"It rains heavily during the Qingming Festival"
Today's Qingming Festival in people's minds is about ancestor worship, sweeping tombs and outings.
In fact, there are many things worth "discovering" in it,
For example, how did Qingming evolve into today's Qingming Festival?
What interesting activities did the ancients do during the Qingming Festival?
How do we choose to pay homage to our loved ones?
What other meaning can we give to Qingming Festival?
Come and follow the editor to see~
Qingming is not only a sacrifice
We can also "read" the appearance of spring
About the Tang Dynasty, people would go to the countryside to offer sacrifices. After mourning their ancestors and relatives, they would enjoy the beautiful scenery in the surrounding green spring scenery. This habit of traveling during the Qingming Festival has continued to this day, so we now read many Poems describing the spring scenery of the Qingming Festival:
"Qingming"
Du Mu
It rains heavily during the Qingming Festival, and pedestrians on the road feel like they are dying.
May I ask where the restaurant is? The shepherd boy points to Xinghua Village in the distance.
Walking alone around the corridor, I rested, listening to string instruments in the distance and looking at flowers in secret. ——Bai Juyi's "Qingming Night"
Don't sigh in plain clothes because of the dust, you can still be home at the Qingming Festival. ——Lu You's "The First Spring Rain in Lin'an"
When the swallows come to Xinshe, the pear blossoms lag behind the Qingming Festival. ——Yan Shu's "Spring Scenery"
On the Qingming Festival, the peaches and plums smile, but the wild graves only give birth to sorrow. ——Huang Tingjian's "Qingming"
The crows and magpies make noise in the dark trees. Who will cry when eating cold food during the Qingming Festival? ——Bai Juyi's "Cold Food Wild Hopes"
Absorbing the essence of ancient festivals
Our current Qingming Festival
When it comes to Qingming, we have to say something about it customs. Qingming is not only a solar term and a festival, but also contains a lot of history and culture, which is also the most worth pondering.
In the past, Qingming was just a solar term, not a festival. In ancient times, people only celebrated the Cold Food Festival, which was celebrated one or two days before the Qingming Festival. On this day, fireworks and cold food were prohibited. Later, the Qingming Festival was combined with the Cold Food Festival to form the Tomb-Sweeping Festival that we later became familiar with, which incorporated the customs of the Cold Food Festival.
Since the Tang Dynasty, Qingming Festival has absorbed the content of another earlier festival - Shangsi Festival. In ancient times, the Shangsi Festival was held on the third day of the third month of the lunar calendar. The main customs were outing and exorcism (bathing in the river to pray for blessings and eliminate disasters), which reflected people's urgent need for mental adjustment after a dull winter.
The Tomb-Sweeping Festival, which combines the essence of two ancient festivals, finally formed a traditional festival during the Song and Yuan Dynasties that centered on ancestor worship and tomb sweeping, and integrated cold food customs with Shangsi outing and other activities.
There were these interesting projects during the ancient Qingming Festival
Do you still play them now?
Swinging
This is an ancient Chinese Qingming Festival custom. Swing means moving by holding on to the leather rope. It has a very ancient history. It was first called Qianqiu, but later was changed to Swing to avoid taboos. In ancient times, swings were mostly made of tree branches and tied with colorful ribbons. Later, it gradually developed into a swing with two ropes and pedals. Swinging can not only improve health, but also cultivate bravery. It is still loved by people, especially children.
Ju is a kind of leather ball. The ball is made of leather and the inside of the ball is stuffed with hair. Cuju means kicking a ball with your feet. This is a game that people loved during the Qingming Festival in ancient times. According to legend, it was invented by the Yellow Emperor, and its original purpose was to train warriors. Playing polo is also one of the Dragon Boat Festival dramas. In Chang'an of the Tang Dynasty, there was a large stadium, and emperors such as Xuanzong and Jingzong were all fond of polo. By the Ming Dynasty, polo was still popular.
The custom of planting trees during the Qingming Festival originated from the custom of wearing willows and inserting willows during the Qingming Festival. There are three legends about wearing willows and planting willows during the Qingming Festival. The oldest legend is that it was to commemorate Shennong, the ancestor who taught people how to farm. Later, it developed the meaning of praying for longevity. A later legend is related to Jie Zitui. It is said that when Duke Wen of Jin led his ministers to climb a mountain to pay homage to Jie Zitui, they found that the old willow tree that Jie Zitui had leaned on before his death came back to life, so he gave the old willow tree the name "Qingming Willow". A later legend is that Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty gave willow rings to ministers as a blessing to drive away epidemics.
Kite flying is also a favorite activity during the Qingming Festival. During the Qingming Festival, people not only play during the day but also at night. At night, a string of small colorful lanterns are hung under the kite or on the wind-stabilizing wire, like twinkling stars, and are called "magic lanterns." In the past, some people would cut the strings after flying kites into the blue sky and let the breeze carry them to the ends of the earth. It is said that this can eliminate diseases and disasters and bring good luck to themselves.
Cockfighting was a popular game during the Qingming Festival in ancient times. The cockfighting started from the Qingming Festival and lasted until the Summer Solstice. The earliest record of cockfighting in China can be found in "Zuo Zhuan". By the Tang Dynasty, cockfighting became popular, not only among private citizens, but even the emperor participated in cockfighting. For example, Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty loved cockfighting the most.
Talk about food during the Qingming Festival
“Take a bite” of nature
Feel the gift of spring
During the Qingming Festival, people in the south of the Yangtze River eat green dumplings customs and habits. Green dumplings are made by mashing a wild plant called "wheat straw" and squeezing out the juice. The juice is then mixed and kneaded with the dried pure glutinous rice flour, and then the dumplings are made. The filling center of the dumplings is made of fine sugar bean paste. When filling, a small piece of sugar lard is added.
After the dumplings are made, put them into a basket and steam them. When they come out of the basket, use a brush to evenly brush the cooked vegetable oil on the surface of the dumplings, and you're done.
"Zitui Mo", also known as Lao Momo, is similar to the helmet of an ancient military commander and weighs about 250-500 grams. Eggs or dates are stuffed inside, and there is a topping on top. The top is surrounded by veneer flowers. Mianhua is a small steamed bun made of dough, in the shape of a swallow, insect, snake, rabbit or the Four Treasures of the Study. The round "Zitui Mo" is specially enjoyed by men. Married women eat strip-shaped steamed buns, while unmarried girls eat steamed buns. Children have noodle flowers such as swallows, snakes, rabbits, and tigers. "Big Tiger" is specially eaten by boys and is also their favorite.
The best time to eat snails is before and after the Qingming Festival. At this time, the snail meat is plump and plump. There are sayings that "the Qingming snail is as fat as a goose" and "the Qingming snail is as fat as a goose". In the past, people who couldn't afford geese would go down to the river pond and pick up a pot of snails. They would raise them in clean water for two days, then cut off the ends and cook them with some green onions, ginger, and pepper. It was a delicious dish. Some people use pickles to stew them, which is light, refreshing and very delicious.
Every time during the Qingming Festival, Quanzhou people have the custom of eating "moist cake dishes". It is said that this is a legacy of the ancient cold food diet custom. Quanzhou's "Run Pancake" is made from flour and baked into a thin crust. It is commonly known as "Run Pancake" or "Rubbing Pancake". When eating, roll out the pancake skin and roll it into mixed dishes such as shredded carrots, shredded pork, fried oysters, and coriander. Pot dishes are simple to prepare and taste sweet and delicious.
——The continuation of emotions
In ancient times, people would sacrifice and worship their ancestors on the Qingming day. First, they would seek blessings from gods and ancestors with reverence, hoping to protect the whole family. Peace and everything goes well. The second is to burn paper money and items for deceased relatives, so that the deceased can live a more "rich and rich" life in the world on the other side. This is actually a continuation of emotion.
The death of loved ones is a sad thing. Although their souls have returned to the earth and have lost "contact" with us, the Qingming Festival connects people with the emotional ties of their deceased relatives. So, people dug out old yellowed photo albums, talked about old friends and prepared their favorite foods... This was a day of memories and gratitude.
——The aggregation of emotions
Qingming Festival not only maintains the connection between people and the deceased, but also a gathering of emotions. Nowadays, people no longer live with a large family under the same roof as in the past. With the passage of time and the development of society and individuals, more and more people have left their homes and traveled to all over the world to "build" their own homes. Some people leave for more than ten years or decades, and never see their loved ones again until they leave; some people leave in a hurry because they spend too little time together and don't have time to appreciate the meaning of living together with their family members.
But on the day of Tomb-Sweeping Day, relatives from all over the world gathered together out of common thoughts and offered flowers and incense to the deceased. Especially in rural areas, people pay special attention to ancestor worship during Qingming Festival and regard it as a sacred day. On this day, men with good calligraphy in their families often use a brush to copy the deceased's name, birth date, and blessings on yellow papyrus paper, prepare a thick stack, and then distribute it to the men, women, and children in the family, during the memorial ceremony. When worshiping, light incense candles, then throw the yellow paper with names and blessings on it into the fire and pray sincerely.
After the worship service, the host family often greets relatives from far away and prepares several tables of good wine and food for them, not only to express gratitude but also to get together. The adults and children sat around and talked about the past, what was happening now, and what they were about to do, and drank and talked happily, while the children started playing and playing around the table.
This is Qingming, and it is also my favorite place. It carries a hint of spring greenery and always gives people a beautiful feeling of moistness and coolness; it is not only a yearning, but also a continuation and aggregation of emotions. Compared with other festivals, it is always a little more delicate and a little sad, but it is more about blessings and prayers.