Cold Food Festival – Better Than It Sounds

Cold Food Festival – Better Than It Sounds
Apr 03, 2009 By Fred Dintenfass , eChinacities.com

Tomb Sweeping Day aka Qīngmíngjié (清明节) aka, seriously, Cold Food Festival has undergone serious transformation. In ancient times, the festival was celebrated with revelry: singing, dancing, picnics and rituals to celebrate spring.

This celebration of life became a celebration of death and a time to honor ancestors. In Chinese folk religions deceased ancestors were instrumental in keeping the living family well and prosperous, and so ceremonies evolved where food and spirit money were sacrificed so the ancestors would keep the family wealthy and the offspring many.

Today, Chinese clean the graves of their ancestors – sweeping away the dirt and debris – and set out offerings – paper money and bland food that won’t be stolen by ghosts who aren’t part of the family.


Photo: Wm Jas

Qing Ming Jie grew out of Cold Food Festival (Hánshíjié | 寒食节) which became popular around the beginning of the Tang dynasty. The chapter “Redefining Kinship” in Mark Edward Lewis’ recent book, China between Empires: The Northern and Southern Dynasties, explains how the unappetizing sounding Cold Food Festival marked a change in the relations of Chinese families to their ancestors and, ultimately, to their communities. Cold Food Festival grew out of a ban on fire, seemingly related to 7th century BC official Jie Zitui who, after resigning from office, was burned alive in a failed attempt to drive him out of his mountain home.

Over the years, several attempts were made to ban Cold Food Festival for health reasons (cold food at that time meant raw). It was on and off banned and reinstated and came to reside on the 105th day after the winter solstice – the same time as Qing Ming Jie (the name means “clear bright festival”).

Back in the 400s, Cold Food Festival was a time when forest fires were banned and you weren’t allowed to get things cooking on the home front either – sexual activity was prohibited during the festival. The festival which, at some point in its history, was a happy frolicking time just gets worse and worse. First hot food goes and then sex; a time to put out fires in the woods and in one’s pants as well.

By the early Tang, Cold Food Festival now included family trips to ancestor’s graves. It wasn’t all a downer though, after cleaning the grave there were offerings and a banquet. Though it probably started in the 600s the tomb sweeping part of things didn’t become widespread until 8th century AD. The practice became an important aspect of ancestor worship – and in turn, an important part of ensuring one’s continued success in the world of the living.


Photo: paulshaffner

Until this time, burial of relatives had been a bit haphazard. Some were buried by the family home, some in other places – often even single generations weren’t all buried together, and this made worship of ancestors difficult. Who has the time or the energy to run around to a long list of graves when all you’re eating is cold food?

So, graves began being consolidated into larger and larger groupings. And the further back an ancestor, the more progeny that have descended; and thus families started growing as people became more aware of shared ancestry and shared blood.

 

Makes sense, right? However, in classic academic fashion, Lewis – an eminent professor of Chinese studies at Stanford University – gives: “This increased the possibility of larger, self-conscious groups who could act together or provide mutual assistance in times of trouble.” And takes away in, literally, the very next sentence: “However, the impact of the festival should not be exaggerated, because there is no evidence that substantial numbers of kin actually gathered at individual graves.” Stymied again!

No matter what happened in the Tang dynasty, China’s familial units and ancestor worship have certainly gone through many changes since then, yet Qing Ming Jie continues today. So much spirit money is burnt that it’s been banned in Beijing due to fire hazards (actually, a fitting celebration of the holiday) and special twelve-doored furnaces – one door for each animal of the Chinese zodiac – have been built so that one can burn spirit money by the year your ancestor was born. If Spring Festival soured you on fire, you can leave chrysanthemums – the yellow petals resemble flames – on the grave.


Photo: Eddie Awad

The festival persisted and evolved from folk practices, through Buddhism, Taoism, and post-1949 atheism. Qing Ming Jie – also known as Cold Food Festival – usually occurs somewhere between April 4th and 6th and has been an important day in Chinese history on several occasions. On April 5th, 1976, the Tiananmen Incident occurred – a protest sparked by the death of Zhou Enlai and the very brief official mourning that followed. In an indirect protest, thousands laid wreaths of flowers and poems in the square. Alarmed, the Politburo sent out industrial strength cleaning crews to clear the square. The Gang of Four punished Deng Xiaoping – then carrying on the Zhou’s duties – by putting him under house arrest in Guangzhou. When Deng returned, rehabilitated, to Beijing the April 5th incident was commemorated as a display of patriotism.

No doubt few expats have ancestral graves to go to in China, and perhaps even fewer want to celebrate their day off with abstinence and a raw foods diet. Perhaps, we can use the day to think back upon our families, and the evolving roles and natures of families in our globalized worlds – how many of our grandparents ever expected to be communicating with their grandchildren by video chat or email? Food can really only be hot or cold but families can be a lot of things and Qing Ming Jie is a great opportunity for us to dust the cobwebs off that corner of our hearts and appreciate our loved ones.

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