Do you know what cold food festival means? The most popular saying among the people is to commemorate jieziti of Jin State in the spring and Autumn period. Cold food festival is an important festival for ancient literati. Do you know who it is to commemorate? What are the customs of cold food festival?
Cold food festival: 105 days after the winter solstice of the Chinese calendar, one or two days before the Qingming Festival. It is the beginning of the day when the festival, no fireworks, only eat cold food. In the development of later generations, customs such as memorial service, outing, swing, Cuju, lead hook, cockfight, etc. were gradually added. The cold food festival lasted for more than 2000 years before and after, and was once known as the first day of sacrifice among Chinese people. Cold food festival is the only Chinese traditional festival named after food customs.
Cold food festival is three days before, during and after the Qingming Festival of the Chinese lunar calendar. There are different opinions about the origin of cold food festival. The most popular saying among the people is to commemorate jieziti of the Jin State in the spring and Autumn period.
In the spring and Autumn period, Chong'er, the Duke of Jin, fled and lived a hard life. Jie Zitui, who followed him, did not hesitate to cut a piece of meat from his leg to satisfy his hunger. Later, Chong'er returned to the state of Jin and became a monarch (i.e. Jin Wengong) to reward the meritorious officials. Only jiezitui refused to accept the reward. He took his mother to live in seclusion in Mianshan and refused to come out. Duke Wen of Jin had no choice but to set fire to the mountain and force it down. Who knows that jieziti would rather be burned than come out. In order to commemorate jieziti, Duke Wen of Jin ordered Mianshan to be renamed as Jieshan and built temples and steles. At the same time, it was ordered that on the day of jieziti's death, "no fire for cold food". The whole country was not allowed to cook food by fire, but only dry food and cold food.
In ancient times, people highly respected the Qijie of jieziti and the custom of "cold food and fire prohibition" was handed down by later generations, forming a special commemorative festival of cold food festival.
Folklore experts said that before the Han Dynasty, the cold food festival banned fire for a longer period of one month. Eating cold food for a whole month was not good for the health. In the Han Dynasty, it was changed to three days.
The cold food festival began in Jin Dynasty and lasted for many years. Among them, there were also customs of forbidding cold food, such as Cao Cao in the Three Kingdoms period. But for a short time, the wind of "cold food and fire prohibition" Rose spontaneously among the people. From the pre Qin to the northern and Southern Dynasties, cold food festival was regarded as a major festival. Tang Dynasty is still regarded as a national grand festival, many literati have written about the Cold Food Festival poetry.
The origin of cold food festival
Experts said that the cold food festival is the day before the Qingming Festival. The ancients often extended the activities of the cold food festival to Qingming. Over time, people combined cold food with Qingming. After the late Tang Dynasty and Song Dynasty, the custom of forbidding fire and cold food gradually weakened and declined. By the Yuan Dynasty, many people had basically stopped using this custom. In the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the fire was no longer forbidden during the cold food festival, and people were no longer required to eat cold food.
Zhao Zhiheng said that the custom of banning fire and cold food on cold food festival, together with the cold food festival itself, has gradually disappeared in most areas of China. In other words, cold food festival has become a part of Qingming Festival. However, knowing and understanding this festival will help people to explore the cultural and folk connotations of traditional festivals in China, which is of great significance.