Chapter 160 Ching Ming Fun Talk

It is a great time for outings when Qingming falls in Yangchun and March.In our country, since the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the custom of Qingming outing has been maintained for a long time.The genre painting "Surfing the River during Qingming Festival" by the famous painter Zhang Zeduan vividly depicts the bustling scene of people going outing in Kyoto during Qingming Festival in Song Dynasty. Tomb-sweeping Day is in mid-spring, and the spring is bright and beautiful, with peach blossoms and willows green.In the past, most of the wealthy families took food and drink to the wild to enjoy the spring, which was called "Taking Spring", praying for a year without foot problems, and the custom of going out in spring has been passed down to this day.In rural areas, on this day, millet rice, bean cakes, and dry rice are often fed to large livestock such as horses, mules, cows, and donkeys to reward them for their hard work for a year. " said.

On the Qingming Festival, every household folds willows and inserts them on both sides of the door frame, on the windows, on the beams, behind the mats of the beds, etc., which is called "inserting willows".The old lady in the farmhouse still has the custom of beating the walls, the kitchen, the back of the mat, and under the bed with wicker. While beating, she read: "One Ching Ming Festival a year, the willow branches are singled out for green gangs. You are not allowed to pass in front of the door during the day, and you are not allowed to pass people at night." Sting." It is believed that planting willows can follow the yang energy, welcome auspiciousness, and avoid evil spirits; at the same time, it also encourages people to cherish the time.

Tomb-sweeping Day is also a day for sweeping tombs and worshiping ancestors. The folks also call Qingming Festival "Ghost Festival" and "Ming Festival".Chinese people in history have the custom of visiting graves.The juniors bring offerings, burning paper, incense, etc., and carry shovels to their ancestral graves. First, they offer the sacrifices, then burn paper and incense, bow down to pay homage, and finally add new soil to the tomb and press it on the top of the tomb. The white paper is called "grave-pressing paper".It is said that these are repairing the houses of the ancestors in case of heavy rain and water leakage in summer, so as to express the mourning of the ancestors.

Why sweep the tomb in Qingming?This is probably because the vegetation sprouts when winter goes to spring.People think of the tombs of their ancestors, whether there are foxes and rabbits digging holes, and whether they will collapse due to the rainy season, so they have to come and see for themselves.On the one hand, add soil to the grave and weed; at the same time, offer sacrifices and burn some paper money to express the memory of the dead. In addition to the above customs, cockfighting is also popular in Qingming.Cockfighting starts from the Qingming Festival and lasts until the Summer Solstice.The earliest record of cockfighting in my country can be found in "Zuo Zhuan".In the Tang Dynasty, cockfighting became popular, not only among folks, but even emperors participated in cockfighting.

There is also the custom of eating eggs during the Qingming Festival, just like eating zongzi on the Dragon Boat Festival and moon cakes on the Mid-Autumn Festival.There are roughly two types of eggs during the Ching Ming Festival: one is painted eggs, and the other is carved eggs.The former can be eaten, while the latter is for entertainment. Cold food and fire, Qingming tomb sweeping, outings, polo playing, kite flying, swinging, cockfighting, tug-of-war... With the change of time and society, some of these activities have been eliminated, and some are still left to this day. new content.