When is Shangsi Festival?

According to historical research, the origin of Shangsi Festival can be traced back to the Zhou Dynasty. Witchcraft superstition prevailed in the Zhou Dynasty. Every year on the "Shangsi" day in March (the "Shangsi" day in the first half of the year), witches hold a ceremony for people to eliminate disasters and diseases by the river, which is called "Zan". It means to remove evil spirits and make them clean; Hair means cleaning the body and removing filth. The ancients thought that water was the purest thing. If you wash yourself at the water's edge, you can get rid of the disaster and keep safe for one year. Because the exact date of the fourth day of the third lunar month is not fixed every year, in order to facilitate memory and unity, the fourth day of the third lunar month was designated as the "fourth day" from the Han Dynasty, and in the Wei and Jin Dynasties, the third day of the third lunar month was clearly designated as Shangsi Festival.

In the ancient books of our country, the custom of "hairpin" on Shangsi Festival is often recorded. Si Tong Customs Code: "In Zhou Li, there was a witch who took a bath with clean water." History of the Ritual System in the Later Han Dynasty: "On the third day of March, the officials and the people all cleaned the east water, washed it away, and left the dirt behind to make a big clean." It is believed that The Analects of Confucius describes Confucius and his disciples as "in infancy".

Because March 3 is a good season with spring flowers and sunny weather, vibrant nature can easily arouse people's happy and uplifting mood. Therefore, in addition to holding the "Zanzi" ceremony at the water's edge, people also regard it as a good opportunity for a feast and play. Moreover, with the passage of time, this kind of feast and play also gave birth to China's famous traditional cultural entertainment form-running water.

The so-called flowing water means that the literati sit at the water's edge in sequence, and one person puts the wine into the cup to make it flow downstream. The glass stops in front of someone, someone takes it and drinks it, and then writes a poem. If this poem fails, it will be punished. During the Wei and Jin Dynasties, flowing water flourished. At that time, literati indulged in landscapes, talked about Laozi and Zhuangzi, and drank and had fun all day. Therefore, this kind of "elegant" activity, which combines drinking and writing poetry, is especially favored by them.