Brief introduction to the origin of Cold Food Festival; 100 traditional activities of the Cold Food Festival.

The Cold Food Festival is on 105 day after the summer solstice, and one or two days before Tomb-Sweeping Day. When the first day of the day is a holiday, smoking is forbidden and only cold food is eaten. In the development of later generations, customs such as sweeping sacrifices, hiking, swinging, cuju, hooking hands and cockfighting were gradually increased. The Cold Food Festival lasted for more than two thousand years, and it was once called the largest folk festival in China. The Cold Food Festival is the only traditional festival named after the dietary customs of the Han nationality.

According to legend, Zhong Er, the son of the Jin Dynasty, traveled around the world and experienced hardships. Once, when he was hungry and helpless, Jie Zhitui cut off the meat on his thigh for him to eat. Later, when Zhong Er became king (Jin Wengong, one of the five tyrants in the Spring and Autumn Period), he and his mother went to look for Jie Zhitui hiding in the mountains. I couldn't find it anywhere, so I ordered the release of Yamakaji and tried to force Jietui out, but in the end I found Jietui and his mother burned to death. Zhong Er regretted it very much, so he stipulated that no fire should be made at this time of the year, and all cold food should be eaten. This day was called the Cold Food Festival.

The activities of the Cold Food Festival

In front of Tomb-Sweeping Day. There is a traditional festival with a long history called Cold Food Festival. Nowadays, few people know the Cold Food Festival, or think that it is an ancient name of Tomb-Sweeping Day and confuse it, but this is not the case. Tomb-Sweeping Day is in early March of the lunar calendar, while the Cold Food Festival is in February of the lunar calendar. The Cold Food Festival has two important activities, one is to ban fire, and the other is to sweep graves.

Cooking is forbidden (on some days)

According to Zhou Li, it is forbidden to light a fire in March during the Cold Food Festival. According to the custom at that time, whenever the fire goes out in mid-spring and February, a new fire will be introduced from the palace to the people in March, and the day when the new fire and the old fire alternate is the Cold Food Festival.

However, some astronomers have suggested that it is a huge historical misunderstanding for later generations to understand internal fire and fire as burning fire. The word "fire" here was originally the name of the star in astronomy, which means big Mars. It is the Q star of Scorpio, and its middle name is Antares, also known as Shang Xing. It is the main symbol star used to determine the seasons in ancient China. Astronomical officials at that time were called Huozheng. The so-called "fire in March" actually means that Mars appears in the east in the evening of March. The dragon rises in February, the fire erupts in March and the fire erupts in May, which are different positions of the same group of celestial phenomena in different seasons. Observing their direction is very important to determine the season. China has always been based on agriculture, so it is particularly important to accurately determine the spring sowing season for agricultural production. Therefore, it is necessary to set up an official in charge of fire control to inform people of the regulations on fire prohibition and fire prevention every year.

Pay tribute to the dead at their graves.

Another activity of the Cold Food Festival is sweeping graves, including adding soil to graves, pruning trees, mowing grass, cleaning graves and offering sacrifices to ancestors. The poem "Cold Food and Wild Hope", which calls itself the Yi people, describes people's sadness and sadness when sweeping graves on the Cold Food Festival.

The crow's voice is weak in the tree, and the Qingming cold food is crying.

The wind blows paper money in the wilderness, and the ancient tombs are full of spring grass.

Pear blossoms reflect Populus euphratica, which can be seen everywhere in Where are you going?

I didn't smell the heavy cry of spring and the rustling rain. People went home.

Now, in Fuzhou, although most people worship their ancestors' graves in Tomb-Sweeping Day, some village and town residents are used to sweeping graves on the Double Ninth Festival. In Minqing County, located in the west of Fuzhou, many people's traditional grave-sweeping season is around the Mid-Autumn Festival, and Qingming does not carry out any sacrificial grave-sweeping activities. In Putian in the south, grave sweeping time is divided into Tomb-Sweeping Day, Chung Yeung Festival and winter solstice. Winter solstice is the mainstream in most areas and urban areas, and the Qingming grave sweeping area is distributed in coastal areas only once. In Zhangzhou, southern Fujian, the grave-sweeping season is the third day of March, commonly known as the "March Festival", which is the ancient Shangsi Festival and relatively special. At this time, the custom of sweeping graves also spread to Taiwan Province Province, which caused the time difference of sweeping graves by Zhang Quanren.