What are the customs in Tomb-Sweeping Day?

Tomb-Sweeping Day is one of the traditional festivals in China, and Tomb-Sweeping Day is also called Cold Food Festival, Walking Festival and so on. Tomb-Sweeping Day began in the Zhou Dynasty and has a history of more than two thousand years. Tomb-Sweeping Day is a season of beautiful spring and lush vegetation, so ancient people often go for an outing in Qingming Festival and carry out various colorful folk activities.

1, sweeping graves to worship ancestors

In the history of China, it has long been a custom to eat cold food, 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, once recited a poem: "Crows and magpies are noisy and faint trees. Who cries when they eat cold food on Qingming Day?" 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 are crying, but people who are raining at dusk and dusk go home." Described the crow and noisy sound of the black magpie. Under the dark tall tree, which one cried at the Qingming Cold Food Festival? The wind blows the paper money on the open space, the paper money flies, the old graves overlap and the green grass covers it. Poplar trees set off pear blossoms, which is the place where life and death leave. The deceased couldn't hear our crying in the dim light, and the people who came to pay homage went back in the drizzle in the evening. Even in today's society, before and after Tomb-Sweeping Day, people still have the custom of going to graves to pay 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.

Step 2 go for an outing

Qingming Festival is the time when spring returns to the earth. People took advantage of the opportunity of sweeping graves, and the whole family, old and young, enjoyed themselves in Shan Ye. When they got home, they broke some branches and put them on their heads. They were very happy. During their stay in Tomb-Sweeping Day, some people go hiking in the suburbs to express their stagnant mood since the severe winter, and go to nature to enjoy and appreciate the vibrant spring scenery. This kind of outing is also called spring outing, which was called spring exploration and spring hunting in ancient times. It means stepping on the grass, playing in the country and watching the spring.

Tomb-Sweeping Day is a good time to go for an outing, so it has become an important part of Tomb-Sweeping Day customs. Ancient women could not go out casually on weekdays, and it was a rare opportunity for Tomb-Sweeping Day to visit the grave. Therefore, in Tomb-Sweeping Day, women have more fun than men, and there is a folk saying called "Women's Qingming Year".

Step 3 insert willow

Tomb-Sweeping Day is the time when willows sprout and smoke is green. There are folk customs of folding willow, piercing willow and inserting willow. When people go out for an outing, they break off some wicker branches, which can be played with in their hands, woven into hats and worn on their heads, or taken home and inserted on the lintels and eaves. There are proverbs that "a beauty becomes a bright eye without wearing willow in Qingming Festival" and "a dog turns yellow after death without wearing willow in Qingming Festival", which shows that folding willow in Qingming Festival is a very common custom in the old society. It is said that willow branches can ward off evil spirits, so it is not only a fashionable decoration, but also has the effect of praying for evil spirits. It may also be related to the custom of using willow branches to beg for new fire in the past cold food festival. Today, it seems that breaking willow branches at will is a kind of damage to trees and should not be advocated.

The custom of planting trees by inserting willows in Tomb-Sweeping Day is said to commemorate Shennong who invented various agricultural production tools and tasted all kinds of herbs. On the other hand, it is said that the willow tree that meson held when he died came back to life. Jin Wengong named it Qingming Willow and folded it into a circle to wear on her head. This custom was later introduced to people. Although the sources of allusions are different, these customs are still inseparable from the joy of people returning to the earth in spring.

4. Traction hook

"Hook" is an ancient name, but it is actually a modern tug of war. According to legend, in the Spring and Autumn Period, in order to attack the State of Wu, the State of Chu used the hook movement to enhance people's physique. It is mainly based on a hemp rope, and its two ends are divided into many small ropes. In the competition, a big flag is the boundary. At the command, the two sides pulled the rope hard, and the drums sounded with the music. The two sides cheered and shouted, which was very lively.

5. Fly a kite

Flying kites is one of people's favorite activities in Tomb-Sweeping Day. The ancients believed that if someone was sick, they could write down or draw their illness on the kite, tie the kite in the air with a string, let it fly to the sky, cut the cable, and the disease disaster would fly away with the kite. Later, kites gradually developed into a popular outing entertainment.

Ji Sheng, written by Pan Rongbi in A Qing, records that "tomb sweeping in Qingming, men and women in the city are out of the suburbs, carrying boxes opposite each other." Everyone brings a kite spool, and it will be better to put it in front of the grave after the sacrifice. "The ancients also thought that the Qingming wind was very suitable for flying kites. Lu said: "The wind in spring is from bottom to top, and kites rise because of it, so there is a proverb of' flying kites in Qingming'. "In ancient times, flying kites was not only an entertainment activity, but also an act of witchcraft. They think flying kites can 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.

Step 6 swing

Swing was originally called "Qian Qiu". According to legend, the swing was introduced by Qi Huangong, a native of Shanrong, a northern ethnic group in the Spring and Autumn Period, and became a folk game in Tomb-Sweeping Day, Dragon Boat Festival and Cold Food Festival after the Han Dynasty. At first, the swing was made of rope and swung by hand. Later, it developed into a wooden frame with two ropes hanging on it and a cross board tied under it.

Swing plays were popular in the Southern and Northern Dynasties. "Jingchu Chunqiu" records that "in spring, a scholar and a woman sit on a tall tree with a long rope and push it, which is called swinging." Swing was a very common game in the Tang Dynasty, and it became an important part of Tomb-Sweeping Day customs. Because swings can be seen everywhere in Tomb-Sweeping Day, Tomb-Sweeping Day was designated as a swing festival in the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties, and swings were also installed in palaces for queens, concubines and maids to play with.

Today's parks and playgrounds still have swings for children to play with.

Step 7 shoot willow trees

Shooting willow is a game to practice archery. According to the records of the Ming Dynasty, pigeons were placed in gourds, then the gourds were hung high on willow trees, and the gourds and pigeons flew out with bows, and the victory or defeat was judged by the height of the flying pigeons.

8. Cuju

Besides ancestor worship and grave sweeping, there are various outdoor activities in Tomb-Sweeping Day, such as hiking, outing and swinging. While paying homage to the sorrow of remembering, it also blends the atmosphere of enjoying spring with joy. Among these activities, "Cuju" is a very interesting activity.

Cuju means kicking the ball with your feet. It originated from Linzi, the ancient capital of Qi during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. The Tang and Song Dynasties were the most prosperous, and there were often scenes of "the ball never dropped in one day" and "the ball never left the foot, the foot never left the ball, and the Huating watched the war, and thousands of people watched the war". Song Taizu's Cuju map depicts the scene at that time. In Du Fu's poem Qingming, "Ten years of cuju is far away, and Wan Li's wandering is also vulgar", which also shows the popularity of cuju activities at that time. Under the traditional cultural background of "golden mean", Cuju gradually evolved from an antagonistic competition to a performance competition. There are few records about Cuju activities in Qing history books.

Cuju fever has resurfaced in Zibo, the birthplace of Cuju. Many citizens participated, which not only exercised their bodies, but also passed on the folk customs for more than two thousand years.

How many of these eight Tomb-Sweeping Day customs do you know?