山海动容泪水流：悼念艾跃进老师

济学：马上又到清明节。2年前我找了点资料写成一篇博客，供留学生和学习英文的朋友参考。3年前我还写过一首诗。 悼艾跃进老师：山海动容泪水流 2016-04-22 10:21   jixuie 山海动容泪水流，草根呜咽热土抽。 英魂千古江河秀，雪域高原肃静谋。

Qingming, a poetic Chinese festival（清明，一个诗意的中国节）

2017-04-04 17:02   jixuie

Tourists stroll along the West Lake during the Qingming Holiday in Hangzhou, east China's Zhejiang Province, April 2, 2017. Chinese are having the Tomb-sweeping Day holiday, or Qingming, from Sunday to Tuesday. (Xinhua/Han Chuanhao)

李克勤（jixuie）题记：清明节又叫踏青节，在仲春与暮春之交，也就是冬至后的第108天，是中国传统节日之一，也是最重要的祭祀节日之一，是祭祖和扫墓的日子。清明是传统节日中最特殊的一个，也是内容最多的一个，从自然节气，到后来融合寒食、上巳sì二节，使得它的节日内容非常丰富，郊游踏青、蹴鞠、秋千、风筝、植树……当我们向外国朋友介绍清明节的时候，会说：清明时节，是充满诗意的。

Qingming, a poetic Chinese festival

April 4 marks this year' s Qingming Festival in China. Qingming, literally meaning "clear and bright" , is one of the 24 dates that divide the solar year on the traditional Chinese calendar. The day heralds a season of rising temperature and increasing rainfall, high time for plowing and sowing.

As a festival, Qingming is believed to have a history of about 2,500 years and Chinese people have since developed colorful traditions. The most important tradition of Qingming is to honor ancestors and commemorate deceased family members and relatives, usually at their grave sites. Thus, Qingming is also translated into Tomb-Sweeping Day in English.

A traditional memorial ritual includes praying, cleaning the tombstones and burning offerings to the dead, usually paper money, paper clothes and paper houses. Today the list might include a paper iPhone.

It is believed that the tradition of sweeping tomb during Qingming was started by an ancient duke, Chong' er, to pay tribute to an loyal retainer who cut his thigh meat to feed the master during their exile years. The retainer, Jie Zitui, secluded into a forest after Chong' er became the Duke. The Duke couldn' t find Jie in the forest and ordered to set fire in an attempt to force him out, but Jie and his mother were burnt to death instead. The remorseful Duke then ordered memorial rituals for the man.

The tomb-sweeping tradition offered ancient poets an occasion to express their sentimentality, such as Du Mu of the Tang Dynasty (618-907). In his famous poem Qingming, he wrote:

A drizzling rain falls like tears on the mourning day; The mourner' s heart is going to break on his way. "Where can a wine shop be found to drown my sad hours?" A cowherd points to a cot amid apricot flowers.

In this English translation, well-known translator Xu Yuanchong straightly put Qingming into "the mourning day."

However, Qingming is not all about sad sentiments. Flying kites is enjoyed by many people, young and old, during the Qingming Festival. Swinging is another activity for children. A special food for the festival is called qingtuan, or sweet green rice balls made from glutinous rice soaked in and colored by green plant juice and stuffed. In addition, people believe that eating an boiled egg on Qingming will bring good health for the year. Some people also draw paintings on the boiled eggs before eating them. Another folk custom is to knock boiled eggs against each other for fun.

Actually, one of the most important and long-lasting customs of Qingming is "taqing" , meaning spring outing, as this is the time when the sun shines soft and bright, the trees and grass become green and flowers blossom. Today, Qingming is a national holiday.

Some traditions of Qingming have brought problems, say, traffic jams and air pollution or even forest fires caused by firecrackers and paper money burning. As part of a greener Qingming campaign, people have been encouraged to pay tribute to their ancestors and deceased beloved ones online, or burn less or no paper money.

原文：

http://www.xinhuanet.com//english/2017-04/04/c_136180967.htm

请注意：（本文蓝色字，点击可直接阅读）

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