The origin of eating cold food in Qingming?

Tomb-Sweeping Day is an important traditional folk festival in China, and it is also one of the eight important festivals (Shangyuan Festival, Qingming Festival, Long Summer Festival, Dragon Boat Festival, Mid-Autumn Festival, Winter Solstice and New Year's Eve). Generally speaking, it is in Tomb-Sweeping Day on April 5th of the Gregorian calendar, but its festivals are very long. There are two sayings: eight days before the 10th lunar month and ten days after the 10th lunar month, and these twenty days belong to Tomb-Sweeping Day. It is said that the origin of Tomb-Sweeping Day began with the "tomb sacrifice" ceremony of ancient emperors and generals, and later people followed suit. On this day, ancestor worship and grave sweeping became a fixed custom of the Chinese nation.

It is said that the origin of Tomb-Sweeping Day began with the "tomb sacrifice" ceremony of ancient emperors and generals, and later people followed suit. On this day, ancestor worship and grave sweeping became a fixed custom of the Chinese nation. It turns out that the Cold Food Festival and Tomb-Sweeping Day are 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 Tomb-Sweeping Day. Because the two dates are similar, Tomb-Sweeping Day and Cold Food merged into one day.

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. A person who was laughed at by Qi people was also mentioned in Mencius Qi People in the Eastern Zhou Dynasty and the Warring States Period. He often went to the tomb of Dongguo to beg for sacrifices in the tomb, which showed that sweeping graves was very popular during the Warring States period. When I arrived in Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty, I listed cold food sweeping graves 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 the weather is still cold, it is forbidden to eat cold food with fire, so as not to make some elderly and frail women and children unable to 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, so that everyone can 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 makes this festival not only have the sentimental feelings of being cautious from beginning to end, but also incorporate the atmosphere of enjoying spring with joy; There are not only the sad and sour tears in Where are you going, but also the fresh and bright vivid 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, "a tomb is not a grave", that is, only a grave pit was dug, and no grave mound was built, so there was no record of sacrifice. Later, tombs and graves, the custom of offering sacrifices to sweep, were supported. In the Qin and Han Dynasties, tomb sacrifice has become an indispensable ritual activity.

According to the biography of Yan Yannian in Han Dynasty, although Yan is thousands of miles away, his family will be buried in the East China Sea during the Qingming Festival. Yan Yannian's behavior is reasonable in terms of the development and strengthening of China people's ancestor worship and kinship awareness. 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 enter the tomb and enter the Five Rites, which will always be the norm." With the official affirmation, the wind of tomb sacrifice is bound to flourish.

Because the days of Qingming and cold food are close, and cold food is the day when people ban fire to sweep graves, gradually, cold food and Qingming become one, and cold food has become another name of Qingming and a custom in Qingming period. On Qingming Day, we don't move fireworks and firecrackers, but only eat cold food. One of the 24 solar terms. On April 4th or 5th and 6th every year, folk customs sweep graves during this period.

Because there are customs of ancestor worship, grave sweeping and hiking in China, it has gradually evolved into a traditional festival for China people to commemorate their ancestors through grave sweeping and worship. At the turn of mid-spring and late spring, it is generally 65,438+006 days from winter to the future, that is, the second day of the Cold Food Festival. Grave-sweeping activities can last about ten days before and after the festival.