What is the day before Qingming Festival? This day is one of the traditional Chinese festivals.

What festival is the day before Qingming Festival? Many people know that Qingming Festival is one of China's traditional festivals for ancestor worship, but they don't know that the day before Qingming Festival is also a festival. Next, let’s take a closer look at it.

What festival is the day before Qingming Festival?

name

The day before Qingming Festival is Cold Food Festival, a festival that originated in the State of Jin during the Spring and Autumn Period. The Cold Food Festival has lasted for more than two thousand years and is known as the largest festival among the people.

custom

The Cold Food Festival is also called the "No Smoking Festival", which means that on that day every household must refrain from smoking and eat cold food. However, because the time is close to Qingming Festival, the customs of Cold Food Festival and Qingming Festival have gradually merged together.

time

The Cold Food Festival falls on the 105th day after the winter solstice in the lunar calendar. People in some places celebrate it the day before Qingming Festival, while people in some places celebrate it two days before Qingming Festival. In many areas, people combine Qingming Festival and Cold Food Festival into one.

Meaning

According to traditional folk culture, the Cold Food Festival is a transitional ceremony to bid farewell to the old and usher in the new. People abstain from fire and eat cold food to offer sacrifices to tombs during the Cold Food Festival, and then take new fire and go outings during the Qingming Festival. It symbolizes the beginning of a new season, new hope, new life, and a new cycle.

Food customs related to Cold Food Festival

Cold Food Porridge

Because no fireworks are allowed during the Cold Food Festival, people will prepare cold food in advance, and Cold Food Porridge is one of the festival foods that has been passed down since the Cold Food Festival.

Sanzi

Sanzi is also one of the foods of Cold Food Festival, which is mainly popular in the northern region. Sanzi refers to a kind of fried pasta, mainly made of wheat flour, made into thin noodles and in the shape of a ring.

Big steamed bun

People in Shanxi eat "Zi Fu" on the Cold Food Festival. It is a large steamed bun made of white flour with walnuts, dates and beans in the middle. During ancestor worship, "Zi Fu" is offered to the ancestors, and the whole family shares it after tomb sweeping.

Green Rice

In the south, people eat Qingjing rice on the Cold Food Festival. It is mainly made from glutinous rice dyed with the juice of the black rice tree. Some people will make Qingjing rice into five-colored glutinous rice, which symbolizes good luck and a good harvest.