What influence does the custom of Cold Food Festival have on Tomb-Sweeping Day?

The Cold Food Festival, also known as "No Smoking Festival" or "Cooked Food Festival", is said to have originated from the Jin State in the Spring and Autumn Period. According to ancient customs, all fireworks, including cooking with fire, should be banned during festivals. Because of this, cooked food must be prepared in advance, and only these cold foods can be eaten, so it is called "cold food".

There are three main customs of the Cold Food Festival: no fire, grave sweeping and outing. The specific time of the Cold Food Festival is set at 105 or 106 from the winter of the year before last, just one or two days before Tomb-Sweeping Day. Because the Cold Food Festival generally lasts for three days, related activities should last until Qingming. Over time, people gradually do not distinguish between cold food and Qingming, so that many people only know Qingming now, but don't know cold food. Since the date of Cold Food Festival is similar to that of Tomb-Sweeping Day, it has gradually merged with ancestor worship and grave-sweeping activities since the Tang Dynasty. Some people call Tomb-Sweeping Day the Cold Food Festival, the No-smoking Festival and even the Qingming Cold Food Festival. Therefore, there are many customs of the Cold Food Festival, like Tomb-Sweeping Day, and there are also recreational activities such as swinging and cuju.

Draw eggs

The custom of the ancient cold food festival is recorded in Chen's Book of Song Sui Guang Ji (Volume 15) Book of Nakano: "On the Cold Food Festival, chickens are drawn to congratulate each other." The Chronicle of Jingchu in the Southern Dynasties recorded: "An ancient noble family, eating is called painting eggs."

In the Sui Dynasty, eggs were dyed blue, red and other colors, and were still given to each other after being carved, or placed in plates and sacrificial vessels. Now it has become a folk craft, which is well received by customers at home and abroad.

For example, eating boiled eggs at the Cold Food Festival in the Tang Dynasty is one of the essential staple foods. Some people even carve various patterns on eggs and dye them with colors, which increases the aesthetic appearance of eggs. Over time, it has formed a traditional custom, which is what the Tang people call carving eggs.

Worship ancestors and sweep graves

Sacrificing ancestors to sweep graves is an important custom of the Cold Food Festival. Tomb-Sweeping Day is a traditional festival in China, and it is also the most important festival to worship ancestors and sweep graves. Grave-sweeping, commonly known as going to the grave, is an activity of offering sacrifices to the dead. Most Han people in China and some ethnic minorities visit graves in Tomb-Sweeping Day.

The custom of offering sacrifices to ancestors and sweeping graves in front of graves originated very early in China. As early as the Western Zhou Dynasty, people attached great importance to tombs. Mencius' article about Qi people in the Eastern Zhou Dynasty and the Warring States Period also mentioned a ridiculed Qi person who often went to the tomb of Dongguo to beg for sacrifices, which shows that the custom of sweeping graves was very popular in the Warring States Period. The custom of offering sacrifices to ancestors in front of graves is called grave sweeping, or tomb sacrifice and worship, which originated very early in China.

It is worth noting that the Cold Food Festival and Tomb-Sweeping Day are originally two festivals. When is the Cold Food Festival? There are different opinions about the day before Qingming Festival and the two days before Qingming Festival.

spring outing

Walking is a common cold food festival custom. Tomb-Sweeping Day is also called an outing festival. According to the solar calendar, between April 4th and 6th every year, it is the season of beautiful spring and lush vegetation, and it is also a good time for people to go for a spring outing (called outing in ancient times), so the ancients had the custom of going for an outing in Qingming and carrying out a series of sports activities. According to legend, after Dayu's flood control, people used the language of "Qingming" to celebrate that the flood had been eliminated and the world was at peace. At this time, spring blossoms, everything recovers, and the sky is clear and bright, which is a good season for spring outing. Going for an outing began as early as the Tang Dynasty and has become a habit throughout the ages.

play on the swing

The custom of the Cold Food Festival, Tomb-Sweeping Day, is the time when spring returns to the earth and the vegetation is lush. Nature is full of vitality everywhere, and it is a good time to go for an outing. Therefore, people not only go sightseeing, but also have a series of colorful entertainment activities such as swinging and tug-of-war, which makes the festival full of the joy of spring.

When did swinging originate? One is the martial arts activities of ancient northern minorities, and the other is from the era of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty. Gao Cheng's Wu Ji Yuan thinks that the swing is a play in the backyard of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty. It was originally a thousand-year-old word, and later it was called "swing". According to "The Legacy of Kaiyuan Tianbao", during the Tianbao period, whenever there was a cold food in Tomb-Sweeping Day, a swing was erected in the palace to let the ladies-in-waiting to be mourned enjoy themselves. Ladies-in-waiting happily boarded the swing and danced up and down in the air. Colorful embroidered skirts fluttered in the wind, with graceful gestures, like fairies falling from the sky. Tang Xuanzong was fascinated by his joy, so he called it "the play of fortune tellers" and "the name of scholars in the capital", which was imitated by Chang 'an citizens and became all the rage.

play football

Playing football is also a frequent recreational activity in Tomb-Sweeping Day, and it is also the custom of the ancient Cold Food Festival. In the Tang Dynasty, the football shell developed from wool-filled to inflatable in the Han Dynasty, and the bladder of animals was used as the bladder, which increased the elasticity of the ball.

For example, in Wang Jian's poem "Gong Ci", there are "two buildings in front of the temple, and the cold food palace people play ball step by step", and "the wife of the cold food palace often fights for nothing, and the money is scattered in the library first". Wei Zhuang's poem said: "The inner official gave the Qingming fire at the beginning, and the Shangguan gave the silver." These are the descriptions of ladies-in-waiting playing football and getting money in cold food and Tomb-Sweeping Day. "Beating in vain" means that two people kick each other, and the outcome depends on the mode and number of kicks. Not only the court folk, but also the army often vigorously carry out football activities to practice martial arts and entertain. Wei, a poet who is famous for his pastoral scenery, wrote in the poem "North Building after Cold Food": "Listening to drums in the distance makes the cuju army happy." It is a portrayal of this fact.

play polo

The important activity of Qingming ball games in Tang Dynasty is high-five. Bowing is a polo activity, which is also called "bowing" in history books. On the one hand, this sport requires the riding horses to have a high degree of training, on the other hand, it requires the riding skills to be very skilled. Only in this way can the horse cooperate with it, thus carrying out various difficult movements. Applause and bow were first seen in Cao Zhi's Du Mingsong. However, due to the social unrest in Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, this game once declined. During the Sui and Tang Dynasties, polo was revived due to the overall prosperity of social economy and culture. no

a rat race

In addition to playing ball games, Chang 'an people often hold tug-of-war competitions during this period, which is also the custom of the Cold Food Festival. It is said that Tang Zhongzong once invited ministers to the Liyuan Gymnasium to tug-of-war in Tomb-Sweeping Day.

gamecock

During the Qingming Festival in the Tang Dynasty, cockfighting was still very popular. Cockfighting was very popular during the Warring States Period and was the custom of the ancient Cold Food Festival.

In the cold winter, it is forbidden to bake cold food with fire. I'm afraid that some old, weak women and children can't stand the cold. In order to prevent cold food from hurting their health, we decided to go for an outing, go for an outing, swing, play football, play polo, insert willows, tug of war and fight cocks, so that everyone can come out to bask in the sun, exercise their bones and muscles and increase their resistance. Therefore, in addition to ancestor worship and grave-sweeping, there are various outdoor fitness activities in Tomb-Sweeping Day, which make this festival not only have emotional appeal, but also have a joyful atmosphere of spring outing. There are not only the sadness and tears in Where Are You Going, but also vivid, vivid and vivid scenes everywhere. This is really a very distinctive and special festival.