The customs during the Cold Food Festival mainly include forbidding fire and cold food and offering sacrifices to sweep graves. The ancients in China attached great importance to offering sacrifices to their ancestors. In ancient times, when someone died in the family, they only dug graves for burial, not built graves. Sacrifices are mainly held in ancestral halls. Later, when digging a grave, a mound was built, and ancestor worship was arranged in the cemetery, so there was material support. During the Warring States period, the wind of tomb sacrifice gradually flourished.

Grave-sweeping was more prevalent in Han Dynasty. According to Hanshu, Yan Yannian, the minister, regularly returned to his hometown to pay homage to the cemetery even though he was thousands of miles away from Beijing. In the Tang Dynasty, both literati and civilians regarded the grave sweeping of the Cold Food Festival as a ritual festival to return to their hometown and pursue religion. Because Tomb-Sweeping Day is close to the Cold Food Festival, people often extend the time for sweeping graves to Tomb-Sweeping Day.

In order to escape persecution, Zhong Er, the son of the Jin Dynasty, was exiled to a deserted place, tired and hungry, and could no longer stand up. I searched for it for a long time, but I couldn't find anything to eat. When everyone was extremely anxious, I pushed the minister to a secluded place, cut a piece of meat from my thigh and cooked a bowl of broth for my son to drink.

Zhong Er became a monarch, and rewarded the heroes who accompanied him in exile, except meson tui.

Many people complained about meson push and advised him to admire it. But meson despises those who strive for returns the most, and quietly goes to Mianshan with his old mother.

Jin Wengong was ashamed and personally took someone to ask Jiexiu, but Jiexiu had left home for Mianshan. But I didn't see meson push. After the fire was put out, it was found that Jiezitui had sat under an old willow tree with his old mother on his back and died. On his skirt, he wrote: "I hope my Lord is always clear." In order to commemorate meson push, Jin Wengong ordered that this day be designated as the Cold Food Festival, and the second day of the Cold Food Festival was designated as Tomb-Sweeping Day.

During the Qin and Han Dynasties, sweeping graves became more popular. According to Hanshu, Yan Yannian, the minister, regularly returned to his hometown to pay homage to the cemetery even though he was thousands of miles away from Beijing. In the Tang Dynasty, both literati and civilians regarded the grave sweeping of the Cold Food Festival as a ritual festival to return to their hometown and pursue religion. Because Tomb-Sweeping Day is close to the Cold Food Festival, people often extend the time for sweeping graves to Tomb-Sweeping Day.

This regulation has been around for more than 1200 years, which shows that Qingming began to have the color of a national statutory holiday. During the Song and Yuan Dynasties, Tomb-Sweeping Day gradually rose from being attached to the Cold Food Festival to replacing it. This is not just a grave-sweeping ceremony on the dining table, but the original customs and activities of the Cold Food Festival, such as cold food, cuju and swinging, have all been taken over by Tomb-Sweeping Day.

From about the Tang Dynasty, Tomb-Sweeping Day absorbed the contents of another earlier festival-Shangsi Festival. In ancient times, Shangsi Festival was held on the third day of the third lunar month. The main customs were jogging and bathing by the river, which reflected people's psychological needs for mental adjustment after a dull winter.

There is a poem written by Lu Ji in the Jin Dynasty: "It's late spring and the weather is soft. Yuanji Longchu, swim the Yellow River. " It is a vivid portrayal of people's childhood travel in Shangsi Festival.

Since Tomb-Sweeping Day always goes to the suburbs to sweep graves, it is also a way to adjust the mood to pay homage to the ancestors at the same time when the spring is beautiful. Therefore, Tomb-Sweeping Day is also called Youth Day.