Actually, in the beginning, Tomb-Sweeping Day and cold food were two different things. Tomb-Sweeping Day is a festival dedicated to sweeping graves, offering sacrifices and worshipping ancestors. And cold food, it is a day or two before Tomb-Sweeping Day, in order to commemorate the meson push and set up a cold food festival. On this day, every household can't make a fire to cook.

Because in those days, as a courtier of Zhong Er, the son of the State of Jin, Jiezitui cut off the meat on his leg and gave it to Zhong Er when he was in exile in Zhong Er. Originally, after Zhong Er became a monarch, he should repay meson. However, Zhong Er forgot the kindness of meson tui. In the bathroom, meson pushed his heart black and cold, and took his old mother to live in seclusion in Mianshan.

One day, Zhong Er finally remembered the kindness of Jietui in cutting meat and feeding himself, and decided to ask Jietui to leave the mountain. However, meson push is unwilling to assist Zhong Er. Bathroom, Zhong Er sent someone to release Yamakaji in order to force him out of the mountain. Unexpectedly, in the end, meson push didn't come out of the mountain, but died in the fire with her old mother.

in order to commemorate meson push, Zhong Er changed Mianshan to Jieshan. He also ordered that every year after meson was pushed to death, no fire was allowed and cold meals were eaten to remember him.

This is a well-recognized saying, but there are others. For example, one of them thinks that the Cold Food Festival is due to the fire ban system in the Zhou Dynasty. There are many legends about eating cold food, so I won't list them one by one.

Later, in the Tang Dynasty, people combined the Cold Food Festival with Tomb-Sweeping Day. They not only ate cold food, but also visited graves and offered sacrifices to their ancestors.

what does cold food mean? Chinese medicine tells you.

Cold food generally refers to cold food that can be eaten without making a fire. In the past, people would make some cakes in order to sacrifice their ancestors and eat them after the sacrifice. Later, slowly with the different regions, all localities have formed their own customs.

Just like Jiangnan area, it is common to eat green balls in Tomb-Sweeping Day. The main thing is to knead the juice of wormwood with glutinous rice and put it in a pot to steam it. Li Shizhen's Compendium of Materia Medica in the Ming Dynasty recorded: "The perennial seedlings of Artemisia argyi are clustered in February, and their stems are straight, white and four or five feet high. It is very effective to receive moxibustion. Folium Artemisiae Argyi is used as medicine, which is warm in nature, pure in yang, and has the functions of restoring yang, regulating qi and blood, expelling dampness and cold, stopping bleeding and preventing miscarriage. Therefore, it is also called a grass doctor. " In addition, wormwood is also regarded as a symbol of "exorcism". Therefore, the Youth League is very popular in Jiangnan area.

However, the main ingredient of the youth league is glutinous rice, which tastes very bad after it is cold. Moreover, glutinous rice is difficult to digest. For people with bad stomach, eating cold green balls is not conducive to digestion and absorption, and it damages the stomach.

In addition, many people now add meat to the green balls when they make them. In fact, this practice will also increase the burden on the stomach and is not conducive to digestion.

Earlier, Jin Wengong set up a memorial meson push for the Cold Food Festival. At that time, there was a custom of forbidding fire and cold food only during the Cold Food Festival. Later, because the time of the Cold Food Festival and Tomb-Sweeping Day was very close, they gradually merged into one festival, which led to the tradition of eating cold food in Tomb-Sweeping Day.

Architectural scenery

There are many customs in Tomb-Sweeping Day and traditional customs in Tomb-Sweeping Day, among which ancestor worship is extremely important. Every time this festival comes, people will worship their deceased ancestors, burn paper money and repair their graves. Some people will go for an outing in the suburbs during the Qingming Festival to enjoy the beautiful scenery of the revival of everything in spring.

The so-called "Qingming Festival" refers to the cleanliness and clearness of nature, and it is also a beautiful realm that people have been pursuing since ancient times. Therefore, there are many activities in Qingming Festival, such as ancestor worship, outing, outing and so on, to enjoy a clean and beautiful atmosphere in spring. As the old saying goes, "Food is the most important thing for the people", so it is essential to eat it on such a big holiday. Therefore, Tomb-Sweeping Day eats "cold food", and people are grateful for spring while trying to taste it.

The first kind of "cold food": jiaozi

Don't underestimate this little guy jiaozi. No holiday can be separated from him, and Tomb-Sweeping Day is no exception. Spring is the season when all kinds of wild vegetables are on the market. Tomb-Sweeping Day needs to be clear-minded and clear-minded, so he should eat clearly. Then come to jiaozi, a wild vegetable, which can not only express his feelings for his ancestors, but also mean that the family is round and round, with many children and grandchildren.

The second kind of "cold food": eggs

According to Zhou Li, in mid-spring, people put out cooking, which means that fire is forbidden in Tomb-Sweeping Day, and boiled eggs are the best food to survive the fire ban. Therefore, before Tomb-Sweeping Day, eggs were boiled with wormwood, brown sugar and jujube, so the cooked eggs were bright red and fragrant. In addition, wormwood also has the function of expelling cold. Female friends who eat eggs cooked by wormwood can drive away the cold on their bodies and will not suffer from dysmenorrhea. Therefore, people eat eggs on Qingming Festival, which means that they have good health all year round.

The third kind of "cold food": steamed noodle swallow

Steamed noodle swallow is a custom in Jiaodong, and it is also called Bobo chicken here. Generally, before Tomb-Sweeping Day, the old people at home would knead noodles into the shape of birds or swallows and steam them in a steamer. After steaming, they would draw beautiful patterns on the body of the noodle swallow, and point bright eyes to make the noodle swallow. Steamed noodle swallow symbolizes welcoming a beautiful spring.

the fourth kind of "cold food": Qingtuan

Qingtuan is a delicacy in the south, but it is also popular in the north now. Qingtuan is also called Ai Ye Ba Ba or Ai Cao Cake, which, as the name implies, is a cake made of flour made of wormwood. Fresh wormwood is blanched and made into juice, and white sugar is added to glutinous rice flour, and then the flour is mixed with wormwood juice. Then knead the two together, add cooking oil, in order not to stick to your hands and increase the ductility of the dough, wrap in stuffing such as bean paste or lotus seed paste, and take a gentle bite. It is sweet and not greasy at all, and there is a light and long grass breath in your mouth. Youth League, like its name, means that the new year is round and round, happy and healthy.