What happened to Qingming Festival in 2009? Why do you go to the grave early?

Tomb-Sweeping Day is not only a traditional festival

Tomb-Sweeping Day is not only a traditional festival, but also a popular festival today and in the future. Its purpose of "preserving memories and communicating souls" should be emphasized. Function.

In recent years, we have often heard this discussion: Young people nowadays are more and more fond of celebrating foreign festivals, but they have forgotten our traditional festivals. Some people lamented, why can foreign festivals be celebrated lively and lively, but the "flavor" of our traditional festivals is getting weaker and weaker? In fact, no matter whether it is the East or the West, any festival is inseparable from its purpose and content. Holidays such as Christmas are religious, so as long as this clan belief exists, the holiday will continue. Secular festivals are inseparable from specific activities. If those events fail to attract people, or can no longer be held, the festival ceases to exist in name only unless new and attractive events are found.

From the development of the pre-Qin Dynasty to modern times, the main activities of the Qingming Festival include tomb sweeping, offering sacrifices, cold meals, outings, etc. The most important of them is the communication between the living and the dead. In the pre-Qin and Qin-Han dynasties, "regarding death as life" was a common concept among people. Most people believed that after death, people would continue to exist underground or in another world in another form. Therefore, in addition to providing the necessary "living" foundation for the deceased during burial, regular maintenance and replenishment are also required. After a cold winter of frost, rain, and snow, the residence of the deceased needs maintenance, cleaning, and beautification. This is the starting point for sweeping tombs and offering sacrifices. For this reason, tomb-sweeping and sacrificial offerings during the Qingming Festival have always been not limited to one's own ancestors or relatives, but also include ancestors and saints and martyrs of the same ethnic group.

The Tomb-Sweeping Festival is not the only sacrifice in the year, nor is it the most grand and sumptuous sacrifice, but the Tomb-Sweeping Festival is the closest sacrifice to the deceased - it is usually held in the cemetery. Therefore, in addition to the formal and material parts of sacrifice, it must also include spiritual communication between the living and the dead. In this process, the important past events of individuals, families, groups, nations, and countries will inevitably be reviewed and recalled again and again, and the memory of history is formed and preserved in this way. As far as nations and intellectual classes are concerned, history can be preserved through written records or traditional classics. But for the vast majority of people who do not have the power and ability to record in writing, such memories are the only way for them to pass on history.

Among the ancient civilizations in the world, only China’s history and traditions have not been interrupted. An important reason is that the Chinese nation cherishes its history extremely, and the vast majority of them have experienced countless interactions with their ancestors. People communicate spiritually and preserve the memory of their ancestors through word of mouth. For example, through continuous migration, the Chinese nation has expanded its territory, spread its culture, and multiplied its population. But no matter where they move, the descendants of immigrants will always trace their roots. To this day, places such as the Big Sophora Tree in Hongdong, Shanxi, Xiaogan Township in Macheng, Huguang, Wachiba in Jiangxi, Changmenwai in Suzhou, and Yangliu Lane in Nanjing are still the holy places and roots in the hearts of the ancestors of hundreds of millions of immigrant descendants. These immigration processes are rarely mentioned in official history. They can be passed down to this day only by sweeping tombs and offering sacrifices on the Qingming Festival, telling future generations of their ancestors' difficult migration, arduous pioneering and various good words and deeds. These memories have also spread to overseas Chinese areas with population migration, spreading all over the world.