Why do people clean tombs and worship ancestors during the Qingming Festival?
The Qingming Festival originated from the ancestor worship in ancient times and the spring sacrifice customs. It combines both natural and cultural connotations, serving as both a natural solar term and a traditional festival. The Qingming Festival is a major spring sacrifice festival, and cleaning tombs, worshipping ancestors, and remembering them are traditional festivals that the Chinese nation has always upheld. In its earliest form, Qingming was not yet a festival for ancestral worship and tomb sweeping. However, the Cold Food Festival came before Qingming, and the Shangsi Festival followed it, both of which were related to rituals. Therefore, after a long period of time, the three festivals merged, and their customs blended, resulting in the Qingming Festival we know today. The Qingming Festival has gradually incorporated the customs of the Cold Food Festival, such as not lighting fires and eating cold food, as well as the customs of the Shangsi Festival, such as going on outings and tomb sweeping. Tomb sweeping during Qingming, also known as "tomb worship," is referred to as the "respect for the season." The act of worshipping ancestors is a way to remember them, and this custom has a long history. According to archaeological findings, the Qingtang site in Yingde, Guangdong, discovered a 10,000-year-old tomb. Radiocarbon dating showed that it was about 13,500 years old, belonging to the late Paleolithic era. This is the earliest confirmed burial site in China, indicating that people in the Lingnan area had clear conscious burial behaviors and ritual concepts over 10,000 years ago. Tomb sweeping and ancestor worship are at the core of Qingming customs. The main focus of Qingming sacrifices is to honor ancestors, expressing the filial piety of the person making the offering and the longing for ancestors. It is a cultural tradition of respecting ancestors and being mindful of their origins. Originally, Qingming was known as the "Ancestral Worship Festival," but later it was called the "Ghost Festival." In ancient times, people worshipped ancestors to express filial piety, gratitude, and remembrance of their origins, and they did not refer to the festival of worshipping their own ancestors as the "Ghost Festival." Qingming sacrifices can be divided into two types based on the location of the ceremony: tomb offerings and temple offerings. Tomb offerings are the most common, and the feature of Qingming offerings is tomb offerings. Because of the use of tomb offerings, Qingming offerings are called tomb sweeping. Another form is temple offerings, also known as temple sacrifices, where members of a clan gather in the ancestral hall to offer sacrifices to their ancestors. After the ceremony, they have meetings and banquets, which is a way to bring the clan together.Want to know your own eight characters? Want to find out where your golden marriage lies? Click on the 【Premium Calculation】 below to calculate your eight characters and fortune!
