What should I prepare to pay homage to my ancestors during Qingming Festival?
According to custom, the order of sacrifice and sweeping is to first sweep the tomb, that is, clean the cemetery;
The second is to offer sacrifices. This procedure is very important. One is to express grief; It is to communicate with the ancestors, because the mountains have spirits but no owners, and the ancestors have owners but no spirits. By communicating with the ancestors, you can better get the aura of the mountains and rivers. This is Feng Shui;
When sweeping graves, People bring wine, food, fruits, paper money and other items to the cemetery, offer food in front of their relatives' tombs, burn the paper money, cover the tomb with new soil, trim the tomb, fold a few green branches and insert them on the tomb, and press them on top. Some paper money can be shown to others to know that there are descendants of this tomb, and then they will kowtow and worship;
After that, they can sit around and have a meal and drink; they can also fly kites, or even compete with each other and carry out related activities. Women and children also need to fold some willow branches nearby and tie the removed steamed food offerings with wickers. Some people braid willow sticks into a basket shape and wear them on their heads, saying, "If you don't wear willow during Qingming Festival, you will become a yellow dog in the next life."
The Qingming Festival, also called the Outing Festival, takes place at the turn of mid-spring and late spring, which is the 104th day after the winter solstice. It is one of the traditional Chinese festivals and one of the most important sacrificial festivals. Tomb sweeping day.
The traditional Qingming Festival of the Chinese Han people began around the Zhou Dynasty and has a history of more than 2,500 years. Influenced by Han culture, 24 ethnic minorities in China, including the Manchu, Hezhe, Zhuang, Oroqen, Dong, Tujia, Miao, Yao, Li, Shui, Jing and Qiang, also have the custom of celebrating Tomb-Sweeping Day. Although customs vary from place to place, the basic themes are tomb-sweeping, ancestor worship, and outings.
The Qingming Festival originally refers to the fifteen days after the Spring Equinox. In 1935, the government of the Republic of China designated April 5 as the national holiday Qingming Festival, also known as the National Tomb Sweeping Festival. On May 20, 2006, with the approval of the State Council, Qingming Festival was included in the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage lists.