It's another Qingming Festival, and Tomb-Sweeping Day is an important traditional festival among Chinese people. It carries the filial piety culture that Chinese people value most, cherishes the memory of old friends and places their grief. At the same time, Qingming is also an important solar term, which means that the land is bright and clear, and it is a good time to travel in the spring.

So, what customs do we Ningbo people have during the Qingming Festival? The reporter interviewed relevant experts, and it turns out that apart from sweeping graves to worship ancestors, the Qingming Festival is actually rich in content.

Spring ploughing in Qingming Festival

Qingming Festival and Grain Rain are connected, so don't delay soaking seeds and ploughing

"It rains a lot during Qingming Festival, and pedestrians on the road want to die. Ask the local people where to buy wine and worry? The shepherd boy pointed to Xinghua Village. " When it comes to Qingming, people will naturally think of this poem by Du Mu, a poet in the Tang Dynasty. "But in the beginning, Qingming didn't have this meaning, but it was just a solar term. As one of the 24 solar terms, this year's Qingming begins on April 4 and ends on April 19. " Mr. Zhao Shiwang, a folk expert in Ningbo, said.

During the Qingming Festival, most parts of China return to the earth in spring, and the weather is clear and bright, and the vegetation begins to sprout, which is the best time for spring ploughing and planting. Farmers are busy everywhere in the fields. "At this time, farmers in Ningbo should be busy soaking seeds, ploughing fields and planting trees."

There are too many folk proverbs about spring ploughing on Qingming Festival, such as "Seeding early on Qingming Festival in March", "Early on Qingming Festival, early rice must be good", and "Qingming Festival and Grain Rain are connected, so don't delay soaking seeds and ploughing". For another example, "melons should be big and planted before Qingming" and "planting trees and afforestation is better than Qingming". It is enough to show that agricultural production in the Qingming period is the key to a bumper harvest in that year.

Qingming Festival to pay homage to ancestors

In March, when the bamboo shoots are fragrant, every family argues that they are busy going to the grave

As an old saying goes in Ningbo, "In March, when the bamboo shoots are fragrant, every family argues that they are busy going to the grave." The custom in Ningbo attaches great importance to offering sacrifices, especially to offering sacrifices to ancestors in graves and making Qingming thick soup rice. Even travelers at home and abroad will rush back to their hometowns to offer sacrifices to ancestors in Qingming Festival. "Generally, there are three kinds of ancestor worship in Qingming Festival, including tomb sacrifice, family sacrifice and shrine sacrifice." Mr. Zhao Shiwang told reporters.

During the Qingming Festival, people in Ningbo will make sacrifices at home, commonly known as "Qingming soup rice". After that, people carried youth league, hemp cake, wine, food and other items to sweep the graves of their ancestors. In rural customs, in the first three years of the new deceased, all the family members will go to the grave on the same day in Tomb-Sweeping Day.

In the old days, the seasonal food for going to the grave was green cakes and mashed (black rice) cakes, and they offered sacrifices to their ancestors. The rich also hired trumpeters to play. When going to the grave, remove weeds, shovel new soil to press the top of the grave, and insert bamboo shoots with paper balls to show that future generations have done their filial piety to their ancestors, and at the same time, it also means that their ancestors have blessed the whole family with peace and prosperity. After the sacrifice, the local farmers will be given hemp cakes or cakes in order to take care of the graves. Because people get it by themselves, they compete with each other, which is commonly known as "grabbing hemp".

In addition to family offerings such as Qingming soup rice and tomb offerings, some clans also have temple offerings. Sacrifices in ancestral halls are usually held in their ancestral halls on Qingming Day. First, knock gongs in the whole village and mobilize children to "worship the squire". Ancestral ancestor worship was presided over by the patriarch. After the patriarch toasted Taigong Taipo, the descendants bowed down and prayed.

the Chinese nation has always advocated filial piety. The old adage "Bai Shanxiao comes first" and "Parents don't travel far away" shows that traditional filial piety culture has long placed filial piety in an important position. Tomb-Sweeping Day has been listed in the national intangible cultural heritage protection list. Throughout the ages, people in Ningbo have paid their respects to their ancestors and relatives and expressed their filial piety.

Wear willow in Qingming Festival

Wear willow in Qingming Festival, and there will be a mother-in-law in the next life

Ningbo people still wear willow in Qingming Festival. Willows should be hung on doors and windows, women should wear willow tips on their hair, and children should be braided with willow rings to wear. Why wear willow? There are several ways to say this.

the first statement is to commemorate meson push. During the Spring and Autumn Period, meson tui went through hardships and assisted Zhong Er, the son of Jin Dynasty, to live in seclusion in the mountains. Zhong Er burned the mountain and forced him to come out to accept the reward. I didn't expect the meson to push the mother and son to hold the willow and die. When Jin Wengong personally led his ministers to climb the mountain to worship Jietui, he found that the willow tree that had been burned in those years had actually come back from the dead. Jin Wengong named the willow tree "Qingming Willow" at present, and on the spot, he broke off a few branches of willow and put them on his head to show his memory. Since then, officials and people have followed suit, and they have followed suit.

The second argument is related to the Huang Chao Uprising. According to legend, during the Huang Chao Uprising, it was stipulated that "Qingming is a period, Dai Liu is the number". Although the uprising failed, this custom survived.

"If these two sayings are popular all over the country, then the third saying has the local characteristics of Ningbo." Mr. Zhao Shiwang said.

There is a saying in Ningbo: "Wear a willow in Qingming Festival, and there will be a uncle in the next life." Why is there such a statement? There is also a story. It is said that there was a young man in ancient times. One winter, it was snowing heavily and freezing, but the firewood at home was burned out again. He had to go up the mountain with an axe to cut firewood. After a long walk, he saw a big willow tree, which had withered, so he took up his knife and cut it down. However, when this big willow tree fell down, a bloody head also fell. When you look carefully, it turned out to be his uncle! It turned out that his uncle was hiding in the hole of this willow tree to avoid the wind and snow, but he was killed by mistake. The youth is heartbroken, but it is irreparable. The next year, when the withered willow shoots, he wears wicker to mourn his uncle. "Wear a willow in Qingming Festival, and there will be an uncle in the next life." Without an uncle in this life, there should always be one in the next life! This proverb also slowly spread.

in addition, wicker has a strong vitality, and it will live when it is inserted into the soil. After Tomb-Sweeping Day, people will put wicker on children's heads into the fields by the river or in front of the house, in order to pin their children's good wishes for healthy growth.

Go for an outing in Qingming Festival

On March 3rd, we went for an outing in Qingming Festival.

"Now Tomb-Sweeping Day is actually an ancient festival in which Shangsi Festival, Cold Food Festival and Tomb-Sweeping Day Festival are integrated." Wu Tingyu, an expert on traditional culture in China and dean of the School of Humanities of Ningbo Institute of Technology, believes that Qingming Festival is a compound festival.

"People in Ningbo eat Qing Tuan on Qingming Festival from the Cold Food Festival." Mr. Wu Tingyu said, but now, many people only know Qingming but not cold food. In ancient times, fire and cold food were forbidden on the Cold Food Festival, which was also called "Cold Festival" and "No Smoking Festival". During the evolution of festivals, the Cold Food Festival gradually merged into Qingming.

On that day, Tomb-Sweeping Day visited the grave and went for a spring outing. "This has absorbed the content of Shangsi Festival. Shangsi Festival was on the third day of the third lunar month in ancient times, and the main custom was hiking, which reflected people's urgent need for spiritual adjustment after a dreary winter, and also reflected China people's outlook on life. "

Du Fu, a great poet in the Tang Dynasty, wrote "The weather is new on March 3rd, many beauties take the air by the Changan waterfront", which shows that this festival is a day for men and women to go out for an outing, and it is an early Valentine's Day and Daughter's Day in China. "As you can imagine, young men and women in ancient China met at midnight on the fifteenth day of the first month, so they want to see the second side. It is very likely that lovers met strangers in the wild around Qingming, and the spring blossoms are quite affectionate." Wu Tingyu told reporters humorously.

"Similarly, Wang Xizhi, a great calligrapher in the Eastern Jin Dynasty and a civil historian in Huiji, and 42 friends, including Xie An and Sun Chuo, held an activity of drinking and composing poems in Lanting on March 3rd. There is also the custom of' March 3, stepping on the beach' in Shipu, Xiangshan, which should all belong to the content of going to the beach. "

Mr. Wu Tingyu verified from ancient books that in the old days, there were many folk activities in Tomb-Sweeping Day, such as willow shooting, cuju, tug-of-war, kites and swings. "Xiangshan County Records" records that children flying kites during the Qingming period "make children open their mouths to relieve internal heat", which means that flying kites is not only a kind of entertainment, but also a kind of sports and a kind of treatment. It is enough to show that this festival is a distinctive festival, with both sad tears to sweep the new grave of where will you go and laughter for an outing.