Cold Food Festival
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The Cold Food Festival is a traditional Chinese holiday celebrated for three consecutive days starting the day before the Qingming Festival per Lunar Calendar.
[edit] Legend
Legend has it that Chong'er, Prince of Jin, had to endured many hardships while he made his travels around the Warring Kingdoms. Once, in order to help the Prince who is tormented by hunger, Jie Zhi Tui cut off the flesh from his thigh and offered it to the prince for sustenance.
Later on when Chong'er became King of Jin, he ordered a search for Jie Zhi Tui who had gone into hiding in the remote mountains with his mother. Despite the effort the search failed. Chong ordered the mountains to be burned down (!) in order to force Jie out of hiding. Unfortunately the fire ended up killing Jie and his mother.
Filled with remorse, Chong ordered that each year during these three days the setting of fire is forbidden – all food was to be consumed cold. Therefore the Festival is thus named (In Jie Xiu City of the Shan Xi Province locals still remember this tradition clearly. But even for them the tradition of eating cold food is no longer actually practiced.)
In reality, the true source of the Cold Food Festival started from the ancient tradition of setting fire by rubbing wood pieces together and the tradition of lighting new fires. Due to the change of seasons and the change in the type of wood available, the ancient practice is to change the type of fire-starter-wood used from season to season. Fire is lighted anew upon the start of each season. Before the new fire is officially started no one is allowed to light a fire. This was an important event during that time. The traditionally practiced activities during the Cold Food Festival includes the visitation of ancestral tombs, cock-fighting, playing on swings, beating the blankets (to freshen them), and tug-of-war, etc. The practice of visitation of ancestral tombs is especially ancient.
For China the Spring Ancestral Worship used to be practiced during the time of the Cold Food Festival. It was later moved to coincide with the Qinming Festival. However in Korea, the tradition of practicing Spring Ancestral Worship during the Cold Food Festival still remains.
