Qingming Festival, also called the Outing Festival, occurs at the turn of mid-spring and late spring, that is, the 104th day after the winter solstice. It is one of the traditional Chinese festivals and one of the most important sacrificial festivals. It is a day for worshiping ancestors and Tomb sweeping day. Below is the traditional Qingming Festival activities and health knowledge that I have compiled for you. I hope it will be helpful to you.

Traditional activities of Qingming Festival

Worshiping ancestors and sweeping tombs

In daily life, the more traditional Qingming Festival is Qingming Festival. Tomb-sweeping activities and ancestor-sweeping activities are an indispensable activity during the Qingming Festival. Because Qingming Festival itself is a traditional festival to commemorate deceased relatives, it is definitely necessary to carry out ancestor-sweeping tomb-sweeping activities during the Qingming Festival. It is indispensable, so in daily life, the more traditional festival of Qingming Festival is the activity of sweeping tombs and worshiping ancestors during Qingming Festival, so you can try it in daily life.

Fire and cold food are prohibited

In life, the requirements for Qingming Festival-related activities are those related to the Cold Food Festival. The Cold Food Festival also falls during the Qingming Festival. One of the traditional activities, before some sacrificial activities in daily life, people will change the fire and cold food. This is one of the very traditional and rigorous sacrificial activities, so you can try it in daily life.

Outing and Recreation

In life, you can also do some outing and recreation before and after the Qingming Festival, because the weather before and after the Qingming Festival belongs to the spring period, when the spring is warm and the flowers are blooming. , so before and after Qingming Festival, you can also choose to invite a few friends to go on an outing. So in your daily life, you can try to do some recreational activities to help relieve the work pressure of the day.

Inserting willows

You can also choose to break willows during the Qingming Festival, because the activity of breaking willows during the Qingming Festival can play a good role in warding off evil spirits. There is a saying that during the Qingming Festival, folding willows and placing them on the door edge of your home or making them into bracelets and rings on your head or on your hands have a very good effect in warding off evil spirits, so you can do this during the Qingming Festival. Choose to celebrate Tomb Sweeping Day by breaking willows.

Flying kites

On Qingming Festival, people not only fly kites during the day, but also at night. At night, a string of small colorful lanterns are hung under the kite or on the wind-stabilizing wire, like twinkling stars, and are called "magic lanterns." In the past, some people would fly kites into the sky, then cut the strings and let the breeze carry them to the ends of the earth. It is said that this can eliminate diseases and disasters and bring good luck to themselves.

Swinging

This is an ancient Qingming Festival custom in my country. Swing means moving by holding on to the leather rope. It has a very ancient history. It was first called Qianqiu, but later was changed to Swing to avoid taboos. In ancient times, swings were mostly made of tree branches and tied with colorful ribbons. Later, it gradually developed into a swing with two ropes and pedals. Playing on the swing can not only improve health, but also cultivate bravery. It is still loved by people, especially children.

Cuju

Cuju is a ball made of leather and stuffed with hair. Cuju means kicking a ball with your feet. This is a game that people loved during the Qingming Festival in ancient times. According to legend, it was invented by the Yellow Emperor, and its original purpose was to train warriors.

Planting trees

Around the Qingming Festival, when the spring sun shines and the spring rain falls, the saplings planted have a high survival rate and fast growth. Therefore, since ancient times, our country has had the habit of planting trees during the Qingming Festival. Some people also call Qingming Festival "Arbor Day". The custom of planting trees has been passed down to this day. In 1979, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress stipulated that March 12th every year would be my country's Arbor Day. This is of great significance in mobilizing people of all ethnic groups across the country to actively carry out activities to green the motherland.

Qingming health tips

1. Eat more foods that protect the liver and nourish the lungs

During the Qingming period, in terms of diet, some places still retain the Qingming ban on eating with fire. The habit of eating cold food. However, some people are not suitable for eating cold food.

During the Qingming Festival, you should eat warm food and eat more fruits and vegetables, especially seasonal vegetables. In addition, during the Qingming solar term, delicious foods, such as shepherd's purse, spinach, and yams, are good for the body. Eat regularly and quantitatively, and avoid overeating. It is advisable to eat less acidic foods such as mutton. You can "increase sweetness" appropriately, that is, eat more sweets to adapt to the health and vitality of spring. However, obese people should reduce sweets accordingly, limit caloric intake, and eat more fruits and vegetables.

2. It is advisable to stay warm and avoid "eating things"

In spring, the liver qi in the body becomes more and more abundant with the deepening of spring, and reaches its peak during the Qingming Festival. As the saying goes, too much is not enough. If liver qi is too strong, it will have adverse effects on the spleen and stomach, hinder normal digestion and absorption of food, and can also cause emotional disorders, poor qi and blood circulation, and lead to various diseases.

Therefore, it is not advisable to eat bamboo shoots, chicken, etc. during the Qingming Festival. "Things that move the wind and raise the yang" refer to the stuff that easily triggers liver wind and easily raises the qi and yang. The stuff can move the wind, produce phlegm, generate poison, assist fire and evil, and should be avoided by people with chronic diseases. "Fat items" include sea fish, sea shrimps, sea crabs, pickles, bamboo shoots, hairy bamboo shoots, mutton, rooster, etc. You can eat some cold food appropriately, so the "Cold Food Festival" also has certain health principles. Since the Qingming Festival rains a lot and the humidity is heavy, you should also pay attention to choosing some foods that warm the stomach and remove dampness, such as cabbage, radish, taro, etc.

3. It is not advisable to eat acidic foods

Because the liver qi in the human body will become stronger with the spring, and the liver qi can reach its peak during the Qingming period in late spring. At this time, if the liver qi is too strong, it will easily damage the spleen and stomach. The liver corresponds to "acid" among the five flavors. If you eat more acidic foods at this time, it will be detrimental to the function of the spleen and stomach and affect digestion and absorption. Therefore, citizens should eat less acidic foods such as mutton, dog meat, quail, fried peanuts, fried melon seeds, marine fish, shrimp, crabs, etc.

What are the forms of Qingming sacrifices

Qingming sacrifices

From the perspective of the spatial form of sacrifices, sacrifices can be divided into temple sacrifices, altar sacrifices, ancestral sacrifices, and family sacrifices. Sacrifice, worship sacrifice, tomb sacrifice. The most important way of offering sacrifices during the Qingming Festival is tomb offering, that is, offering sacrifices in front of the tombs where the remains or ashes of relatives or ancestors are buried.

In traditional farming societies, the Spring Festival, which is the first of the year, is of great significance. In many areas with a strong sense of clan, they begin sweeping tombs and worshiping ancestors from the spring equinox in February, until the end of the Qingming Festival at the latest; before sweeping the tombs, the adult men of the whole clan must hold an ancestor worship ceremony in the ancestral hall; after the ancestor worship is over, they will also perform rituals according to the The branches and houses of the family sweep and offer sacrifices to the tombs of each family. Ancestral temple sacrifices are often large-scale sacrificial sweeping ceremonies, involving the whole clan or even the whole family. Traditionally, the main contents of ancestor worship include tribesmen burning incense, kowtowing, and offering sacrifices. The chief worshipper recites a blessing message with a relatively fixed format and content in public. Moreover, according to the ancient tradition recorded in "Zhou Li Chunguan Zongbo": "Keeping relatives close to the clan brothers with the gift of food and drink." The Dongtang Festival usually ends with the whole family having a dinner or sharing pork, which is also called "eating Qingming".

Family Sacrifice

Family Sacrifice, also known as Sleeping Sacrifice, is a sacrificial offering held by a god at home. The main objects of family sacrifices are ancestors who have died within two generations, such as grandparents or parents. Family sacrifices are often held because the family structure is relatively simple, or the family is too far away from the ancestral tomb. Volume 3 of "Qing Jia Lu" says: "Everyone, whether rich or poor, offers sacrifices to their ancestors. As the saying goes, it is a festival, and it is true for all festivals. Qingtu Qiao, family sacrifices are held on the Qingming Festival, the first half of July, and the first day of October as ghost festivals.

Wangjiashan Festival

One method is to climb a high mountain, look in the direction of the ancestral tomb, and withdraw the paper money into the air. From the volume of Songzhuang Jiyu's "Chicken Ribs": "Cold Food Goes to the Tomb." , and there is no incense. Paper money is hung on the tomb tree. When they go to the countryside, they all go to the mountains to watch the sacrifices. Splitting the silk in the air is called breaking money. Due to the fate, people from all over the capital came to visit him, so they set up wine and delicacies (zhuan, meals) and took their families on a spring outing. ”

The second type is to offer sacrifices by the water: the worshiper looks in the direction of the ancestral tomb and sets up a sacrifice, hoping that the sacrifice’s thoughts will be sent to the ancestral tomb in his hometown along the waterway. Tang Wangjian’s " "Han Shi Xing" describes this scene by saying, "People from far away have no graves to offer sacrifices to, and women and girls are invited to visit their hometowns to worship."

"Wangsi" that is not restricted by geographical space is even more popular in modern society. special meaning.

As the distribution of Chinese people around the world becomes wider and wider, making sacrifices in front of family mountains has also become a method of clan identification for Chinese people in foreign countries. For example, Chinese people living in Honolulu often go to the seaside of their ancestors' homeland to burn paper offerings.