasty, the atmosphere of the winter solstice festival was stronger than that of the New Year, so the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties placed the winter solstice and New Year's Day in the same important position, and officials took a few days off to congratulate them. Later, the calendar changed. The solstice in winter is no longer the beginning of a year, but it is still called "sub-year". However, the common people's custom of celebrating the "Winter Solstice Day" has not changed. As can be seen from the above, from the Han Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty, from the official etiquette, the solstice in winter is "Asian New Year" or even "New Year", which is by no means empty talk. The main reason is to inherit the tradition of the Zhou Dynasty, that is, the first day of November in the lunar calendar is the beginning of a year, because the winter solstice is always around the first day of November. In addition, it is also related to the ancient concept that the winter solstice is "when the cathode comes, the yang begins to grow". For example, Cai Yong explained in "Arbitrary": "Winter is long, the sun is long, and the king is long, so congratulations."

The folk customs of the winter solstice festival are much richer than the official etiquette. In the Eastern Han Dynasty, heaven, earth, monarch, relatives and teachers were all the objects of congratulations from the winter solstice. During the Southern and Northern Dynasties, people had the custom of eating adzuki beans to ward off evil spirits from the winter solstice (Chronicle of Jingchu). During the Tang and Song Dynasties, the solstice of winter paid equal attention to the first year of the year, so they wore new clothes, held banquets, worshipped their ancestors and celebrated exchanges. Almost like celebrating the New Year. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the official still kept the greetings from the winter solstice as New Year's Day, but the people did not do the big events like New Year's Day, mainly focusing on the development of these projects, such as worshipping ancestors, respecting the elderly and respecting teachers, which led to the activities of making wonton, eating glutinous rice balls, having a school holiday, stopping work to express condolences to teachers, giving banquets to each other and having family dinners, which was more personalized than New Year's Day.