Qingming Festival is coming soon. Many people only know that Qingming Festival is a festival to sacrifice their ancestors. Few people know that there are other customs. Let's follow the four seas net to have a look.
In the Chinese history of tomb sweeping and ancestor worship in the Qingming Festival, it has long been a custom to offer sacrifices to ancestors. After the Tang Dynasty, the cold food festival gradually declined, so tomb sweeping and ancestor worship became a continuous festival custom. Bai Juyi, a great poet of the Tang Dynasty, wrote in the poem "cold food and wild singing". It said that the crow crows the magpie and faints the trees. Whose family is crying in the cold food of the Qing Dynasty? The wind blows the paper money in the wilderness and the ancient tomb is full of spring grass. Tangli flowers reflect white poplars, which are the places where life and death leave. The heavy spring in the dark desert is crying but not smelling. Gao juqing, a poet of Song Dynasty, once wrote in the poem Qingming that there are many tombs in the north and south of the mountain, and there are different kinds of sacrifices in Qingming. Paper ashes fly as white butterflies, tears and blood turn into red cuckoos. On the fox's sleeping grave at sunset, at night, in front of the children's laughing lamp. Life has wine to be drunk, a drop never to Jiuquan. Even in today's society, before and after the Qingming Festival, people still have the custom of going to the tomb to visit their ancestors: uprooting weeds, putting on offerings, offering incense and prayers in front of the tomb, burning paper money and gold ingots, or simply offering a bunch of flowers to express the memory of their ancestors.
During the Qingming Festival, it was spring that returned to the earth. People took advantage of their own advantages. After sweeping the tomb, they also had fun in the countryside. When they returned home, they folded a few willows with their first buds and put them on their heads. Some people go to nature to appreciate and appreciate the vibrant spring scene during the Qingming Festival. Outings on the outskirts express their frustrations since the severe winter. This kind of outing is also called spring outing. In ancient times, it was called exploring spring and seeking spring. Its meaning is to walk on the grass, play in the countryside and watch the spring. Qingming is a good time for outing, so it becomes an important part of Qingming Festival custom. In ancient times, women could not go out at will on weekdays. Tomb sweeping was a rare opportunity for outing. Therefore, women had more fun than men on Tomb Sweeping Day. There is a saying in the folk that "the year of women's Tomb Sweeping men".
The Qingming Festival is the time when willows sprout and turn green. There are folk customs of folding, wearing and inserting willows. When people go on a trip, they can fold down a few wickers, play with them in their hands, weave them into hats and put them on their heads, or take them home and put them on the lintels and eaves. There is a saying that "if you don't wear a willow in the Qingming Dynasty, a red face will become a white head" and "if you don't wear a willow in the Qingming Dynasty, you will turn yellow dog after you die", which shows that folding a willow in the Qingming Dynasty was a very common custom in the old days. It is said that willow branches have the function of exorcising evil spirits, so inserting willows and wearing willows are not only fashionable decorations, but also have the effect of praying for blessings and exorcising evil spirits. It may also be related to the custom of using willow branches to beg for new fire in the cold food festival in the past. Today, it seems that taking willows at will is a kind of damage to trees, which is not recommended. It is said that the custom of planting willows and trees on the Qingming Festival is to commemorate the Shennong family who invented various agricultural production tools and tasted hundreds of herbs. The other is that the willow that Jiezi held when he pushed it to death was later revived. The Duke Wen of Jin gave it the name of Qingming willow and folded it into a circle on his head. This custom was later passed on to the people. Although there are different sources of allusions, these customs are still inseparable from people's joy in returning to the earth in spring.
In addition to the above-mentioned customs of tomb sweeping and ancestor worship, outing and willow planting, Qingming Festival also has a large number of recreation customs. For thousands of years, it has been loved by people, such as the continuous hook, kite flying and swing swing, and there are also the shooting willows and Cuju (sound: C & ugrave; J ū), which once prevailed for a while, but no longer seen today.
The ancient name of "draw hook" is actually the modern tug of war. It is said that in the spring and Autumn period, in order to attack the state of Wu, the state of Chu strengthened the people's physique with the movement of hook. It is mainly a hemp rope, which is divided into many small ropes at both ends. During the competition, a big flag is used as the boundary. At one command, both sides pull the rope hard and sing together. Both sides cheer and shout, which is very lively.
Flying kites is one of the most popular activities of Qingming Festival. The ancients believed that if someone was ill, he could write or draw his illness on a kite made of steel, and fly it in the air with a string tied to it, so that when it flew to the sky, it would cut the string, and the disease and disaster would fly away with the kite. Later, kites also gradually developed into popular recreational activities for outings. According to pan rongbi, a Qing Dynasty man, when the emperor was old, Ji Sheng recorded: 'when Qing Dynasty was sweeping the tombs, men and women of the city fell out of the four suburbs, drinking boxes and looking at each other. Each carries a paper kite spool, and after the sacrifice, it is better to put it in front of the tomb. 'the ancients also thought that the wind of Qingming was very suitable for flying kites. "Qingjialu" said: "spring wind from the bottom up, because of which Zhiyuan, so there is & lsquo; Qingming fly broken kite & rsquo; proverb. "In ancient times, flying kites was not only a recreational activity, but also a kind of Witchcraft: they believed that flying kites could let off their own filth. So when many people fly kites on the Qingming Festival, they write all the diseases they know on the paper kite. When the kite flies high, they cut the kite line and let the paper kite fly with the wind. It means that their diseases and filth are taken away by the kite.
Swing swing was first called Qianqiu. It is said that it was introduced by Duke Huan of Qi in spring and Autumn period from Shanrong, a northern ethnic group. After Han Dynasty, it became a folk game of Qingming and other festivals such as Dragon Boat Festival and cold food festival. At first, swing was made by using a rope and grasping the rope by hand. Later, it developed into hanging two ropes on a wooden frame and tying a horizontal plate under it. Swing plays were popular in the northern and Southern Dynasties. It is recorded in Jingchu's chronicle of the age of Jin and Chu that 'in spring, a long rope is hung on a tall wood, and a scholar and a woman's colorful clothes are placed on it and pushed, which is called playing on the swing. 'swing in Tang Dynasty has become a very common game and an important part of the custom of Qingming Festival. Because swing can be seen everywhere in the Qing Dynasty, the Qing Ming Festival was designated as swing festival in the yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties. Swing was also set up in the imperial palace for the empress, concubines and maids to play. Today's parks and playgrounds still have swings for children to play with.
Shooting willow is a game to practice archery skills. According to the records of the Ming Dynasty, the pigeon was placed in the gourd, and then the gourd was hung on the willow tree. The pigeon flew out of the gourd, and the victory was determined by the height of the flying pigeon.
In addition to ancestor worship and tomb sweeping, Cuju Qingming Festival also has various outdoor activities, such as outing, outing, swing and so on. In addition to the mourning, Cuju Qingming Festival also integrates the atmosphere of joy and spring appreciation. In these activities, Cuju is a very interesting activity. Cuju, the predecessor of football, is made of leather and stuffed with wool. It is said that Cuju existed before the Shang Dynasty, and entered the civil society during the Warring States period. It became more used in the military to practice martial arts and juxtaposed in the military books in the Han Dynasty. "Cuju" is kicking with feet. It originated in Linzi, the capital of Qi State in the spring and Autumn period and the Warring States period. In the Tang and Song Dynasties, it was the most prosperous. There were scenes of "the ball will not fall all the time", "the ball will not leave the foot, the foot will not leave the ball, the Chinese court will watch it, and ten thousand people will look up to it." the picture of Cuju of emperor Taizu of Song Dynasty depicts the scene at that time. In Du Fu's poem "Qingming", it is written that "ten years of Cuju will be far away, and the custom of swing is the same". It also shows the popularity of Cuju at that time. In the traditional cultural background of emphasizing the "mean", Cuju has gradually evolved from a competitive competition to a performance competition. In the Qing Dynasty, there were few records about Cuju in the historical records. The birthplace of Cuju is Zibo, Shandong Province. Many people take part in it, which not only exercises their body, but also inherits the folk custom of more than 2000 years.
The game of cockfighting was popular in Qingming in ancient times. It started from Qingming and lasted until the summer solstice. The earliest record of cock fighting in China can be found in Zuo Zhuan. In the Tang Dynasty, cockfighting became popular, not only among the people, but also among the emperor. For example, Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty liked cockfighting the most.
Silkworm Flower Fair is a unique folk culture in canxiang. In the past, there were such folk activities in Wuzhen, Chongfu and zhouquan during the Qingming Festival. Among them, the silkworm Flower Fairs of maming temple in zhouquan and Shuangmiao temple in Qingshi are particularly splendid and grand. Maming temple, located in the west of zhouquan Town, is known as the "king of the temple". Every year, silkworm Flower Fair is full of people and frequent activities. There are more than ten activities, such as greeting silkworm God, rocking express boat, making stage Pavilion, worshiping incense stool, boxing, Dragon lantern, raising pole, singing and so on. Some of these activities are carried out on shore, the vast majority of which are carried out on ships, with the characteristics of water villages. In recent years, the silkworm flower fair in Xiangshi of Wuzhen has only several projects, such as greeting the silkworm God, stepping on the white boat and raising the pole, which has great potential to be explored.