Qing Ming Festival And The Chinese Folk Belief

Qing Ming Festival is one of the most important festivals in traditional Chinese custom; it has rich connotations, such as history, nature, culture and so on. It combines solemn with entertainment, develops into present festival with common concern from an original ancient festival, as well as hosts thousands of accumulation of Chinese national spirit. It plays an important role in reshaping the traditional culture for people, to arouse people to learn traditional festivals and culture, to positively response to the state policy of non-material cultural heritage protection.The thesis studies Qing Ming Festival with the perspective of folk belief; it divided into four parts besides introduction. The introduction part explains the reason and significance of the topic, the object of study, research contents and methods summarize the situation of study about Qing Ming Festival at home and abroad, introduce the concept and connection of Qing Ming Festival and folk belief. The first chapter is the origin of Qing Ming festival and worship of fire, Qing Ming Festival evolved from Cold Food festival, the evolution is inseparable from worship of fire, the folk mentality of nonsmoking and set of fire, namely the mentality of get rid of catastrophe, pray blessing and recall memory. The second chapter describes close relationship between Qing Ming festival and the thoughts of witchcraft. The formation of the festival is supported by a complete witchcraft theory, while the festival also reflects the specific worship of witchcraft, such as burning paper money, insert the wicker. Chapter three reveals that traditional festival custom of Qing Ming is a reflection of the reproductive, from eating eggs, planting trees, establishing the concept of put life and death on the equal place, the content of the festival reflects the infinite yearning for life. The fourth chapter explains the relationship between Qing Ming Festival and the worship of ancestor. The worship of ancestor originated from the ancient custom of ancestor worship. Worship ancestors could convey traditional culture of filial piety, as well as mental satisfied, the more importantly, it plays an important tie between families and has a subtle function which could affect the sense of family mission and national identity.Qing Ming festival includes the folk beliefs centered in worship, interpretate the meaning of festival customs and spirits of roots; it makes the festival become a symbol of Chinese culture spread in the world.