Zhongyuan Festival is a traditional cultural festival in China, also known as the Ancestor Festival, the Diguan Festival, etc., and Qingming, Chongyang, and Chinese New Year's Eve are known as the four major ancestor festivals in China. In ancient times, during the midyear festival, people held large-scale sacrificial ceremonies, and the common people rushed to sacrifice their ancestors with new rice and report the harvest to their ancestors. Therefore, combined with the background of the time, on the one hand, the Zhongyuan Festival is to worship the ancestors and express the memory and gratitude to the ancestors; On the other hand, it expresses the joy of a good harvest and prays for prosperity and a good harvest in the coming year.

With the development of the times and historical progress, different regions in China have formed differences in their cognition of the specific date of the Zhongyuan Festival. In some areas, the festival is celebrated on July 14, while others feel that it is celebrated on July 15, and there are regional differences in when to go to the grave to worship ancestors. Although there are differences in the time of going to the grave to worship the ancestors, the attention and precautions on the day of the Midyear Festival have formed a unified cognition, and there is a folk saying that the tomb in the middle of July pays attention to "one food, two taboos, and three do not burn", and the specific requirements will be revealed for everyone.

One meal

There is a folk saying in our country that the midyear festival, the deceased ancestors will return to the world, there is no ship when crossing the Nai River, and they can only rely on the duck to carry the past, and at the same time carry the sacrifice back, so the midyear festival has the custom of duck worshipping ancestors and eating ducks. According to relevant literature, most of the customs of eating duck during the Midyear Festival are concentrated in the south, and the customs of the Midyear Festival preserved in the north are very limited. In addition to the role of ducks in people's cognition, there are two reasons for eating ducks during the Midyear Festival: first, the Midyear Festival will welcome the autumn harvest, and people will celebrate by eating ducks; Second, before and after the Midyear Festival, duck meat is tender and rich in nutritional value, and eating duck can supplement the nutrients needed by the human body.

Combined with the concept of modern life, the Midyear Festival is the time period shortly after the beginning of autumn, and the temperature and precipitation will change greatly. After the Midyear Festival, people should adjust their eating habits, pay attention to the combination of meat and vegetables, and ensure that the intake of nutrients meets the needs of daily life.

Two taboos

The mid-year festival is a day for our country to go to the grave to worship our ancestors, and it has a high status and value. There are two taboos in China's folk mid-year festival: one is that you can't wear bells and murder weapons during the mid-year festival. On the one hand, bells can make sound in people's activities and disturb other people's lives. On the other hand, bells have mysterious power in traditional Chinese culture and cannot be worn during the Midyear Festival. Combined with reality, as the wind blows, the bell will sound, which looks terrifying in the middle of the night.

In addition to not wearing bells, you can't step on sacrifices during the Midyear Festival. There are two reasons why sacrifices cannot be trampled: one is that the sacrifices are the will of children and grandchildren, and trampling on sacrifices is easy to cause conflicts and destroy interpersonal relationships; The second is that the sacrifice expresses respect for the deceased, and stepping on the sacrifice is insulting the deceased. Combining the above two points, it is best not to walk at night on the day of the Midyear Festival, and avoid stepping on other people's offerings or burning paper ashes.

Three do not burn

According to the traditional customs of our country, there are three non-burnings during the Midyear Festival, which is not only the helplessness of reality, but also people's respect for the deceased ancestors. During the Zhongyuan period, the three non-burning refer to: First, pregnant women do not go to the grave to burn paper. Most of the graves in China are in the wilderness, and pregnant women are prone to fetal gas when they go to the grave, which affects their health. The second is that the son-in-law does not go to the grave to burn paper. The son-in-law is always an outsider in the family, and he can't go to his wife's house to worship his ancestors during the Midyear Festival. The third is that people who are suffering from serious diseases cannot go to the grave to burn paper. The body is weak, and the probability of contracting wind and cold during the grave is high. Whether the three types of people mentioned above can go to the grave should be combined with local traditional sayings and analyzed on a case-by-case basis.

In some areas of our country, in addition to certain people who cannot go to the grave during the Midyear Festival, there are also some behaviors that cannot appear during the grave during the Midyear Festival, such as not being loud and noisy, not wearing bright clothes, etc. At any time, during the grave period, there must be rules and exquisiteness, not arbitrarily and recklessly, respecting the elderly and ancestors is the traditional virtue of Chinese culture.

With the development of the times, a large number of new forms have emerged in the process of going to the grave, and it is necessary to be able to accept new forms of ancestor worship. There are three major advocacy for ancestor worship in the new era: first, civilized ancestor worship, pay attention to words and deeds in the process of ancestor worship, and avoid inappropriate behavior and habits; Second, environmental protection to worship ancestors, ancestor worship choose the right way, experience the Internet form of ancestor worship, to avoid environmental pollution problems when worshipping ancestors; Under the premise of three conditions, try new ways to worship ancestors, such as planting trees to worship ancestors. The ancestors of the midyear festival should not only be sincerely grateful to the ancestors, but also be able to be down-to-earth and diligent and hard work in the future.

The Midyear Festival is approaching, it is not important to ignore the customs of the past, the customs will eventually be buried by the trend of the times, but don't forget the relatives and friends around you. While his parents are not old, and while the feelings of relatives and friends have not faded, he took out free time to greet distant relatives and friends, and conveyed warm and kind greetings. Finally, I would like to say: to inherit traditional customs, we also need to innovate, take their essence, and remove their dross, which is the great wisdom of life.