Qingming Festival (Jiexiu cold food Qingming custom)

Name of China's national intangible cultural heritage: Qingming Festival

Applicant: Jiexiu City, Shanxi Province

Project No.: 450

Project No.: X - 2

Time of publication: 2011 (the third batch)

Category: folk customs

Region: Shanxi Province

Type: Extension Project

Applicant: Jiexiu City, Shanxi Province

Protection unit: Jiexiu Cultural Center

Qingming Festival (Jiexiu cold food Qingming custom)

Applicant: Jiexiu City, Shanxi Province

The Qingming custom of Jiexiu City is a folk custom with a long history, rich connotation and unique characteristics, which spreads in Jiexiu City and Jinzhong Area.

Jiexiu is located in the middle reaches of Fenhe River. Its place name comes from the famous hermit jiezitui who died here in the spring and Autumn period. It is widely spread among the people that Jie Zitui died the day before the Qingming Festival. Duke Wen of Jin ordered a ban on fire and cold food on that day, which later became the cold food festival. Since the Tang Dynasty, the legend of cold food festival, Shangsi Festival and Qingming Festival customs have been integrated, forming Jiexiu cold food Qingming custom with ancestor worship and tomb sweeping as the center, which has been handed down to the present day.

The main activities include: banning fireworks, eating cold food, offering sacrifices, sweeping tombs, inserting willows, stepping on spring, playing Cuju, swinging, flying kites, fighting chickens, appreciating flowers, chanting poems, sprouting black bean sprouts, picking willow sprouts, steaming dough figurines, wearing willow rings, sweeping roofs, hanging red orchid paper, singing dramas, etc.

The project has a deep historical and cultural memory of the Chinese nation and has great historical and folkloric value.