The Qingming Festival, also known as the Treading Green Festival, is celebrated at the intersection of mid-spring and late spring, the 108th day after the winter solstice. It is a traditional Chinese festival and one of the most important festivals for ancestor worship and tomb-sweeping. The origin of Qingming Festival is said to have begun with the ritual of "tomb sacrifice" of ancient emperors and generals, which was later copied by the people, who paid homage to their ancestors and swept their tombs on this day, and it has been inherited by the Chinese people through the generations and become a fixed custom. In addition to the ancestral tomb, Qingming Festival has other holiday customs Oh.

1, tomb sweeping

China's history, the cold food ban on fire, pay tribute 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. Even in today's society, people still have the custom of sweeping the graves around the Qingming Festival to pay homage to their ancestors: 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, willow

The Qingming Festival is the time of the willow sprouting and greening, the folk have folded willow, wear willow, willow custom. When people step 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 in the lintel, eaves. Proverbs have "Qingming do not wear willow, red face into white head" "Qingming do not wear willow, after death into yellow dog" said, indicating that the Qingming folding willow in the old days is a very common custom. It is said that the willow branch has the function of warding off evil spirits, then the willow wear willow is not only fashionable decoration, and have the effect of praying for blessings and warding off evil spirits. Qingming willow may also be related to the past Cold Food Festival to willow branches to beg for new fire customs. Today, it seems, randomly folded willow branches is a damage to the trees, is not appropriate to promote.

The custom of planting willows at Qingming Festival is said to commemorate the invention of a variety of agricultural tools and had "tasted a hundred herbs" of Shennong's; another said to be the willows held at the time of the death of Jie Zi Tui was later resurrected, the Duke of Jin gave the name of the Qingming Willow and folded the willow into a circle to be worn on the head, and the custom was passed into the folk. Although there are different allusions to the origin, but these customs still do not leave the joy of people on the return of spring.

3, pulling the hook

"Pulling the hook" is the ancient name, in fact, is the modern tug of war. It is said that during the Spring and Autumn Period, the state of Chu, in order to attack the state of Wu, used the sport of pulling hooks to enhance the physical fitness of the people. It is mainly a hemp rope, the two ends are divided into many small rope, the game, to a large flag as a boundary, a command, both sides of the force of the rope, drums and music, both sides cheering and shouting, lively and extraordinary.

4, kite flying

Kite flying is one of the favorite activities of the Qingming Festival. Ancient people believed that if someone was sick, they could write or draw their illnesses on a kite, tie the kite with a string and fly it in the air, let it fly to a high altitude and pull the string to cut it, so that the illnesses and disasters would fly away with the kite. Later, the kite also gradually developed into a popular recreational activity.

5, swing

The earliest swing is called "Thousand Autumns", according to legend, the swing for the Spring and Autumn Period, Duke Huan of Qi, from the northern peoples of the Shanrong imported after the Han Dynasty to become the Ching Ming Festival, and other festivals, such as the Dragon Boat Festival, Cold Food Festival and other festivals of the folk games. Swing is initially a rope, to grasp the rope and swing, after the development of a wooden frame hanging two ropes, under the tie horizontal board and become.

6, trekking

Ching Ming time, it is the return of spring, people are due to take advantage of the convenience of sweeping the graves of young and old in the mountains and countryside between the wild play some, go home and folded a few branches of leaf buds blossomed willow branches to wear on the head, and its joyful and happy. There are also people deliberately during the Qingming Festival to the nature to appreciate and appreciate the vibrant spring scenery, hiking in the countryside, a Lyric in the harsh winter since the depression of the chest, this kind of trekking is also known as the spring tour, the ancient called the spring, searching for spring. The meaning of the foot is to step on the grass, playing in the countryside, viewing the spring colors.

7, tree planting

Before and after the Qingming Festival, the spring sun shines, the spring rain sprinkles, planting saplings with a high survival rate, fast growth. Therefore, since ancient times, our country has Qingming tree planting habit. Some people also call the Qingming Festival "Tree Planting Day". The custom of planting trees has been passed down to this day.

8, Cuju

Ju is a kind of leather ball, the ball skin made of leather, the ball stuffed with hair. Cuju, is to use the foot to kick the ball. It is a favorite game during the ancient Qingming Festival. It is said to have been invented by the Yellow Emperor, and its original purpose was to train warriors. Playing polo is also one of the plays of the Dragon Boat Festival. In front of the Baiyun Guan in Beijing, there is also the ceremony of mass horseback riding and hitting the ball. Polo was also played around the Temple of Heaven in the Qing Dynasty until it disappeared after the middle of the Qing Dynasty. In recent years, the city of Xi'an and the emergence of antique polo, so that this ancient sport in the extinction of many years after the reappearance of the Chinese land.

Ching Ming is both a festival and a holiday. As a festival, we have to pay tribute to our ancestors on this day, to memorialize the end of the day, to grieve for the death of life; as a festival, we can go out on this day to walk in the green, sing songs to spring, to rejoice for the life of the once again flourishing.