In a farmhouse courtyard in late autumn, persimmons hang from bare branches as a grandmother sews a padded winter jacket at a wooden table with two children helping, beside an offering table with candles indoors.
Cold Clothes Festival
First of the tenth month: winter clothes for the departed
Introduction
On the first of the tenth month, paper winter clothes are burned for the ancestors
The Cold Clothes Festival falls on the first day of the tenth lunar month, at the onset of winter, when people sweep the graves and burn paper winter clothes so that the ancestors too are warm. The Northern Song Dongjing menghua lu records that on this day officials received brocade jackets and people went out of the city to make offerings at the tombs; the Ming Da Ming huidian set sacrifices to untended spirits on the first of the tenth month, and the Dijing jingwu lüe describes Beijing paper shops cutting five-coloured paper into men's and women's clothes that families burned at their doors at night, 'sending winter clothes'. Folk tradition ties its origin to Meng Jiangnü carrying winter clothes to her husband at the Great Wall. Today it is observed mainly in North China, and also marks the time to put on warmer clothes.
Timeline
- 1147OriginBook 9 of the Dongjing menghua lu (1147, on Northern Song Kaifeng) records that on the first of the tenth month officials received brocade jackets and for three days people went out of the city to make offerings at the tombs; an early reliable record of the observance.
Literature › Record of a Dream of Splendour in the Eastern CapitalLiterature › Record of a Dream of Splendour in the Eastern Capital: Juan 9 - 1400EvolutionThe Ming Da Ming huidian set sacrifices to untended spirits on the first of the tenth month, alongside Qingming and Zhongyuan.Literature › Collected Statutes of the Great Ming
- 1635EvolutionThe Dijing jingwu lüe (1635) records that on the first of the tenth month Beijing paper shops cut five-coloured paper into men's and women's clothes called 'cold clothes', which families burned at night as 'sending winter clothes'.Literature › Sights and Scenes of the Imperial Capital