Tomb sweeping in Qingming Festival is called "respect for thinking of time" for ancestors. Its custom has a long history. The Ming Dynasty's "A Brief Introduction to the Scenery of the Imperial Capital" reads: "On the Qingming Day in March, men and women visited the graves, carrying their respect, and hanging ingots from the back of the sedan chair, the road was full of embarrassment. Worshippers, mourners, weeping, weeding and adding soil to the tomb, burn ingots several times and buy graves with paper money. If there is no paper money in sight, it will be a lonely grave. After crying, don't go back, go to the fragrant trees, choose the garden, and sit down and get drunk. " In fact, sweeping graves existed before Qin dynasty, but not necessarily during Qingming period, but after Qin dynasty. It didn't become popular until the Tang Dynasty. "Qing Tong Li" says: "On the New Year's Eve, cold food and first frost Festival, you worship to sweep the tomb. During the period, you will serve the tomb in plain clothes, with wine and tools for cutting vegetation, and you will seal the trees and cut off the jingcao in the week, so it is called sweeping the grave." And passed down to this day. Some rich people want to take their families and their families by car and go to the graves to pay homage. At that time, it is necessary to trim the grave, or symbolically add soil to the grave, and put some paper money on it to let others see it, knowing that there are still descendants in this grave. After the sacrifice, some sat around for dinner and drinking; Others fly kites and even compete with each other for entertainment. Women and children will also fold some Yang Liuzhi nearby and wear the steamed food offerings with wicker. Others weave wicker into a reed and wear it on their heads, saying that "if you don't wear willow in Qingming, you will become a yellow dog in the afterlife." This is a grave-sweeping and an outing, and you can only go home when you are happy.
In the Jianghuai and Jiangnan areas, the third day of the third lunar month is called Ghost Festival every year. It is said that ghosts haunt this day, and at night, every household sets off firecrackers in every house to scare away ghosts and drive them away.
July 14th (Mid-Autumn Festival): According to legend, from July 1st every year, the King of Yan ordered the gates of hell to be opened wide, so that those ghosts and ghosts who suffered and were imprisoned in hell all the year round could get out of hell, get a short-term wandering and enjoy human blood food. Therefore, people called July the ghost month, and people thought it was an unlucky month. They neither married nor moved. The tolerant festival custom on July 14th is complicated, which is not only the folk ghost festival, but also the Mid-Yuan Festival of Taoism, the Bonne Festival of Buddhism and the integration of Buddhism, Taoism and Buddhism. Taoism has the so-called celestial officials, local officials and water officials, which are collectively called the three officials. These three officials are the representatives of the Jade Emperor sent to the world. Every year, they inspect the good and evil of the world and report to heaven. The birthdays of the three officials are the 15th of the first month, 15th of July and 15th of October, which are also called Sanyuan.
On July 15th, it was called Zhong Yuan, and it was the time when the local officials and schools were granted forgiveness of sins. On this day, he would take out a thick roster, draw sketches according to the performances of immortals, mortals and animals, and forgive sins and be exempted from punishment. On the Mid-Yuan Festival, the people engage in some sacrificial activities to save those ghosts and ghosts, which should be related to the forgiveness of sins by local officials. July 15 is the Buddhist Bonsai Festival. It is said that there was a disciple named Mulian of Sakyamuni. Although her mother was young and beautiful, she didn't have any good words and deeds, loved money and was stingy, especially hated monks. After her death, she was thrown into the ranks of evil spirits. According to the instructions of the Buddha, Mulian prepared various kinds of fruits and utensils and put them into pots to support ten monks. Only then did her mother get rid of the evil spirits and ascend to heaven. In view of this, the Buddha, by extension, asked Buddhist disciples to do their best to be filial, to be a basin, a Buddha and a monk on July 15th every year, and to repay their parents' kindness. The significance of Buddhist Bonbon Festival and the 14th day of the seventh lunar month is the biggest festival in the underworld-Ghost Festival, also known as the Mid-Yuan Festival or Bonbon Festival, and it is one of the three major festivals in the underworld in China. There is a legend among the people that the Lantern Festival is celebrated in the dead and the Ghost Festival is celebrated in the underworld. It is said that on that day, Yan will also spend the festive season with ghosts in costumes, and let us living people bless them together, wishing people in another world all their wishes come true and enjoy the happiness that the world has not had time to enjoy. Therefore, many local festivals in our country will hold activities such as offering sacrifices, attending Buddha, cleaning tombs, reviewing, enjoying flowers and fishing to celebrate.
July 14th/15th is the day when the gates of hell are wide open. Whether it's burning paper money to send blessings, holding daisies to mourn, offering sacrifices to ancestors on the Internet, or putting out river lanterns, people alive today miss the past together and send blessings to their ancestors together, which is the spontaneity of human spirit, the extension of feelings and the most basic belief. And at the same time, "the living should cherish every day alive, don't be ashamed of society and friends, and don't be ashamed of relatives who have left forever." Because, one day we will meet them. At that time, you can proudly say that you are a hero on earth and a ghost hero in the underworld! " According to the cultural logic of Taoism, a year's time and space should be divided into two parts: upper and lower yin and yang. Moreover, China Taoism believes that the three basic elements for nurturing all things in the world are heaven, earth and water. Therefore, Taoism regards the first half of the year as a celestial official and the second half as a local official. What needs to be explained here is that the "official" mentioned here does not refer to the "official" of human officials, but refers to the segment in the process of time and space flow, which is similar to the "official" in China Weiqi.
Taoism in China is mainly produced in the developed areas of agricultural civilization in China. Therefore, Taoism in China has always believed that heaven and earth are mysterious, everything is born on the earth, water is the foundation of life, and the earth contains water. That is to say, because China's agricultural civilization pays attention to the important role of the two elements of earth and water in human beings, China's Taoist cultural concept has always contained the "ontology", "epistemology" and "methodology" of observing the world with the earth as the center. According to the world view of Taoism, Taoism is used to calling the fifteenth day of the first month of the year "Tianguan" (the first half of the year) "Shangyuan Festival"; In the second half of the year, the fifteenth day of July of the local official festival is called the "Mid-Yuan Festival". Because the earth contains water and water acts on the earth, October 15th in the middle of the second half of the year is the "Xiayuan Festival". These three elements, namely, the upper, middle and lower elements, constitute a systematic understanding of Taoism's trinity of the world. It is generally believed that July 15th is the day of Ghost Festival, and it is also the day when the ghost gate is wide open. At this time, Yin qi is the heaviest, so it is best not to go out of the street that night, so as to avoid hitting ghosts. In addition, it is best not to go to the riverside or seaside, so as not to accidentally slip and become the body double of water ghosts. In addition, it is best not to say something unlucky or offend the spiritual world, so as not to provoke the yin spirit. The Yulan Festival, commonly known as the Ghost Festival, is the 15th day of the seventh lunar month. According to legend, it is the day when the gates of hell are wide open. In Taoism, it is the Mid-Yuan Festival, while in Buddhism it is called the Yulan Festival. It is said that from the 1st day of the seventh lunar month, wandering ghosts in the underworld began to be released, and they could wander around the world for a period of time and accept people's sacrifices until July 3th.
Taoism in China is different from many religions in the world. Many religions in the world are the unity of God and man, or just like Christianity, they pay attention to the trinity of "Tao into flesh", which makes religious communicators often highly deified. The purpose of China's Taoist missionary is very clear. The Taoist disseminator is not a god but a human being. Therefore, Taoism teaches students in accordance with their aptitude. For those with high wisdom, the truth in the Tao Te Ching is clearly stated; for those with insufficient wisdom or little time to deeply reflect on their own moral and ethical construction, stories are written to explain the truth. "Education for pleasure" is a missionary method derived from Taoism in China.
The "Mid-Autumn Festival" of Taoism in China is actually a festival to spread morality and ethics, that is, to advocate people to pay attention to Xiu De on this day. On the Mid-Autumn Festival, people with thoughts and time will gather together to study Laozi's Tao Te Ching, and communicate with each other and reflect on themselves. For the general congregation, Taoism has created some stories to "educate in amusement". For example, Taoism invented that a man named Chen Ziqi married the daughter of the Dragon King, and gave birth to three children, namely, "Heaven Officer, Land Officer and Water Officer" on the 15th of the first month, 15th of July and 15th of October respectively. These "three officials" are in charge of the three tasks of human blessing, forgiveness of sins and salvation. They have boundless magic power, and they have to patrol the world in these three days to check whether people's moral quality is good or bad. However, Taoism in China is a very tolerant religion that gives people the opportunity to change and renew themselves at any time. Therefore, the Mid-Autumn Festival is not only a festival to reward kindness and punish badness, but also a festival to forgive sins. Therefore, the Mid-Autumn Festival is also a confessional festival and an atonement festival in China. People who have sinned in a year can go through various ceremonies on the Mid-Autumn Festival.
Buddhism calls it the "Bonin Festival". A man named Mulian had a dream. He dreamed that his dead mother was reduced to the ranks of hungry ghosts, so he gave her food, but he failed repeatedly. Manglietia told the Buddha about it, and the Buddha advised him to support the monks to do many good deeds in order to free his mother from her sins in the underworld. Manglietia made a basin on July 15 (Brahman means "to save the upside down"), so the Buddhist monks collectively chanted sutras for Manglietia's mother, freeing her mother from her misery. It can be seen that the Buddhists' Bonne Festival on July 15th has two meanings, one is to educate people to support religious monks, and the other is to educate people to do more good deeds to transcend the sins of their ancestors and advocate filial piety.
the first day of October is called "October dynasty", also known as "ancestor worship festival". Since ancient times, China has had the custom of offering sacrifices to ancestors at the new harvest time to show filial piety and not forget one's roots. So people also use millet on the first day of October? Sacrifice ancestors. On the first day of October, ancestors were sacrificed, including family sacrifices and tomb sacrifices, both in the north and south. Today, in many areas in the south of the Yangtze River, there is also the custom of offering sacrifices to new graves on the first day of October. The first day of October is also the first day of winter, after which the climate is getting colder. People are afraid that the ancestors' souls in the underworld are short of clothes and clothes. Therefore, in addition to the general offerings such as food, incense sticks and paper money, there is also an indispensable offering-the ghost clothes. When offering sacrifices, people incinerate the ghost clothes to their ancestors, which is called "sending cold clothes". Therefore, the first day of October is also called "Clothing Burning Festival". Later, in some places, the custom of "burning cold clothes" changed. Instead of burning cold clothes, people burned a lot of ghost papers in a paper bag, and wrote the names of the recipients and senders and their corresponding names. This is called "baggage". There is a name of cold clothes, but there is no reality of cold clothes. People think that the underworld, like the dead, can buy many things with money.
There is also a story about ancestor worship, in which Cai Lun made paper and Cai Mo burned paper. When Cai Lun first invented paper, business was good. Cai Lun's sister-in-law Huiniang asked her husband Cai Mo to learn papermaking from Cai Lun. They came back to open a paper mill, but the paper made by Cai Mo was of poor quality and could not be sold, so they were very anxious. Later, Huiniang thought of a way to get out of trouble. One night in the middle of the night, Huiniang pretended to die of an acute illness. Cai Mo was heartbroken and sad in front of her coffin. While burning paper, he cried, "I learned to make paper with my brother, but I didn't pay attention to it. The quality of the paper made was so poor that it made you angry." I'm going to burn this paper to ashes to relieve my hatred. " When he finished burning, he brought paper to burn. After burning for a while, he only heard Huiniang shouting in the coffin, "Open the door, I'm back." This shocked people. People opened the coffins, and Huiniang sang in a pretentious way: money in the dead can go all over the world, and paper in the dead is doing business. Who will let me go home if my husband doesn't burn the paper?
Hui Niang sang many times and said, "I was a ghost just now, but now I am a human being. Don't be afraid. When I went to the underworld, the king of hell made me suffer, and my husband gave me money, so many kids helped me. Money really makes the mare go. Three Cao Guan also asked me for money, and I gave him all the money, so he opened the back door of the underworld and let me come back. " Cai Mo pretended to be confused: "I didn't send you money?" Huiniang said, "The paper you burn is the money of the underworld." Having said that, Cai Mo hugged several bundles of paper and burned them to his parents.
When people present heard this, they thought that burning paper had great benefits, and they all bought paper from Cai Mo. Hui Niang generously gave it to the villagers, and this story spread widely. Villagers from far and near came to buy Cai's paper and burn it to their dead relatives. In less than two days, the backlog of paper was snapped up. Hui Niang's "return to the sun" was on the first day of October in the lunar calendar. Therefore, later generations sacrificed their ancestors on the first day of October and burned paper on the grave to show their nostalgia for their ancestors. On the first day of October, there is a custom of offering sacrifices to the king of cattle in some places. According to legend, this custom originated from the State of Qin in the Spring and Autumn Period. One day, Qin Wengong ordered someone to cut down a catalpa tree, which suddenly turned into a cow. Qin Wengong is hunted. The cow jumped into the water and never came up again. People set up a "Nute Temple" to worship this cow god. Nute is a tall, strong and majestic bull. Such a bull, in people's minds, has the function of driving away epidemics and evil spirits and protecting cattle.
Ghost Festival originated from the story of Mulian saving his mother: "Those who have Mulian monks have great powers. His mother fell into the hungry ghost road, and the food entrance turned into flames, and the hunger was too bitter. Mu Lian couldn't save his mother, so he asked the Buddha for advice. In order to talk about the scriptures of the orchid basin, he taught to make an orchid basin on July 15 to save his mother. " It is said that Mulian saw his dead mother after going through hardships in the underworld, and found that she was tortured by a group of hungry ghosts. Mulian wanted to give her vegetable rice in a bowl, but the vegetable rice was taken away by the hungry ghosts. Mu Lian had to ask the Buddha for help, and the Buddha was moved by Mu Lian's filial piety and awarded him the Orchid Sutra. According to the instructions, Mulian dedicated a rare fruit vegetarian diet to his mother on the 15th day of the seventh lunar month. The hungry mother finally got the food. In order to commemorate Mulian's filial piety, Buddhists hold a grand "Bonsai" every year, which is what we now call "Ghost Festival". It is said in the book that on this day in ancient times, people would set up the Magician's Seat and shi gu Terrace in front of Jiekou Village in advance. In front of the mage's seat, there is a Tibetan king bodhisattva who crosses the "hell" ghost, and below it is a plate of peaches and rice. Shi gu stands on the stage with three spiritual tablets and evocative complications. After noon, families put whole pigs, whole sheep, chickens, ducks, geese and all kinds of cakes, fruits, melons and fruits on the shi gu stage. The person in charge inserted a triangular paper flag in blue, red and green on each sacrifice, and wrote the words "Yulan Festival" and "Ganlu Gate Open". The ceremony began with a solemn temple music. Then, the mage rang the bell and led the monks in the seat to recite various spells and mantras. Then feed, sprinkle a plate of peaches and rice in all directions, and repeat it three times. This ceremony is called "Flame Opening". Wang Kaitai, a scholar in the Qing Dynasty, once wrote a poem: "The Dojo is full of ghosts, and the original ancient meaning of Yulan exists. However, it is strange that the red plaque is attached to the door, and the meat mountain wine sea celebrates Zhongyuan. " It describes the custom of Halloween in the southeast coast of China.
It can be seen that "Ghost Festival" is due to the filial piety of traditional virtues. Nowadays, people in northern China still burn paper money on this day to pay homage to their ancestors who left early and express their feelings for their loved ones. Although the way of sacrifice is simple, it basically preserves the simple meaning of Ghost Festival. Because of the call of blood, the extension of feelings and the reminder of one's future, Ghost Festival is endowed with rich humanistic connotation. Even if the years are different, the gifts burned are different, but the living people will never be able to finish the endless grief and deep nostalgia for their distant relatives. However, "people of different ages have different feelings about this special festival, because the future festival is coming to them mercilessly, from obscurity to clarity, from missing to fear, from fear to calmness. When I miss people in the past, I am actually thinking about my experience, content, way and pursuit of living today."
It is difficult to see the description of the world after death in ancient myths, and the word "ghost" didn't have its present meaning at first. In Oracle Bone Inscriptions, the word "ghost" is a knowing word, below it is a word "person", and above it is a terrible word.