Increase your knowledge! Why do people in Chang 'an call "sweeping graves" "worshipping mountains"?
Grave-sweeping is a custom in Tomb-Sweeping Day.
In order to pay homage to our ancestors and remember the martyrs,
But Chang 'an people call sweeping graves Chongshan,
What is this?
What's so particular about Tomb-Sweeping Day?
Listen to Bian Xiao slowly.
Tomb-Sweeping Day is one of the important traditional festivals in China. It pays homage to ancestors, cherishes the memory of martyrs, and at the same time allows us to see our own shortcomings and correct ourselves. In particular, among the 24 solar terms, Qingming is the only solar term that is both a solar term and a festival, so the position of Tomb-Sweeping Day should not be underestimated!
"Grave-sweeping" is also called "mountain worship"?
Grave-sweeping is a custom basically preserved all over the country. Chang 'an people also attach great importance to this traditional custom. Whenever you go to Tomb-Sweeping Day, no matter where you are, you should go home with your parents to worship your ancestors. But what's more interesting is that Chang 'an people will say "sweeping graves" as "worshipping mountains". Why?
In fact, "worship the mountain" is a Cantonese word with the meaning of an old saying. "Chongshan", a commonly used word in Cantonese, can now be considered as a disyllabic word, but after careful study, it should still be a combination of two monosyllabic words, which actually follows the semantic grammar of ancient Chinese. A meaning of "mountain" is explained in the ancient dictionary of China: "Mountain, grave.
It can be seen that "worshipping the mountain" is not a hill, but a grave. "Worship the mountain" can also be understood as "worship the mountain", that is, worship the grave (bow down) or worship the grave (bow down). Compared with words such as "sweeping the grave", "going to the grave" and "offering sacrifices to sweep", "worshipping the mountain" is more popular and intuitive.
Qingming custom: inserting willows, sweeping graves and dividing pork.
Tomb-Sweeping Day is known as one of the three major Halloween festivals in rural areas, and willow branches can ward off evil spirits, which the elderly especially believe. So on that day in Tomb-Sweeping Day, the lintel at home was always covered with willow branches. However, in Dongguan, willow cuttings are not popular.
The picture comes from Dongguan Sunshine Network.
Traditional Chang 'an people have always attached importance to sweeping graves on Qingming Day, and have the custom of "sweeping graves" on Zhengqing Day. According to the old custom, when sweeping graves, people should bring food, wine, fruit, paper money and other items to the cemetery, offer food to the graves of their loved ones, then burn the paper money, cultivate new soil for the graves, break some green branches and insert them in front of the graves, then kowtow and worship, and finally go home after eating and drinking.
The picture comes from Dongguan Sunshine Network.
After the sacrifice, the pork was separated, which is not considered as a form of worship. The family will take pork home during the Qingming Festival and cook it with the vegetable "Qingming Buckwheat".
Qingming pays attention to sweeping graves.
Pregnant women avoid Tomb-Sweeping Day to visit the grave.
Generally speaking, pregnant women should avoid tomb sweeping activities on Qingming Festival, and not only that. Strictly speaking, it is best for women not to take part in such activities when they come to their official holidays, especially after 3 pm to attend the Qingming grave sweeping activities.
Be careful when taking pictures in the ancestral graves.
In China, ancestor worship is not only to commemorate ancestors, but obviously to worship and pray for the dead. Be careful when taking photos in ancestral graves, whether it is the grave sweeper himself or the grave sweeper and cemetery. When taking pictures, it is even more taboo to take other people's graves into the camera. Otherwise, your fortune is likely to decline and be unbalanced in all aspects.
Tomb-Sweeping Day pays attention to sacrifice for generations.
Of course, attention should be paid to the orderly worship. In order: father, mother, eldest son, eldest daughter, second son, second daughter? And so on. After the worship, the sacrifice is blessed by the ancestors, and everyone can eat and take the sacrifice. Finally, of course, pay attention to fire safety and leave after lighting incense.
Qingming sweeping graves is not as early as possible.
It doesn't have to be like this. The activity of sweeping the grave is usually completed from 7: 00 am to 4: 00 pm, because at this time, the yang is getting weaker and the yin is getting stronger. If people are unlucky, they are easily haunted or harassed by evil spirits.
Editor/He Weiqi