Mourning day, drizzle like tears; Pedestrians on the road want to die. Ask local people where to buy wine? The shepherd boy just laughed and didn't answer Xingshan Village. Du Mu, a poet in the late Tang Dynasty, wrote the well-known Tomb-Sweeping Day, telling about his thoughts and sadness. Tomb-Sweeping Day is the most important festival of sacrifice in China, and it is a day to sweep graves, pay homage and remember the deceased relatives.
There are many traditional customs and activities around Tomb-Sweeping Day. Such as lighting a fire with cold food, sweeping graves in Tomb-Sweeping Day, hiking, flying kites, swinging, cockfighting and tug of war. Some of these customs have been gradually forgotten with the alternation of years and social changes, even a trace of memory no longer exists, and some have stayed and been given new connotations.
In old Qingdao, Tomb-Sweeping Day is also considered as a grand festival. The Cold Food Festival is the day before Tomb-Sweeping Day, and every family has to cut off the fire and eat cold food. 105 The solstice after beginning of winter is called cold food. In the past, fire was forbidden and cold food was eaten, so it was also called Cold Food Festival and No Smoking Festival. People turn on and off the fire two days before Qingming Festival, that is, they cook before dawn and light a fire after sunset to show their nostalgia for their loved ones. Because people often continue the activities of the Cold Food Festival to Qingming, and gradually combine cold food with Qingming.
The custom of sweeping graves is quite popular in Tomb-Sweeping Day, commonly known as going to the grave. On this day, we will go to the ancestral grave to fill the whole grave, sweep away dust and weeds, burn incense and paper, and hold a sacrificial ceremony.
Some people want to take this opportunity to repair the grave, mostly symbolically adding soil to the grave and putting some paper money on it to show others that there are descendants in the grave. Therefore, no matter how poor the family is, Tomb-Sweeping Day will visit the grave. After the sacrifice, people will have a picnic and eat the food offered, that is, eat Fugen, to show the frugality of their ancestors.
Many people eat green onions and fried eggs, which means they are smart. This custom has continued to this day. Some people want to pinch pink flowers, called steamed Xiaoyan, and eat white-flour chicken and eggs. It means that the swallow has come and the real spring has come. On the Qingming morning, the whole family must eat eggs and chickens so that their eyes will not get sick. Many students should bring eggs to their teachers to show their admiration. In addition, when I was in Tomb-Sweeping Day, I posted paper with a picture of scorpions at home. Scorpions and centipedes were not invited at home, especially in rural areas.
It is a popular folk proverb that Tomb-Sweeping Day planted melons and beans before and after. At the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China, rural areas began to arrange farming time reasonably. On this day in Tomb-Sweeping Day, many farmers feed sorghum rice to their livestock. As the saying goes, hit 1000 and scold 10000. Don't forget the sorghum rice in Tomb-Sweeping Day. Eating high-grain rice porridge, wheat porridge and corn porridge means that life has become better. On this day, cows and donkeys should be given a full meal with porridge to reward their hard work for a year.