Niu Gensheng sleepwalked to the tomb of Chen Jinnan, the head of the Heaven and Earth Society, Wei Xiaobao and the disciples of the Heaven and Earth Society were offering incense to Chen Jinnan, Wei Xiaobao said: "Happy Qingming Festival! Master, your soul rests in heaven!" Niu Gensheng said: "Lord Wei, are you mistaken, you call Master Happy Qingming Festival!" Wei Xiaobao said: "Princess Jianning's rough body is not tired of worshiping ancestors! Chen Jinnan is not her father, it is good to be able to put a plastic flower on Qingming Festival!"

Niu Gensheng returned to Niu's hometown, and saw Niu Chongtian, Niu Zhaohui, Niu happy, Niu Huanhuan, they are all Lingnan ghost brothers in the village, the mountains and rivers of the village are beautiful! The sun is shining and the green water is flowing for a long time! It really is: "The mountains are quiet and the birds talk about the sky, the water is clear and the fish reads the moon!" Niu Zhaohui put his old qualifications and said: "The clear spring stone is upstream, and the bright moon shines among the pines! The feng shui of our village is good! The civil and military are both complete! The martial arts will be sealed and waited, and the literature will be the champion!"

Niu Chongtian said: "There are too many geeks in our village, Lingnan ghosts and Niu Gensheng, and a large number of ancient sages: Niu Broken Water! Bull Demon King, Chinatown, Niu Gengben! Among them, the first famous to write Niu Gengben, he was rich and rivaled the country during his lifetime, and after his death, there are many descendants like cow hair! To his 1,000th birthday, the brothers surnamed Niu in Shenzhou came to worship him, calling him the ancestor of the Niu family! Niu Chongtian said the origin of the Qingming Festival:

Qingming Festival, also known as the Qingqing Festival, Xingqing Festival, March Festival, Ancestor Festival, the festival period is at the turn of mid-spring and late spring. Qingming has both natural and humanistic connotations, which is not only a natural solar term, but also a traditional festival. Qingming Festival is a traditional major spring festival, sweeping the tomb to worship, remembering the ancestors, is a fine tradition of the Chinese nation for thousands of years, not only conducive to promoting filial piety and family affection, awakening the common memory of the family, but also to promote the cohesion and sense of identity of family members and even the nation. The Qingming Festival integrates natural solar terms and humanistic customs, which is the unity of the right time, the right place and the right people, and fully reflects the harmonious unity of the ancestors of the Chinese nation in pursuing the harmony and unity of "heaven, earth and man", and paying attention to the idea of conforming to the time and place and following the laws of nature. The festival customs of the Qingming Festival are rich, and tomb sweeping and ancestor worship and outing are the two major ritual themes of the Qingming Festival, and these two traditional ritual themes have been inherited in China since ancient times and have not been stopped until now.

Qingming is an ancient festival of the Chinese nation, which is not only a solemn festival for sweeping tombs and worshiping ancestors, but also a joyful festival for people to get close to nature, go out to play, and enjoy the fun of spring. The Qingming solar term is generally around April 5 of the Gregorian calendar, that is, the 15th day after the spring equinox. At this time, the vitality is vigorous, the yin qi is declining, all things "spit out the old and accept the new", and the earth presents the image of spring and scenery, which is a good time for the suburbs to go on a youth tour and perform the tomb sacrifice. The Qingming Ancestor Festival is very long, there are two sayings before and 8 days before and 10 days before and 10 days after, which are all during the Qingming Ancestor Festival in the past 20 days. [3-6]

Qingming Festival, together with the Spring Festival, Dragon Boat Festival and Mid-Autumn Festival, is known as the four traditional festivals in China. In addition to China, there are also some countries and regions in the world that also celebrate the Qingming Festival, such as Vietnam, South Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, etc., which have both similarities and differences with Chinese traditions. On May 20, 2006, the People's Republic of China* declared the Qingming Festival was approved by the State Council to be included in the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage list of the Qingming Festival, also known as the Qingqing Festival, Xingqing Festival, March Festival, and Ancestor Worship Festival, and the festival period is at the turn of mid-spring and late spring. Qingming has both natural and humanistic connotations, which is not only a natural solar term, but also a traditional festival. Qingming Festival is a traditional major spring festival, sweeping the tomb to worship, remembering the ancestors, is a fine tradition of the Chinese nation for thousands of years, not only conducive to promoting filial piety and family affection, awakening the common memory of the family, but also to promote the cohesion and sense of identity of family members and even the nation. The Qingming Festival integrates natural solar terms and humanistic customs, which is the unity of the right time, the right place and the right people, and fully reflects the harmonious unity of the ancestors of the Chinese nation in pursuing the harmony and unity of "heaven, earth and man", and paying attention to the idea of conforming to the time and place and following the laws of nature. The festival customs of the Qingming Festival are rich, and tomb sweeping and ancestor worship and outing are the two major ritual themes of the Qingming Festival, and these two traditional ritual themes have been inherited in China since ancient times and have not been stopped until now. The festival is not only a solemn festival for sweeping tombs and worshipping ancestors, but also a joyful festival for people to get close to nature, go out to play, and enjoy the fun of spring. The Qingming solar term is generally around April 5 of the Gregorian calendar, that is, the 15th day after the spring equinox. At this time, the vitality is vigorous, the yin qi is declining, all things "spit out the old and accept the new", and the earth presents the image of spring and scenery, which is a good time for the suburbs to go on a youth tour and perform the tomb sacrifice. The Qingming Ancestor Festival is very long, there are two sayings before and 8 days before and 10 days before and 10 days after, which are all during the Qingming Ancestor Festival in the past 20 days.

Qingming Festival, together with the Spring Festival, Dragon Boat Festival and Mid-Autumn Festival, is known as the four traditional festivals in China. In addition to China, there are also some countries and regions in the world that also celebrate the Qingming Festival, such as Vietnam, South Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, etc., which have both similarities and differences with Chinese traditions. On May 20, 2006, the Ching Ming Festival declared by the People's Republic of China* was approved by the State Council to be included in the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage list.

The origin and legend of the Qingming Festival

China's traditional Qingming Festival began in the Zhou Dynasty and has a history of more than 2,500 years. Qingming is a very important solar term at the beginning, Qingming arrives, the temperature rises, it is a good season for spring ploughing and spring planting, so there is "before and after Qingming, planting melons and beans". "Afforestation is better than Qingming" agricultural proverb. Later, because the day of Qingming and cold food is close, and cold food is the day of the folk ban on fire and tomb sweeping, gradually, cold food and Qingming will become one, and cold food has become another name for Qingming, but also has become a custom of Qingming season, Qingming day does not move fireworks, only eat cold food.

There is such a legend about cold food:

According to legend, during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, Li Ji, the concubine of Jin Xiangong, set up a poison plan to kill the crown prince Shen Sheng in order to let her son Xi Qi succeed to the throne, and Shen Sheng was forced to commit suicide. Shen Sheng's younger brother Chong'er fled into exile in order to escape the scourge. During his exile, he suffered humiliation. It turned out that most of the courtiers who ran with him went out one after another. There were only a few loyal men left who followed him. One of them is called Jie Zitui. Once, Heavy Ear fainted from hunger. In order to save Chong'er, Jie Zitui cut off a piece of meat from his leg, roasted it over the fire and gave it to Chong'er to eat. Nineteen years later, Chong'er returned to China and became a monarch, which was Duke Wen of Jin, one of the famous Spring and Autumn Five Tyrants.

After Duke Wen of Jin came to power, he rewarded those courtiers who shared weal and woe with him, but forgot Jie Zitui. Someone shouted for Jie Zi in front of Jin Wengong. Jin Wengong suddenly remembered the old things, felt ashamed, and immediately sent someone to ask Jie Zi to push the court to be rewarded and crowned. However, after sending someone to go a few times, the meson could not be pushed. Jin Wengong had no choice but to invite him personally. However, when Jin Wengong came to Jie Zitui's house, he saw that the door was closed. Jie Zitui didn't want to see him, so he had already hid in Mianshan (now southeast of Jiexiu County, Shanxi) with his mother on his back. Duke Wen of Jin asked his Imperial Forest Army to search for Mianshan, but he did not find it. So, someone came up with an idea that it was better to set fire to the mountain, light it on three sides, leave one side, and when the fire started, Jie Zitui would come out on its own. Jin Wen Gong ordered to raise a fire to the mountain, but the fire burned for three days and three nights, and after the fire was extinguished, after all, there was no meson to push out. When I went up the mountain, I saw that the mother and son were holding a big charred willow tree and they were already dead. Jin Wengong looked at Jie Zitui's body and cried for a while, and then buried the body, and found that Jie Zitui's backbone was blocked with a willow tree hole, and there seemed to be something in the hole. took it out and looked at it, it turned out to be a piece of clothing, and a blood poem was inscribed on it:

Cutting meat is dedicated to the king, and I hope the lord will always be clear.

The ghost under the willow will never be seen, and it is better to accompany the king as a minister.

If the Lord has me in his heart, remember me and reflect on myself often.

The minister has a clear heart in Jiuquan, and he is diligent and clear.

Duke Wen of Jin hid the blood book in his sleeve. Then he buried Jie Zitui and his mother separately under the big charred willow tree. In order to commemorate Jie Zitui, Jin Wengong ordered to change Mianshan to "Jieshan", establish an ancestral hall on the mountain, and set the day of setting fire to the mountain as the cold food festival, telling the whole country that fireworks are forbidden on this day every year, and only cold food is eaten.

As he left, he cut down a section of charred willow wood, went to the palace to make double clogs, and looked at it every day and sighed: "Sad feet." "Foot" is the name of mutual respect between superiors or peers by the ancients, and it is said to come from this.

In the second year, Duke Wen of Jin led his ministers to hike up the mountain in plain clothes to pay tribute and express his condolences. When I walked to the grave, I saw the old willow tree resurrected, with thousands of green branches, fluttering in the wind. Jin Wengong looked at the resurrected old willow tree, as if he had seen Jie Zitui. He walked up respectfully, pinched the branch lovingly, and made a circle to put on his head. After the sacrifice, Jin Wengong gave the resurrected old willow tree the name "Qingming Willow", and set this day as the Qingming Festival.

In the future, Jin Wengong often wore the blood book by his side as a motto to spur his own governance. He was diligent and clear-minded, worked hard to govern the country, and governed the country well.

Since then, the people of the Jin Kingdom have been able to live and work in peace and contentment, and they miss Jie Zitui very much for his meritorious work and wealth. On the day of his death, fireworks are forbidden to commemorate him. Also with flour and jujube paste, kneaded into the shape of a swallow, strung with willow sticks, inserted on the door, summoning his soul, this thing is called "Zhitui Yan" (Jie Zi Tui is also known as Jie Zhi Tui). Since then, cold food and Qingming have become a grand festival for the people of the whole country. Whenever there is a cold food, people do not make a fire to cook, but only eat cold food. In the north, the common people only eat cold food prepared in advance, such as jujube cakes and wheat cakes, while in the south, they mostly eat Qingtuan and glutinous rice and sugar lotus. Every Qingming Festival, people weave wicker into a circle and wear it on their heads, and insert wicker branches in front of and behind the house to show nostalgia.

In March and April, when the spring is bright and peachy and willow green, one of the most important festivals in traditional Chinese customs is the Qingming Festival. The Qingming Festival is now the National Tomb Festival. According to the Lord's Day, it is around April 5, and according to the lunar calendar, it is the first half of March. The ancients divided the year into 24 solar terms, with this year of the calendar to sow seeds, harvest, Qingming is one of the 24 solar terms, when in the spring equinox 15 days after the spring equinox, according to the "year of a hundred questions" said: "all things grow at this time, are clean and clear." Therefore, it is called Qingming. Therefore, "Qingming" was originally the name of the solar term, and later the customs of cold food and fire prohibition and tomb were added to form the Qingming Festival.

Originally, the Cold Food Festival and the Qingming Festival were two different festivals, and in the Tang Dynasty, the day of worshipping and sweeping the tomb was set as the Cold Food Festival. The day of the Cold Food Festival is one hundred and five days after the winter solstice, about around the time of Qingming, so Qingming and cold food are combined into one!

The custom of worshipping the ancestral tomb in front of the tomb has a very early origin in China. As early as the Western Zhou Dynasty, great importance was attached to tombs. The Qi people chapter of Mencius in the Warring States Period of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty also mentioned that a Qi person who was laughed at often went to the tomb of Dongguo to beg for sacrifices to the tomb, but the custom of the tomb of the brother in the Warring States Period was very popular. When Xuanzong arrived in the Tang Dynasty, the tomb of Xia Shaoding Han Shisi was one of the "five rites" at that time, so every time the Qingming Festival came, "the fields and roads were full of scholars and women, and the soap servants and beggars all got the tomb of their parents." (Liu Zongyuan's "Book with Xu Jingzhao") tomb sweeping has become an important custom in society.

In the cold winter, it is necessary to ban fire and eat cold food, I am afraid that some old and weak women and children will not be able to endure the cold, and in order to prevent cold food and cold food from hurting the body, so they set up outdoor activities such as walking, outing, swinging, playing football, playing polo, planting willows, tug-of-war, cockfighting, etc., so that everyone can come out to bask in the sun, move the muscles and bones, and increase resistance. Therefore, in addition to worshipping ancestors and sweeping tombs, there are also various outdoor fitness activities in the Qingming Festival, so that this festival, in addition to the sentimentality of chasing after the end of the day, also integrates the atmosphere of joy and spring appreciation; there are both sad tears of life and death, and there is a fresh and bright vivid scene everywhere. It's a very special and special festival.

It is one of the 24 solar terms in our country. Because the 24 solar terms objectively reflect the changes in temperature, rainfall, phenology and other aspects of the four seasons of the year, the ancient working people used it to arrange agricultural activities. "Huainanzi Tianwen Xun" cloud: "On the fifteenth day after the vernal equinox, the fighting finger B, the Qingming wind arrives. According to the "Hundred Questions of the Year": "All things grow at this time, they are clean and clear." Therefore, it is called Qingming. "As soon as Qingming arrives, the temperature rises and the rainfall increases, which is a good season for spring plowing and spring planting. Therefore, there is an agricultural proverb of "before and after the Qingming Festival, order melons and plant beans" and "planting trees and afforestation, no more than the Qingming Festival". It can be seen that this solar term has a close relationship with agricultural production.

However, Qingming is a festival, which is different from the pure solar terms. The solar terms are the signs of phenological changes and seasonal order in China, while festivals contain certain customs and certain commemorative significance.

Qingming Festival is a traditional festival in our country, and it is also the most important sacrificial festival, which is a day to worship ancestors and sweep tombs. Tomb sweeping is commonly known as going to the grave, an activity to sacrifice the dead. Most of the Han and some ethnic minorities sweep the tombs on the Qingming Festival.

According to the old custom, when sweeping the tomb, people should bring wine, food, fruits, paper money and other items to the cemetery, offer food to the grave of their relatives, and then incinerate the paper money, cultivate new soil for the tomb, break a few tender green new branches and insert them on the grave, and then kowtow and worship, and finally eat the wine and food and go home. Tang Dynasty poet Du Mu's poem "Qingming": "During the Qingming Festival, it rains a lot, and pedestrians on the road want to break their souls. By asking where the restaurant is? The shepherd boy pointed to Xinghua Village. "Write about the special atmosphere of the Qingming Festival.

Qingming Festival, also known as the Qingqing Festival, according to the solar calendar, it is between April 4 and 6 every year, it is the spring bright and beautiful grass and trees spit green season, and it is also a good time for people to go on a spring outing (called Qingqing in ancient times), so the ancients had the custom of Qingming outing and carrying out a series of sports activities.

To this day, the custom of worshipping ancestors and mourning deceased relatives is still prevalent during the Qingming Festival.

The tomb sweeping festival is a festival related to funeral customs. It is reported that in ancient times, "tombs but not graves" meant that only grave pits were built, not grave mounds, so the sacrificial sweeps were not seen in the book. Later, the tomb and the tomb, the custom of sacrificing and sweeping had a basis. During the Qin and Han dynasties, tomb sacrifices became an indispensable ritual activity.

According to "Hanshu Yan Yannian's Biography", even if Yan is thousands of miles away from Beijing, he will "return to the East China Sea to sweep the cemetery" in Qingming. Judging from the development and strength of the Chinese's ancestor worship and kinship consciousness, Yan Yannian's move is reasonable. Therefore, later generations also included the tomb sacrifices that were not included in the norms in ancient times into the five rites: "The family of Shishu should be allowed to go to the tomb and be compiled into the five rites, which will always be the norm." "With official affirmation, the wind of tomb sacrifice will inevitably flourish.

Qingming Festival is a festival to commemorate ancestors. The main commemorative ceremony is tomb sweeping, which is a concrete manifestation of the pursuit of the distant future, the harmony of relatives and filial piety, based on the above significance, the Qingming Festival has become an important festival for the Chinese.

Qingming Festival is at the turn of mid-spring and late spring, that is, 106 days after the winter solstice. Tomb sweeping activities are usually carried out 10 days before or 10 days after the Qingming Festival. Some people of origin have been visiting graves for up to a month.

source

When it comes to the Qingming Festival, people with a little knowledge of history will think of the historical figure Jie Zitui. According to historical records, in the Spring and Autumn Period more than 2,000 years ago, Chong'er, the prince of the Jin Kingdom, fled abroad and lived a hard life, and Jie Zitui, who followed him, did not hesitate to cut off a piece of meat from his leg to satisfy his hunger. Later, Chong'er returned to the Jin Kingdom and became the monarch (that is, the Duke of Wen of Jin, one of the five tyrants of the Spring and Autumn Period), and rewarded all the followers who followed him in exile, but Jie Zitui refused to accept the reward, he took his mother to live in seclusion in Mianshan and refused to come out.

Jin Wengong had no choice but to set fire to the mountain, he thought, Jie Zi pushed filial piety to his mother, and he would definitely bring his mother out. Who knew that this fire burned the mother and son to death. In order to commemorate Jie Zitui, Jin Wengong ordered that on this day every year, it is forbidden to light fires, and every household can only eat raw and cold food, which is the source of the Cold Food Festival.

The cold food festival is the day before the Qingming Festival, and the ancients often extended the activities of the cold food festival to the Qingming Festival. Now, the Qingming Festival has replaced the Cold Food Festival, and the custom of worshipping Jie Zitui has also become the custom of sweeping the tomb during the Qingming Festival

Niu Gensheng's head is big when he hears it! The lazy woman is as long and beastly as her feet! The mother-in-law and mother have been talking for a few hours, and they are annoying to death! The Niu family is really awesome, worshipping the mountain and worshiping the ancestors to deify the gods, this is the Qingming Festival caprice! It's too long, I'm afraid that netizens will see Lingnan ghosts before going out on the street to pull Xihong City, eggs, green vegetables, and Chinese cabbage! It's annoying that everyone shouts and beats like a mouse crossing the street! It's terrible to be a human being or live well and die to worship people! May the lonely souls and wild ghosts in the world have a happy Qingming Festival! May you ghosts and ghosts have a carnival and party on the Qingming Festival! Long live the king of Yama! The central bank of Tianditong is making money every day, and the world has the most money in the three realms! It is richer than Dubai and Switzerland in the world!