On the stone steps of an old house beneath hanging willows and spring blossoms, two children sit side by side peeling cold eggs from a basket, with a quiet village and arched bridge below.
Cold Food Festival
Three days without fire, in memory of a loyal recluse
Introduction
No fires and only cold food, 105 days after the winter solstice, in memory of Jie Zitui
The Cold Food Festival falls on the 105th day after the winter solstice, one or two days before Qingming. Tradition says Duke Wen of Jin banned fire in memory of Jie Zitui, who burned to death on Mount Mian, though the custom may really derive from the ancient seasonal renewal of fire. The Hou Hanshu biography of Zhou Ju records that around Taiyuan people ate cold food for a month each winter and dared not light fires; by the Liang dynasty's Jingchu suishi ji it was fixed at 105 days after the solstice with three days without fire. A Tang edict sanctioned visiting graves at Cold Food; its customs were cold meals, tomb sweeping, spring outings and swings, and it gradually merged with the neighbouring Qingming festival.
Timeline
- 125OriginThe Hou Hanshu biography of Zhou Ju records that when he governed Bingzhou (before 134 CE) the people of Taiyuan, out of reverence for Jie Zitui, ate cold food for a month each midwinter and dared not light fires; Zhou wrote to persuade them to change. An early reliable record of the custom.
Literature › Book of the Later Han: Biographies of Zuo Xiong, Zhou Ju and Huang Qiong - 550EvolutionThe Jingchu suishi ji records that 105 days after the winter solstice came Cold Food, with three days without fire and malt-sugar barley porridge; the observance had moved to spring and been fixed at that interval.Literature › Annual Customs of Jing-Chu
- 700EvolutionA Tang edict sanctioned visiting graves at Cold Food; because the two days were adjacent, its fire ban and tomb sweeping gradually merged into Qingming.
- 2011ImpactIn 2011 the Jiexiu Cold Food and Qingming customs were added to the national list as an extension of the Qingming Festival item (X-2).
Heritage Listings
- 2011National List of Representative Items of Intangible Cultural Heritage, extension item3rd batch · X-2 Qingming Festival: Jiexiu Cold Food and Qingming Customs · Jiexiu · Shanxi