Qingming Festival cultural connotation and lunar March three worship ancestor origin
Qingming Festival cultural connotation
“Qingming Festival is one of the most important traditional festivals in China. It is not only a festival for people to pay tribute to their ancestors and cherish the memory of their ancestors, but also a bond for the Chinese nation to identify their ancestors, and a spring ceremony for hiking, getting close to nature and encouraging new life.” Chinese Academy of Social Sciences folklore doctor Shi Aidong said. As an important part of the Qingming Festival, sacrificial rites, outing and other customs mainly come from the Cold Food Festival and Shangsi Festival. Cold Food Festival is related to ancient people’s understanding of nature. In China, the rebirth of a new fire after cold food is a transitional ceremony to say farewell to the old and usher in the new, revealing the information of the change of seasons, symbolizing the beginning of a new season, new hope, new life and new cycle. Later, it has the meaning of “gratitude”, and more emphasis on the memory and gratitude for the “past”.
Cold food forbidden fire cold food sacrifice tomb, Qingming take new fire outing. Before the Tang Dynasty, cold food and Qingming were two successive festivals with different themes. The former was to mourn for the dead while the latter was to seek new care for the students. A Yin and a Yang, a breath life, the two have a close relationship. Banning fire is to produce fire, sacrificing death is to save life, which is the internal cultural relationship between cold food and Qingming. In the reign of Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty, the imperial court fixed the custom of folk tomb sweeping in the form of government decrees on the Cold Food Festival before the Qingming Festival. Because cold food and Qingming Festival were closely linked in time, the Cold Food Festival custom was associated with Qingming Festival very early, and the tomb sweeping was extended from cold food to Qingming Festival.
After entering the Song Dynasty, Qingming and cold food gradually merged into one, and Qingming took the sacrificial custom in the Cold Food Festival under its name. At the same time, the festival “Shangsi spring” festival customs have also been merged into the Qingming Festival. After the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Shangsi Festival withdrew from the festival system, and Cold Food Festival has basically died out. Spring only one Qingming Festival.
“Qingming Festival is a synthesis and sublimation of almost all spring festivals, and the Qingming Festival custom has a richer cultural connotation.” Shi Aidong said. Unlike other traditional festivals, Qingming Festival is a comprehensive festival that combines “solar terms” and “festival customs”. Qingming from the solar term is in the spring equinox after, at this time the weather warming, full of vitality, people hiking, close to nature, can be said to comply with the day, help to absorb the natural pure Yang gas, disperse the cold and depression, good for physical and mental health.
Beginning in the Tang Dynasty, cold food and Qingming were tied for a holiday, and different year titles had four to seven days off respectively. The Song Dynasty was a time when life was becoming more and more urbanized and folk customs were developing towards entertainment. In order to allow people to sweep tombs and go out on Qingming, it is specially stipulated that Taixue has three days off and martial arts has one day off. “Qingming River Map” depicts the prosperous Qingming picture at that time.
Tomb sweeping and outing, originally two different cultural themes, after the Song Dynasty slowly integrated, and continue to be given positive cultural significance. People directly relate the worship of ancestors to the national character of the Chinese nation, which attaches great importance to filial piety and carefully tracing the past, and think that the Qingming Festival customs reflect the moral consciousness of the Chinese people to be grateful and not forget their roots. Its cultural significance is similar to the Western Thanksgiving Day. There is a profound relationship between the activities of ancestor worship and the culture of filial piety deeply rooted in Chinese culture, and this culture is the pillar of the harmonious and stable development of Chinese society for thousands of years, which helps to establish a harmonious intergenerational relationship between the ancients and the present, the predecessors and the descendants, and further promote the harmonious relationship between man and man, man and nature. This is also the folk foundation of Qingming Festival with strong vitality.
Shi Aidong introduced that with the development of productive forces and the evolution of social life, the Qingming Festival earlier appeared a trend of transformation from sacred sacrifice to secular entertainment, and the Qingming Festival tomb has become a holiday time for spring outing. Because the willow is the spring season, the willow and the willow are also the unique customs and fashion of Qingming. During the period of the Republic of China, the day of planting willow once became the “Planting Day”. However, no matter how it evolves, mourning and sacrifice are the most important contents of Chinese Qingming.
“Whether from the origin or from its evolution, we can summarize the two symbolic meanings of Qingming Festival, one is’ Thanksgiving memorial ‘and the other is’ urging new students’.”
The origin of worship of ancestors on the third day of the third lunar month
Ding Haishi Year of the Yellow Emperor’s hometown worship ceremony on April 19 (the third day of the third lunar month) in Xuanyuan Huangdi’s hometown – Xinzheng City, Henan Province.
Baizu ceremony organizing committee director, vice president of the Chinese Yanhuang Cultural Research Association, Henan Provincial CPPCC Chairman Wang Shu said that since ancient times there has been “March 3, born Xuanyuan” proverb. Worship Xuanyuan Yellow Emperor, is the traditional ceremony of the Chinese nation. First seen in historical materials, when the Spring and Autumn period. After the Tang Dynasty, it gradually became a regulation, stretching to the present.
According to historical records, Xinzheng City in Henan Province was called the Country of Bears during the period of the Yellow Emperor. There are more than 20 cultural relics of the Yellow Emperor, and it is the place where the Yellow Emperor was born, started his business and established his capital. Xuanyuan Huangdi in this area Xiude zhen soldiers, soothe people, degree four, Rong Yan Emperor unified the world.
Later generations to commemorate the merits of the Yellow Emperor, every year on the third day of March in the Yellow Emperor’s hometown to hold a variety of ancestor worship activities, especially in the Spring and Autumn Period, the name of the state of Zheng is to further carry forward this folk activity, the rise of the March third ascent of the mountain (located in Xinzheng City, the Yellow Emperor activity relic) worship the Yellow Emperor Xuanyuan activities, and the formation of folklore continued.
Wang Liqun, a professor at Henan University, said that in addition to the fact that the Yellow Emperor was regarded as a cultural icon in the civilized era, there was another important factor: the Yellow Emperor was the common ancestor of the Chinese nation.
According to the organizing committee of the Ancestor Worship Ceremony of the Yellow Emperor’s hometown in Dinghai Year of Henan Province, the large-scale organized ancestor worship activities in Xinzheng City, the hometown of the Yellow Emperor, began in 1992, and later evolved into the Yanhuang Culture Festival, which has been held more than 10 times. In the lunar calendar of March 3, 2006, Henan Province in the year of the Yellow Emperor’s hometown worship ceremony was successfully held in Xinzheng City, has a greater impact at home and abroad.
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Post time: Apr-03-2024