When did Qingming ancestor worship begin? When did Qingming ancestor worship originate?

Among the four traditional festivals of ancestor worship in China, Tomb-Sweeping Day is the most important festival in China. Even in Tomb-Sweeping Day, ancestor worship has become a grand folk activity and a part of China traditional culture. But do you know when ancestor worship originated in the Ming Dynasty? Let's introduce when the Qingming ancestor worship began.

Tomb-Sweeping Day began in the Zhou Dynasty and has a history of more than 2,500 years. In the Song Dynasty, people began to burn paper money to pay homage to their ancestors. Due to the prohibition of fire during the Cold Food Festival, Tomb-Sweeping Day made a fire, so people could only burn paper during the Qingming period, thus gradually replacing the tradition of cold food sweeping graves.

Tomb-Sweeping Day Sacrifice

Traditional offerings to worship ancestors and relatives in Qingming Festival include incense sticks, paper money, vegetarian wine, fruits, snacks and meals. In recent years, there are many modern popular factors in sacrificial offerings, such as luxury cars, villas, digital products, gold bars, cigarettes, mingbi and bank cards. Do not bring strings or hollow multi-seed fruits such as pears, grapes, longan, cantaloupe, passion fruit and guava to worship your ancestors. In order to protect the environment, society advocates civilized sacrifice, and the most common one is flower sacrifice. Chrysanthemum is the best choice for tomb sweeping in Qingming Festival, which represents respect for the dead and is used to express condolences and place grief. There are calla lily, forget-me-not, rose, lily, gentian, gladiolus, Penglai pine and so on. The color of flowers is mainly white, supplemented by yellow, and can also be matched with other relatively plain flowers. There are also ways of civilized sacrifice, such as music sacrifice, tree planting sacrifice, tomb washing sacrifice, online sacrifice, family memorial service, community public sacrifice and so on.

Qingming ancestor worship process

1, repair grave

Remove weeds and increase soil.

2. Incense

First, put three incense sticks, cut one for each stick, and insert your left hand from right to left.

3, used for wine and food and fruit.

The big gift is meat, the small gift is fruit, and the tribute is placed according to the quantitative relationship of three or multiples of three.

Step 4 burn paper to worship

Burning and praying.

5, kowtow whip

After the paper money was burned, I began to kowtow. Finally, firecrackers are set off to symbolize prosperity.

6. Clean environment

Clean up the filth and garbage such as plastic bags around the cemetery.

Step 7 deal with sacrifice

After fruits and cakes are served to ancestors, it is best to share them.

The custom of ancestor worship in Qingming area

Guangdong

In Guangdong, Tomb-Sweeping Day's grave sweeping is called "sweeping the mountain" or "worshiping the mountain". When sweeping the grave, the weeds around the ancestral grave will be cleared first, the ancestral grave will be tied with paper, and then tributes such as golden pigs, chickens, ducks, fish, fresh fruits, cakes and drinks will be placed for worship, and finally firecrackers will be set off. After the worship ceremony, roast pigs on the spot, with fresh fruit and tea, have a feast, or have a picnic or go home for a feast.

Zhejiang Province

In Zhejiang, Qingming Festival is commonly known as sweeping Qingming Festival, or "offering graves" to worship Tai Gong. In some places, graves must be swept a few days earlier than in Tomb-Sweeping Day, and in some places, graves must be swept on the same day in Tomb-Sweeping Day. Generally, people of the same ethnic group worship the squire a few days earlier, first worship the squire, and then worship the ancestors. Sacrifices are set, candles are lit first, then incense is lit, incense is distributed according to the number of people, the high priest prays, and then everyone bows down together. After the sacrifice, children can share Tomb-Sweeping Day. Finally, pack up the sacrifices and leave. All the graves have been visited, and all the sacrifices are made in the same procedure.

Hainan

Hainanese should recite their ancestors' norms when they worship their ancestors in Tomb-Sweeping Day, and these eulogies, ancestors' precepts and clan rules are all wonderful songs. When Hainan people sweep graves, they will offer pigs, geese, fish and cakes to burn incense and turn waste into treasure.

Shandong (province)

Zhaoyuan, Jimo, Linqu, Linqing and other places should add new soil to the grave when sweeping the grave in Qingming. It is said that this is to repair the house for ancestors to avoid leaking rain in summer. In Weihai, Qixia, Huangxian and other places, the whole people eat steamed bread and dishes after the ancestral graves, which is called "room food" or "water club".