1, sweeping the tomb ancestor
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. Bai Juyi, a great poet of the Tang Dynasty, wrote in his poem "Cold Food Day": "The crows and magpies are noisy and faint the trees, who is crying in the Qingming Festival? The wind blows the paper money flying in the wilderness, and the ancient graves are full of green spring grass. The flowers of the pear tree are reflected in the white poplar tree, all of which are the places of separation between life and death. I can't hear the weeping at the heavy spring in the darkness, and people go back to their homes in the evening rain." Gao Juqing, a poet of the Song Dynasty, also described in his poem "Qingming": "There are many graves on the hills in the north and south, and the Qingming Festival is full of different ceremonies. Paper ashes fly as white butterflies, and tears stain red azaleas. Foxes sleep on the graves at sunset, and children return at night and laugh in front of the lamps. Life has wine to be drunk, a drop has never reached the Nine Springs." Even in today's society, people still have the custom of visiting the graves around the Ching Ming 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, 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 wild play some, go home by hand to fold a few branches of leaf buds blossoming willow branches to wear on the head, happy 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 color.
Before and after the Qingming Festival is a good time for trekking, so it has become an important part of the Qingming Festival. In ancient times, women could not travel during the weekdays, Qingming tomb sweeping is a rare opportunity to trekking, so the women in the Qingming Festival than the men play more fun, folk "women's Qingming men's year" said.
3, willow
Ching Ming Festival is the time of the willow sprouting green, folk have folded willow, willow, willow custom. When people step on the green hand folded 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 to insert 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 that randomly taking willow branches is a kind of damage to the trees, is not suitable to promote.
The custom of planting trees on the 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 mesquite pushed 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, 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.
4, pulling the hook (tug of war)
"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 people's physical fitness. 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 of the cheering and shouting, lively and extraordinary.
5, kite flying
Kite flying is one of the favorite activities of the Qingming Festival. Ancient people believed that if someone was sick, he or she could write or draw his or her illness on a kite, and then fly the kite in the air with a line tied to it, so that it could fly to a high altitude and pull the line to cut it, and the illness and disaster would fly away with the kite. Later, the kite also gradually developed into a popular recreational activities.
The Qing Dynasty's Pan RongHang's book, "Imperial Capital Years and Years of Record", recorded that: "During the Qingming Festival, men and women come out of the four suburbs to visit the tombs, and they carry paper kites and spools of paper kites to offer sacrifices to the gods and to the people. Each carries a paper kite spool, and after sweeping, it is put in front of the grave to win." Ancient people also think that the wind of Qingming is very suitable for kite flying. The Qingjia Records said, "Spring wind from the bottom up, the paper kite because of it, so there is a 'Qingming put off the harrier' of the proverb." In ancient times, kite-flying was not only a kind of amusement activity, but also a kind of witchcraft behavior: they believed that kite-flying could let go of one's own dirty qi. So when many people flew kites during the Qingming Festival, they wrote all the calamities and diseases they knew on the paper kite, and when the kite was flying high, they cut the kite string and let the paper kite float away with the wind, symbolizing that they let the kite take away their own illnesses and unclean qi.
6, swinging
The first swing is called "Thousand Autumn", 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, became 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.
The play of swing has been popular in the North and South Dynasties. Jing Chu chronicle recorded: "spring hanging long rope in the high wood, women in colorful clothes sitting on it and push the lead, called playing the swing." Tang Dynasty swinging has been a very common game, and become an important part of the Qingming Festival customs. Because of the Qingming swing everywhere, the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties set the Qingming Festival for the Swing Festival, the palace also set up swings for the queen, concubines, court ladies to play.
Today's parks and playgrounds still have swings for children to play.
7, cockfighting
Cockfighting games were prevalent in the ancient Qingming, cockfighting by the beginning of Qingming, fighting until the summer solstice. China's earliest record of cockfighting, see "Zuo Zhuan". To the Tang Dynasty, cockfighting became a trend, not only is the civil cockfighting, even the emperor also participated in cockfighting. Such as Tang Xuanzong favorite cockfighting.
8, Silkworm Club
"Silkworm Club" is a unique folk culture of Silkworm Township, in the past during the Ching Ming Festival, Wutong, Wuzhen, Chongfu, Chauquan and other places have this folk activity. Among them to Chauquan's Maming Temple and Qingshi's double temple of the silkworms will be particularly exciting and grand. Maming Temple is located in Chauquan town west, in the local "king of the temple" said, every year silkworms will be a sea of people, frequent activities, there are welcome silkworm god, shake the fast boat, haunted the pavilion, worship incense stool, boxing, dragon lanterns, warping Gorgon, singing opera and other more than a dozen activities. Some of these activities are carried out on the shore, and the vast majority of them are carried out on the boat, which is very characteristic of the water town. In recent years, Wuzhen incense market activities in the silkworm flower, only to welcome the silkworm god, step on the white boat, warped pole and a few other projects, there is great potential to dig.
9, tree planting
Ching Ming before and after the spring sunshine, spring rain sprinkled, planting saplings high survival rate, fast growth. Therefore, since ancient times, China has the Qingming tree-planting habit. Some people also call the Qingming Festival "Tree Planting Day". Tree-planting custom has been handed down to the present day Qingming Festival tree-planting custom, originated in the Qingming wear willow willow custom.
There are three kinds of legends about the willow planting at Qingming. The oldest legend honors Shennong, the ancestor who taught people how to gather crops and farm, and later developed the idea of praying for longevity. A later legend is related to Jie Zi Tui. It is said that when Duke Wen of Jin led his ministers to climb the mountain to pay homage to Jie Zi Tui, he found that the old willow tree that Jie Zi Tui had leaned on before his death had risen from the dead, so he gave the old willow tree the name of "Qingming Willow". A later legend has it that Emperor Tang Taizong gave his minister a willow circle to show his blessing and drive away epidemics.
Customs of Qingming Festival in the North
1. Eating deep-fried noodle cakes
There is a custom of eating deep-fried noodle cakes in Qingming Festival in the north and south of China. "Deep-fried noodle cake is a deep-fried food, which is crispy and exquisite, and was called "cold food" in ancient times. The custom of forbidding fire and cold food on the cold food festival is no longer popular in most parts of China, but deep-fried noodle cakes related to this festival are y loved by the world. Nowadays, deep-fried noodle cakes are popular in Han areas with differences between the north and the south: the northern deep-fried cakes are generous and free, with wheat flour as the main material; the southern deep-fried cakes are delicate and detailed, with rice flour as the main material. In the minority areas, there are many varieties of deep-fried noodle cakes with different flavors, especially those of Uygur, Dongxiang and Naxi, as well as those of Ningxia Hui, which are the most famous.
2.Qingming Snail
The best time to eat snail is during the Qingming season, because the snail has not yet reproduced at this time, and it is most plump and fat, so there is a saying that "the snail in Qingming is good for a goose". Snail eating method is quite a lot, can be fried with onion, ginger, soy sauce, cooking wine, sugar; can also be boiled and picked out of the snail meat, can be mixed, can be drunk, can be bad, can be choked, all appropriate. If the food method is appropriate, it can be called "a flavor of snail thousand interesting, delicious wine are not as good as".
In addition, China's north and south of the festival in the Qingming Festival, there are food eggs, cakes, cakes, sandwich cakes, Qingming dumplings, buns, mochi, Qingming Po, dry porridge and other nutritious food custom.
3. Noodle flower
Doing noodle flower is the specialty of women in northern Shaanxi. With their dexterous hands, they can knead fermented white flour into various shapes. The tools are combs, scissors, awls, tweezers and other daily necessities, supplemented by red beans, black beans, peppercorns and food coloring. The steaming flowers are so lifelike that they are like works of art, so much so that you can't stop eating them.
"Zi push buns" and noodles flower in addition to their own consumption, but also used to gift friends and relatives. Mothers should give their daughters who got married that year, known as sending cold food. Rural children to their teachers to send, so that leave home alone in the remote mountain villages teaching gardeners to share the holiday food.
4. Ching Ming Fruit
Every Ching Ming, families make a kind of food called Ching Ming Fruit, which is used to pay tribute to ancestors when sweeping tombs. But as far as I can remember, the arrival of the Qingming Festival meant that I was able to savor the green and fragrant Qingming fruit.
The fruit is shaped like a dumpling, but the flavor is very different. The skin of Qingming fruit is a plant called Ai leaves made of Ai, a perennial herb, small yellow flowers, small leaves shaped like a chrysanthemum plant, born of a canopy, a cluster. Every year before the Qingming Festival, women hand-held bamboo blue, groups of three or five to the fields joyfully picking mugwort leaves, green fresh mugwort leaves full of piles in the blue, very nice and attractive. Ai leaf picking home, will begin the complicated process of making Qingming fruit, women and like the Mojutsu division, the green Ai grass in a flash into a delicious Qingming fruit.
The customs of the Qingming Festival are rich and interesting, in addition to preaching the prohibition of fire, sweeping the tomb, there are also a series of customs and sports activities such as trekking, swinging, Cuju, playing polo, willow and so on. Legend has it that this is because the Qingming Festival to cold food and fire ban, in order to prevent cold food and cold food injury, so people come to participate in a number of sports activities, in order to exercise the body. Therefore, this festival is characterized by both the sorrowful tears of sweeping the new graves of life and death, as well as the laughter of trekking and playing.
Swinging
This is China's ancient Qingming Festival custom. Swinging, meaning migrating by the leather rope. Its history is very ancient, the earliest called the thousand autumn, after in order to avoid taboos, changed to swing. Ancient swing with tree branches for the frame, and then bolted on the ribbon made. Later gradually developed into a swing with two ropes and pedals. Playing swing not only can improve health, but also can cultivate the spirit of bravery, and is still loved by people, especially children.
Cuju
Cuju is a kind of leather ball, the ball skin made of leather, the ball with hair stuffed tight. Cuju is to kick the ball with the foot. It is a favorite game in ancient times during the Qingming Festival. It is said to have been invented by the Yellow Emperor, and its original purpose was to train warriors.
Treading Green
Also called spring tour. In ancient times, it was called exploring spring, searching for spring and so on. March Qingming, spring back to the earth, the natural world everywhere presents a vibrant scene, it is a great time for excursions. China's folk have long maintained the habit of Qingming trekking.