Qingming Festival

Qingming Festival

Qingming Festival, also known as Taqing Festival, Xingqing Festival, March Festival, ancestor worship festival, the festival period in mid-spring and late spring. Qingming Festival originated from ancestor belief and spring festival activities in ancient times. It has two connotations of nature and humanity. It is not only a natural solar point, but also a traditional festival. Qingming Festival is a traditional major spring festival. Tomb-sweeping and ancestor-remembering is a fine tradition of the Chinese nation since ancient times. It is not only conducive to promoting filial piety and family ties, awakening the common memory of the family, but also promoting the cohesion and identity of family members and even the nation. The Qingming Festival, which combines natural seasons and human customs, is the unity of time, place and people. It fully reflects the Chinese ancestors'pursuit of harmony and unity of "heaven, earth and people", and pays attention to the idea of adapting to the times and the earth and following the natural law. Qingming Festival is rich in festivals and customs. Tomb-sweeping and ancestor-sacrificing and outing are two major themes of Qingming Festival. These two traditional themes have been inherited from ancient times in China, and have never stopped.

Qingming Festival is an ancient festival of the Chinese nation. It is not only a solemn festival for grave sweeping and ancestor sacrifice, but also a joyful festival for people to get close to nature, travel in the Qingming Dynasty and enjoy the joy of spring. The Qingming Festival falls around the 5th of April in the Gregorian calendar, the 15th day after the Spring Equinox. At this time, vigorous vitality, Yin Qi recession, all things "vomit the past and accept the new", the Earth presents the image of spring and brightness, which is a good time for outdoor youth tours and tomb sacrifices in the Qing Dynasty. The Qingming Festival of Sacrificing ancestors lasts for a long time. There are two kinds of statements about it, one is around 8 days of the 10th day and the other is 10 days before and after the 10th day. These are all during the period of the Qingming Festival of Sacrificing ancestors.

The Qingming Festival and the Spring Festival, the Dragon Boat Festival and the Mid-Autumn Festival are also known as the four traditional festivals in China. In addition to China, there are also some countries and regions in the world, such as Vietnam, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore and so on. On May 20, 2006, the Qingming Festival declared by the Ministry of Culture of the People's Republic of China was listed in the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage list (category: folklore; number: _-2) with the approval of the State Council.

historical origin

Qingming Festival is the most solemn and grand ancestor worship festival of the Chinese nation. It belongs to a traditional cultural festival of respecting ancestors and pursuing them cautiously. Qingming Festival embodies the national spirit, inherits the sacrificial culture of Chinese civilization, and expresses people's moral feelings of respecting their ancestors and inheriting stories. Tomb-sweeping is the "tomb sacrifice". It is called "respect for the time" of ancestors. The two sacrifices in Spring and Autumn Period have existed since ancient times. Qingming Festival has a long history, which originated from ancestor beliefs and Spring Festival activities in ancient times. According to the research results of modern anthropology and archaeology, the two most primitive beliefs of human beings are the belief of heaven and earth and the belief of ancestors. The ancient Ganzhi calendar provided a prerequisite for the formation of festivals. Ancestor beliefs and sacrificial culture were important factors for the formation of ancestor worship rites and customs in the Qing and Ming Dynasties. The characteristics of Qingming Festival, ancestor beliefs and sacrificial culture evolved into Qingming Festival for ancestors. It has become a fixed custom to sacrifice ancestors in Qingming Dynasty. According to archaeological excavations, the Qingtang site in Yingde, Guangdong, was found 10,000 years ago. It is the earliest confirmed burial type in China. It shows that ancient people had clear conscious burial behavior and customs ten thousand years ago. Qingming Festival has a long history, which is the synthesis and sublimation of traditional spring customs.

Qingming Festival is one of the twenty-four special festivals in the Ganzhi calendar, which shows seasonal changes. At this time, everything is clean and tidy, and the Earth presents the image of spring and bright. It is a good time for outing the countryside and going to Qing Dynasty (tomb sacrifice). Qingming Festival is rich in customs, summed up as two major festival traditions: first, respect for ancestors, cautious pursuit of the future; second, outing, close to nature. Qingming Festival has two connotations of nature and humanity. It is a festival as well as a festival. Qingming Festival has not only the themes of sacrifice, remembrance and retrospect, but also the themes of outing and pleasure. The traditional idea of "harmony of heaven and man" has been vividly embodied in Qingming Festival. After the development of history, Qingming Festival merged the customs of Cold Food Festival and Shangsi Festival after Tang and Song Dynasties. It is a mixture of many local folk customs and has a very rich cultural connotation.

Inheritance and Development

Festival Fusion

Integrating Cold Food Festival Customs

The Qingming Festival integrates the fire prohibition and cold food customs of the Cold Food Festival in its historical development. Legend has it that the Cold Food Festival was set up in the Spring and Autumn Period to commemorate the loyal minister of Jin State, Jie Zitui. In folklore, although the Cold Food Festival is related to Jie Zitui, the origin of cold food is not to commemorate Jie Zitui, but to follow the old custom of changing fire in ancient times, that is, as Zhou Li said, "Mid-Spring is forbidden to build fire with wooden duo in the country". Cold Food Festival is one of the earliest ancient festivals in the Central Plains of northern China. At the beginning of cold food festival, fireworks were forbidden and only cold food was eaten. In the development of later generations, customs such as Tomb sweeping, swing, Cuju, hooking and cock fighting were gradually added. Because of the cold in the north, the temperature rise in March and spring is just the time to correct the fire. When the new fire is not coming, people should prohibit the fire. The Han Dynasty called the Cold Food Festival a non-smoking festival, because on this day people's families can not raise fire, until the evening, they lit candles in the palace and spread the kind of fire to the families of the noble relatives and ministers. According to the Book of the Later Han Dynasty, the initial Cold Food Festival lasted for a long time, the longest 105 days and the shortest nearly a month. During the Cold Food Festival, no fire is allowed, only raw food is allowed, which is harmful to people's health.

It can be seen from the literature that in the pre-Qin period, some places in northern China had a strict fire ban system, and there was a custom of changing fire from the official to the folk. Zhou Li, written between the Han Dynasty and the Han Dynasty, clearly records the officials who had the "torch" at that time. In the mid-spring season, when the climate is dry, not only the fires preserved by human beings are easy to cause fire, but also the spring thunder is easy to cause mountain fires. Ancient people often carried out solemn sacrificial activities in this season, extinguishing all the fires handed down from the previous year, that is, "no fire". Then, the new fire is re-drilled and taken out as the starting point of production and life in the new year, which is called "changing fire". During the period of fire ban and fire change, people must prepare enough cooked food to live on cold food. Because of the cruelty and severity of the ancient fire ban system, it did not take into account the specific conditions of various places, and even affected the production and life of the people. Thus, in the Han Dynasty, Zhou Ju abolished the fire ban in Taiyuan. Cold Food Festival in the Han Dynasty, many places to ban fire for a month, to the Tang Dynasty, cold food festival into three days, respectively, called big cold food, official cold food, small cold food. After the Tang Dynasty, the Cold Food Festival gradually declined. During the Song and Yuan Dynasties, the status of Qingming Festival rose to replace the status of Cold Food Festival.

Integration of Shangsi Festival Customs

Qingming Festival also integrates the customs of Shangsi Festival, another festival that appeared earlier. Shangsi Festival, commonly known as March 3, is popular in southwestern China. Shangsi Festival is the most important festival in ancient times when people went to the water side to take a bath together, which is called "Youyu". Thereafter, sacrificial feasts and drinks, winding water and outing spring were added. In ancient times, "Ganzhi" dates, the first day in early March, which is called "Shangsi". The word "Shangsi" first appeared in the literature of Han Dynasty. Zheng Xuan commented in Zhou Li: "When you are old, you can only get rid of it. Now in March, Shangsi is like water." After Wei and Jin Dynasty, the festival period of Shangsi Festival was changed to the third day of March in the lunar calendar, so it is also called "Double Three" or "March Three".

The main customs of Shangsi Festival are outdoor spring outing, spring bathing and Zhengyu (bathing on rivers to pray for disaster relief). In ancient times, people went to the water to worship in March. Lu Ji of Jin Dynasty wrote in a poem: "Late spring, the weather is soft and beautiful. At the beginning of the Yuan Dynasty, the Yellow River was traveled by the river. That is, people at that time in Shangsi Festival were vividly portrayed, just like the Tang Dynasty poet Wang Wei's poem, "Young people travel day by day, without the need for both Qingming and Shangsi". In the Song Dynasty, Shangsi Festival suddenly disappeared in the north, because the date of Shangsi was similar to that of the Qingming Dynasty. "March 3" Festival still circulates among Zhuang, Dong, Buyi, Yao, Li, She and Tu minorities in the south. From the Water-Splashing Festival held every March 3 in Dali, Yunnan Province, we can see the shadow of the ancient Shangsi Festival.

Holiday Change

Although the Qingming Festival has a long history, it is prevalent in the whole country after the Tang and Song dynasties to set up Tomb-sweeping holidays. According to records, in the Tang Dynasty, because officials returned home to sweep tombs, sometimes delaying their duties, Tang Xuanzong issued a decree to solve the problem of holidays. Four days off for the Cold Food Festival will be stipulated: "(Kaiyuan) 24 years (736) February 21:" Cold Food and Tomb-sweeping Day are holidays ". (Tang Huiyao Volume 82), according to the Dali Decree of Twelve Years (777), the official gate of the Tang Dynasty had a five-day holiday as usual: "From now on, the cold food will be clear and the holiday will be five days." By the sixth year of Zhenyuan (790), the holidays were added to seven days. In this way, officials can carry out grave sweeping and memorial service with ease. The cold food chapter of the Tang Dynasty coldly said, "Autumn is more precious than the sun is more precious than winter wax is better than cold food before spring." It can be seen that the Cold Food Festival has become a very grand festival in the Tang Dynasty.

Cold food in Song Dynasty and Qingming Dynasty also had seven days off. In Volume 1 of Pang Yuanying's Wenchang Miscellaneous Records of the Northern Song Dynasty, it is recorded that "Ancestral Hall has a vacation of seventy-six days, and the first day, the cold food and the winter solstice are seven days each." Chen Yuanqiang of the Southern Song Dynasty quoted Song Lu Yuan-ming's Sui Shi Za Ji in Volume 15 of Sui Shi Guang Ji as saying: "The first two days of the Qing and Ming Dynasties are Cold Food Festival, three days before and after each, seven days off. And people forbid fire for one hundred and four days, which is called "private cold food" and "big cold food". Beijingers sweep the first tea on this day, menstruating constantly, and there is a proverb of "Cold Food January Festival". According to the Song Dynasty "Dream Liang Lu" records: every Qingming Festival, "officials and civilians all go to the suburban provincial tombs, in order to think about the respect of the time. Tomb-sweeping activities before and after the Qing Dynasty often became a matter of personal participation of the whole society. Within a few days, people in the countryside kept coming and going, and the scale was extremely prosperous.

In 1935, the government of the Republic of China explicitly designated April 5 as the national holiday of Qingming Festival. On December 7, 2007, the 198th Standing Meeting of the State Council adopted the decision to amend the Measures for Holidays on National Year's Festival and Memorial Day, which stipulates that "Qingming Festival shall be a one-day holiday (the day of the Qingming Festival on the lunar calendar). In 2008, the Qingming Festival shall officially become a statutory holiday with a one-day holiday.

Development and Evolution

Qingming Festival is the Spring Festival of the Chinese nation, and the corresponding Spring Festival of the Qingming Dynasty is the Chongyang Autumn Festival, the Spring and Autumn Festival, which has existed since ancient times. Since ancient times, the Chinese nation has had the concept of respecting ancestors and pursuing them cautiously. Qingming Festival has a long history. It changes with the development of the times. Following up, the customs of Cold Food Festival and Shangsi Festival are gradually integrated. In ancient times, there were different customs in the north and the south of China. Before Tang Dynasty, the tomb sweeping in the north of China was mainly on the Cold Food Festival and the Cold Clothes Festival. According to the records of the Book of Rites and other documents, there were no rules for Tomb-sweeping on Qingming Festival in northern China before the Tang Dynasty. By the Tang Dynasty, Tomb-sweeping on Qingming Festival had become a common practice. Tang Dynasty is the period of the integration of tomb-offering customs in the north and south of China. It follows the tomb-offering customs of Qing and Ming Dynasties and extends to all parts of the country. After the Tang Dynasty, the Cold Food Festival gradually declined, because it was similar to the Qingming Festival. During the Song and Yuan Dynasties, the Qingming Festival rose to the status of replacing the Cold Food Festival, and blended the customs of the Cold Food Festival such as the prohibition of fire and cold food. The Qingming Festival, which combines cold food and Shangsi Festival customs, formed a Tomb-Sweeping Festival in Song and Yuan Dynasties, centering on sacrificing ancestors, integrating the cold food prohibition, cold food custom and Shangsi outing and other customs and activities. Because the cold food prohibition and cold food custom were transferred to Qingming Festival, some places in northern China still retained the habit of forbidding fire and eating cold food in Qingming Festival. The Ming and Qing Dynasties generally inherited the old system of previous dynasties, and the Qingming Festival still insisted on and developed its status as an indispensable festival in spring life. During the period of the Republic of China, on the Qingming Festival, in addition to the original custom of sweeping tombs and trampling on the green, tree planting was also identified as a routine project, which is actually an official recognition of the long-standing folk tree planting custom.

Customary content

Major Customs

Tomb-sweeping activities usually take place 10 days before and 10 days after the Qingming Festival on the 04-06 Gregorian calendar. In some places, Tomb-sweeping activities take up to one month. Qingming Festival is one of the eight important festivals in China. As a festival, Qingming Dynasty is different from pure festival, which is a sign of phenological changes and seasonal order, while festivals contain spiritual beliefs and rituals. Ancestor beliefs and sacrificial culture are important factors in the formation of Qingming Festival. Qingming Festival is an important carrier to inherit beliefs and family ethics. Qingming sacrifice is an important way to express culture and to thank ancestors and to close human relations. The custom of sweeping tombs to ancestors in the Qing and Ming Dynasties has become a fixed theme of etiquette and custom.

Qingming Festival bears abundant cultural connotations in the historical development. Because of the differences in customs, contents and details in different regions, festival activities vary from place to place, but tomb sweeping and ancestor sacrifice and outing are common basic etiquette themes. Every Qingming Festival, no matter where people are, they will return home to participate in ancestor worship activities to remember their ancestors. The etiquette and custom culture of the Qingming Dynasty fully embodies the humanistic spirit of respecting ancestors and pursuing distances cautiously. In ancestor sacrifice ceremony, cautious pursuit, enjoying spring pleasure in outing, cultural inheritance and physical and mental adjustment are the important functions of Qingming ritual and custom culture.

- Ta Qing

Since ancient times, the Chinese nation has had the custom of traveling in the Qingming Dynasty. In ancient times, traveling in spring was called exploring spring, seeking spring and so on. It was a spring outing, also known as "traveling in spring". Generally refers to the early spring to take a walk in the countryside. This kind of festival folk custom activity has a long history in China. Its source is the spring custom of ancient farming sacrifice, which has a far-reaching impact on future generations. Qingming Festival has two connotations of both solar terms and festivals. The Qingming Festival provides important conditions for the formation of the custom of traveling to Qingming Dynasty in terms of time and meteorological phenology. In the Qing and Ming Dynasties, when spring returns to the earth, the natural world presents a vibrant scene everywhere, which is a good time for outing. People take advantage of their convenience to visit their graves and enjoy themselves in the countryside.

Chinese people have long maintained the custom of trampling in the Qingming Dynasty, and the custom of trampling in the Qing Dynasty has a long history. During the Qing and Ming Dynasties, it was the season when the spring breeze was proud and full of spring. When all things sprouted, it had long been a custom to go outdoors in the spring. According to Jin Shu, every spring, people go to the suburbs to enjoy the spring scenery together. The custom of traveling to Qing Dynasty was especially flourishing in Tang and Song Dynasties. According to the Old Tang Shu, it was recorded that "in February of the second year of the Great Calendar, Renwu was lucky to have traveled in Kunming Pool." It can be seen that the custom of traveling in youth has long been popular.

- Planting trees

Before and after the Qingming Dynasty, the spring sun was shining and the spring rain was sprinkling. The survival rate of planting seedlings was high and the growth rate was fast. Therefore, there is the habit of planting trees in the Qingming Dynasty. Some people also call the Qingming Festival "Tree Planting Day". The custom of planting trees has been handed down to this day. The custom of planting trees on the Qingming Festival is said to have originated from the custom of putting willows in the willows during the Qingming Dynasty. There are three kinds of legends about Dai Liu's willow insertion in the Qingming Dynasty. The first legend is said to commemorate Shennong, the ancestor of crop farming, which later developed the meaning of praying for longevity. The second kind of legend is related to Jie Zitui. It is said that when Jin Wengong led his ministers to mountaineer sacrifices to Jie Zitui, he found that the old willow which Jie Zitui had once relied on before he died died died was resurrected, and gave the old willow as "Qingming willow". The third legend is that Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty gave Liuhuan to his minister as a blessing to drive out the epidemic.

Flying kites

Kites are also known as "paper kites" and "kites". Flying kites is a popular activity in Qingming Dynasty. Kites are made of paper or silk pasted on the skeleton such as bamboo strips, pulling long lines tied to them, and flying into the sky under the wind. They belong to a kind of aircraft which only uses aerodynamic force. Every Qingming Festival, people not only release it during the day, but also at night. At night, under the kite or on the wind stable pull line, hang a string of small colorful lanterns, like shining stars, known as "magic lanterns". In the past, after flying kites into the blue sky, some people cut the strings and let the breeze send them to the ends of the earth. It is said that this can eliminate diseases and calamities and bring good luck to themselves.

- Tomb-sweeping for ancestors

Tomb sweeping in the Qingming Dynasty is called "tomb sacrifice". It is a way of remembering ancestors, and its custom has a long history. According to archaeological excavation, the Qingtang site in Yingde, Guangdong Province, was found 10,000 years ago. According to the determination of AMS, the age is about 13500 years ago. The age is the late Paleolithic Age. It is the earliest certifiable burial type in China. It shows that over 10,000 years ago, the ancient people in Lingnan had clear conscious burial behavior and ritual concepts. Tomb sweeping and ancestor sacrifice is the center of Qingming Festival customs. The sacrifice of the Qing and Ming Dynasties mainly sacrificed ancestors, expressing the filial piety of the worshippers and the yearning for their ancestors. It is a cultural tradition of respecting ancestors and pursuing them cautiously and eventually. Qingming Festival belongs to "ancestor worship festival", which was named "ghost festival" only in the development and evolution of later generations. In ancient times, people worshipped ancestors to express filial piety and thanksgiving, and did not call the festival of sacrificing their ancestors ghost festival. The sacrifices of the Qing and Ming Dynasties can be divided into tomb sacrifice and ancestral hall sacrifice according to the different places of sacrifice. Tomb sacrifice is the most common, and the characteristic of Qingming sacrifice is tomb sacrifice. Tomb sweeping is called tomb sweeping sacrifice, mainly because of the way of tomb sacrifice. Another form is the ancestral temple sacrifice, also known as temple sacrifice. It is a way for people of a clan to gather in the ancestral temple to sacrifice their ancestors. After the sacrifice, they have to meet for dinner. This kind of sacrifice is a way to reunite the people of the clan.

The sacrifices of the Qingming Dynasty differ from place to place before and after the Qingming Dynasty. According to the custom of offering sacrifices to ancestors in the Qingming Dynasty, they usually set out to sweep the tombs on the morning of the Qingming Festival. The ways and items of Qingming sacrifice vary from place to place. Common practices consist of two parts: repairing graves, burning paper money and offering sacrifices. When sweeping the grave, we first renovate the grave. The main method is to remove weeds, add new soil, and then kowtow and worship. On the one hand, this kind of behavior can express the worshippers'filial piety and concern for their ancestors. On the other hand, in the belief of the ancients, the graves of ancestors have a great relationship with the prosperity and decline of future generations, so cultivating tombs is an important part of the sacrifice. The main sacrifices are food, which varies from place to place. They are delicious food that the local people think and can be obtained according to the economic ability of the sacrificial, or seasonal special food.

- Willow planting

On the Qingming Festival, there is a custom of willow insertion among Chinese people. There are three kinds of opinions about the origin of the custom of planting willows in the Qing and Ming Dynasties. Some experts believe that the custom of planting willows is to commemorate Shennong, the ancestor of farming who "teaches the people to gather rice". In some places, people put willow branches under the eaves to forecast the weather. The old proverb says, "Wicker is green, rain is cloudy, wicker is dry and sunny". Willows have strong vitality. As the saying goes, "Planting flowers without hair, planting willows without shade." Willows live where they are planted and where they are planted. Willows grow year after year and shade everywhere.

Another way of saying that Liu Dailiu was inserted in the Qingming Dynasty is to drive away ghosts and evil spirits. In some parts of northern China, Qingming Festival, Zhongyuan Festival and Hanyi Festival are collectively called "Three Great Ghost Festivals". Influenced by the Buddhist Guan Shiyin's hand-held willow branches dipped in water, many people thought that willow had the function of exorcising ghosts and evil spirits, and called willow branches "ghostly and fearful wood". In Jia Sixie's Qi Min Yao Shu of the Northern Wei Dynasty, he wrote: "Take willow branches and write in the house, but no ghosts enter the house." Since the Qingming Dynasty is the ghost festival, at this time of wicker germination, people will insert willows and wear willows to ward off evil spirits.

Another saying is that this custom is to commemorate Jie Zitui. Jie Zitui burned himself under the willow tree for his sake of observing festivals, which made Jin Wengong and his courtiers and people deeply distressed. The next year, when Jinwen Gong-fu led his courtiers up the mountain to worship Jie Zitui, he found that the old willow tree burned down in that year had actually died and revived. Jin Wengong named the old willow "Qingming willow" and put several willows on his head to show his nostalgia. From then on, many officials and people followed suit and followed suit. In the Qingming Dynasty, Liu Dailiu became a symbol to commemorate Jie Zitui.

Tug of war

In the early stage of tug-of-war, it was called "tug-of-war" and "tug-of-war", and in the Tang Dynasty it was called "tug-of-war". It is said that it was invented in the late Spring and Autumn Period, began to prevail in the army, and later spread among the people. In the Tang Dynasty, Xuanzong held a large-scale tug-of-war contest in the Qingming Dynasty. Since then, tug-of-war has become a part of the custom of the Qingming Dynasty.

Swing

Swing is one of the customs of Qingming Festival in ancient China. Wang Renyu of the Five Dynasties, Kaiyuan Tianbao Heritage, recorded that the swing was erected from Tianbao Palace to Cold Food Festival, which made the palace ladies laugh and entertain. The emperor calls for the half-immortal drama, which is called by all the sergeants and civilians. In the Song Dynasty Prime Minister Wen Yanbo's poem "Cold Food Day Crossing the Dragon Gate", the poem describes "the willow and willow line hanging along the bridge, the colored rope hanging on the swing." Swing means to move by pulling a leather rope.

Swing has an ancient history. It was first called Qianqiu, and later swing was changed to avoid taboo. In ancient times, swings were made of branches and tied with ribbons. Later it gradually developed into a swing with two ropes and pedals. Swinging can not only improve health, but also cultivate courage, which is loved by people, especially children.

- Cockfighting

Chicken fighting was popular in ancient Qingming Dynasty. Chicken fighting began in Qingming Dynasty and lasted until summer. The earliest record of fighting chickens in China can be found in Zuozhuan. By the Tang Dynasty, cockfighting became popular, not only among the people, but also among the emperors. For example, Tang Xuanzong preferred cockfighting.

- Sheliu

Willow shooting is a game for practicing archery skills. According to the records of the Ming Dynasty, the pigeon was placed in the gourd, and then the gourd was hung high on the willow tree. The bending bow hit the gourd and the pigeon flew out to judge the victory or defeat by the height of the flying pigeon.

Cuju

Ju is a kind of leather ball, which is made of leather and stuffed with fur. Cuju is to play with your feet. It was a favorite game in the North during the Qingming Festival in ancient times. Legend has it that Emperor Huangdi invented it, which was originally used to train warriors. Polo is riding on a horse and playing with a stick. It was called bowing in ancient times. In Cao Zhi's Ming Du Pian of the Three Kingdoms, there is the phrase "Lian Piao Chu Yong". "Analysis of Jin Zhi" records that the Liao Dynasty took Polo as a traditional festival custom, and hit the ball heavily at the Dragon Boat Festival. Jinshi Li Zhi also records that Jin people batted at the Dragon Boat Festival. Song Dynasty has "playing ball music" dance team. By the Ming Dynasty, Polo was still popular.

"Continued Documents Tongkao Lekao" records that Ming Chengzu had hit balls and shot willows several times in Dongyuan. In the long volume of Xuanzong's Music Picture of Ming Dynasty, there are scenes of Xuanzong appreciating polo. Wang Zhizhi, the official at that time, wrote a poem about watching the Dragon Boat Festival and playing basketball: "Yule Qianjin Horse, seven treasure balls inscribed on it." Laofei startled, volcanic meteors. Yan Page has three advantages, the first to spread. Qingyun, with leisurely feet, shrouds the eastern end of the palace. Before Baiyun Guan in Beijing, there is also a catalogue of people riding and hitting balls. There was polo in the Temple of Heaven in the Qing Dynasty. It did not disappear until the middle of the Qing Dynasty.

The Silkworm Flower Club

"Silkworm Flower Festival" is a unique folk culture in Silkworm Township. In the past, during the Qingming Festival, Wuzhen, Chongfu, Zhouquan and other places had this folk activity. Among them, the silkworm Flower Fairs of Ma Ming Temple in Zhouquan and Shuangmiao Temple in Qingshi are the most splendid and solemn. Ma Ming Temple is located in the west of Zhouquan Town. It is known as "the king of temples". Every year, silkworm flower gatherings are crowded with people. There are more than ten activities such as greeting silkworm gods, rocking fast boats, making pavilions, worshipping incense benches, boxing, dragon lanterns, raising poles and singing opera. Some of these activities are carried out on shore and most of them are carried out on board ships, which have the characteristics of watery villages.

Festival Food

Because the cold food custom of the Cold Food Festival was transplanted to the Qingming Festival, some places in northern China still retain the habit of eating cold food on the Qingming Festival. In Shandong Province, eggs and cold baboons are eaten in ink, while eggs and cold sorghum rice are eaten in Laiyang, Zhaoyuan and Changdao. It is said that if they are not, they will be hailed. Tai'an eats cold pancakes, lettuce and is said to have bright eyes. Jinzhong area still retains the habit of prohibiting fire on the day before the Qingming Dynasty. Many places share the sacrificial food after the sacrificial ceremony is completed. During the Qingming Dynasty, people in southern Shanxi used to steamed steamed buns with white flour, with walnuts, dates and beans in the middle. Records of folk cold food customs almost suddenly appeared in the literature of the Eastern Han Dynasty, mainly concentrated in Shanxi. Even in the Tang and Song Dynasties, when the cold food custom was prevalent, its spreading scope did not go beyond the north. Jin Luyi's "Records of Youzhong" first talked about the special food in cold food: "On the day of cold food, make licked cheese, boil japonica rice and wheat cheese, and mash apricot red for porridge." Until the Tang and Song Dynasties, people were still eating this kind of cold barley porridge.

Qingming Festival in some parts of southern China has the custom of eating Youth League, also known as Qingming cake, cotton vegetable steamed bun, Cihu Zong, Qingming Zong, Aiye Zong, Ai Zong, Qingming fruit, pineapple Zong, Qingming Zong, Aiye Zong, Ai Zong, Ai Zong, Ai Zong, Ai Zong, Ai Zong Cake, Qingming Tuan, warm mushroom bag, Ai Cao, etc. In the hometown of overseas Chinese in southern Fujian, some cakes, rice dumplings and rice Browns must be made every Ching Ming Festival, so that family members can eat them before and after the Ching Ming Festival. Shanghai used to use wickers to run through steamed pastries used for sacrificial purposes and store them after drying. On the day of Lixia, they were fried in oil and fed to children. It was said that after eating, they could not get sick in summer. In Huzhou, Zhejiang Province, dumplings wrapped in homes during the Qingming Festival can be used as sacrifices to graves or as dry food for trampling on the green belt. As the saying goes, "The dumplings of Qingming Dynasty are firm and firm." Before and after the Qingming Dynasty, snails were fat and strong. Eating lotus root is wishing silkworm babies long and good silk. Eating germinated beans is the acclaim of "prosperity". When eating Malan first-class fresh vegetables, the word "green" is taken to coincide with the word "green" of "Qingming".