The Qingming Festival, with both natural and humanistic connotations, is one of the "twenty-four solar terms" as well as a traditional festival of ancestor worship. The "twenty-four seasons" is a product of the ancient farming civilization, which is linked to the dry time and gossip, has a long history of origin. The "twenty-four seasons" not only played a guiding role in agricultural production, but also influenced the ancient people's clothing, food, housing and transportation, and even cultural concepts.
In the early days of observing the time, the time of the year was determined according to the rotation of the stars, the handle of the bucket rotated clockwise once, which was called the first year of the year (Regent). Tianwei Jianyuan, from the beginning of the Yin, such as the "Huainanzi - astronomy training" recorded: "Emperor Zhang four-dimensional, transported by the bucket, the month of migration of an hour, and then return to its, the first month refers to the Yin, December refers to the ugly, a year and turn, the end of the year and the beginning again".
Expanded:
According to archaeological excavations, the Qingtang site in Yingde, Guangdong Province, has discovered a 10,000-year-old tomb, which is the earliest confirmed burial in China, indicating that the ancient ancestors had a clear and conscious concept of burial behavior and rituals 10,000 years ago. The ritual of "tomb sacrifice" has a long history, and the Qingming "tomb sacrifice" is the synthesis and sublimation of the traditional spring festival. The formulation of the ancient calendar provides the prerequisites for the formation of the festival, and ancestor beliefs and sacrificial culture are important factors in the formation of Qingming ancestor worship rituals and customs.