The origin of Qingming Festival: When Duke Wen of Jin was in exile, his attendant, Jie Zi Pui, cut a piece of meat from his thigh to help him out of his misery. Later, in order to honor him, Duke Wen of Jin designated the day after the Cold Food Festival as the Qingming Festival.

The Qingming Festival is a festival to remember the lives that have been lost, to inspire the lives that are now living, to honor those around us, those close to us who have passed away, and to thank our ancestors for giving us life. The significance of remembrance is not simply the memory of loved ones, but should become a national custom, become a race of reproduction rituals. To their loved ones once a year to sweep the tomb is a ceremony, is the continuation of the concept of honoring the ancestors to repay the original.

Expanded Information:

Customs of Qingming Festival:

1, sweeping tombs and paying homage to ancestors

In Chinese history, the cold food ban on fires to pay homage to ancestors, has long been a custom. After the Tang Dynasty, the Cold Food Festival gradually declined, so the Qingming Festival tomb-sweeping ancestor worship has become an ongoing festival tradition since then. In today's society, people still have the custom of sweeping the graves and paying tribute to their ancestors before and after the Qingming Festival: shoveling out weeds, placing offerings, offering incense and prayers in front of the graves, burning paper money and gold ingots, or simply offering a bouquet of flowers, in order to express their nostalgia for their ancestors.

2, trekking

Ching Ming around the good time is trekking, so become an important part of the Qingming Festival. In ancient times, women could not travel during the weekdays, Qingming tomb sweeping is a rare opportunity to trekking, so the women in the Qingming Festival than the men play more fun, folk "women's Qingming men's year" said.

3, willow

Ching Ming Festival is the time of the willow sprouting green, folk have folded willow, willow, willow custom. When people step on the green hand folded down a few branches of willow, can be held in the hands to play, can also be woven into a hat to wear on the head, can also be taken home to insert in the lintel, the eaves. The custom of planting willows is related to avoiding epidemics.

4, play

The Qingming Festival, in addition to the above tomb-sweeping and ancestor worship, willow custom, there are a lot of fun customs, for thousands of years, doubly popular, such as the continuation of the hooks, kites and swings, etc., but also has been prevalent for a while, but now no longer see the shooting willow and cuju.