4/5清明節 Tomb Sweeping Day

清明節的由來

俗語說「春分落雨到清明」，在清明節前氣候相當不穩定，
有時晴空萬里、有時卻陰雨綿綿，因此，這段時間大家要
特別注意身體健康。「清明節」是華人相當重要的節日，
這一天大家要掃墓祭祖，也有掛紙、培墓、踏青、
放風箏等習俗，但你知道這些習俗的由來嗎？
傳說中是跟漢高祖劉邦有關喔！

~Tomb Sweeping Day ~

In ancient times, people celebrated Qing Ming Jie with
dancing, singing, picnics, and kite flying. Colored boiled
eggs would be broken to symbolize the opening of life.
In the capital, the Emperor would plant trees on the
palace grounds to celebrate the renewing nature of
spring. In the villages, young men and women would
court each other.

Here is the story about Tomb sweeping day. Long time
ago, there was a king named Liu Pang. When he won
the war and became a king, he went back to his country
with honor. Liu Pang wanted to express his respect
and appreciation for his parents, so he went to his
parents’ tombs to burn incense. However, he couldn’t
find their tombs because of the war. Liu Pang felt very
sad, but he didn’t give up.

Suddenly, he got an idea. He took out a sheet of paper,
tore it to many pieces, and threw it into sky. At that
time, he praised, “God, Please help me find my parents’
tombs. Let these small pieces of paper freeze at one place.
Lead me to find the tombs.” It was so strange that those
small pieces of paper stop at one place. Finally Liu Pang
found his parents’ tombs by following these papers.
That’s why we put some pieces of color papers under
small stones on the ancestors’ tombs.

Besides the traditions of honoring the dead, people also
often fly kits on Tomb Sweeping Day. Kites can come
in all kinds of shapes, sizes, and colors. Designs could
include frogs, dragonflies, butterflies, crabs, bats, and
storks.
(以上文章摘自網路)