寒衣节

The tradition & historical record

Winter Clothes Day, or Hanyi Festival, together with Tomb-sweeping Day and Hungry Ghost Festival, are the days for people to offer sacrifice to their ancestors in China. The Winter Clothes Day falls on the first day of the 10th month of the Chinese calendar. Shiyue first of the lunar calendar has come into winter, thus people feel cold, which makes them miss the dead. To protect their ancestors against the cold in the netherworld, people send clothes to them, which is why it is called the Winter Clothes Day. On Shiyue first, people in China (mostly in the North) burn clothes made of colorful papers in front of graves to their ancestors to keep them warm. At the same time, the day marks the arrival of the dead of winter. Consequently, it's the day for parents and lovers to send clothes to the livings who they care about. As time goes by, the day becomes the festival for people to offer sacrifice to their ancestors. ¹

According to a legend, the origin of the Winter Clothes Day is related to a beautiful and sad love story. In Qin dynasty, the first emperor of Qin reunited China, and established a new country. However, he lived an extravagant and dissipated life, and recruited laborers to build the Great Wall and his own mausoleum. It is said that during the Qin dynasty, there lived a family named Meng who planted a gourd in their yard. The leaves and branches were so long that they stretched over the wall, and into the yard of their neighbor named Jiang. Before long, the neighbor named Jiang had a giant gourd in their yard. When the gourd became mature, Meng and Jiang agreed to cut the gourd into two parts for each of them. However, when they cut it, they found an adorable girl there. Both of them loved her very much. After discussion, they drew a conclusion that the girl was going to be nurtured by Meng. She was named Meng Jiangnu. When Meng Jiangnu grew up, she was very famous for being pretty, versatile and obedient. She was the apple of the two families' eyes. One day, when Meng Jiangnu was trying to pull a fan out of a pool, a young man named Fan Xiliang passed by, and saw her. He came to help her get the fan, and she thanked him. After she looked closely at the handsome youth, she chatted with him favorably. Gradually, they fell in love with each other. With their parents' permissions, Meng Jiangnu was married to Fan Xiliang. On their wedding night, a contingent of troops broke into their house, and took Fan Xiliang away because he was recruited as a laborer by the first emperor of Qin to build the Great Wall far away. After Fan Xiliang was taken away, Meng Jiangnu missed him day and night with great sadness and a heavy heart. On Shiyue first, it snowed heavily outside. ¹

Red bean rice or hóngdòu fàn (红豆饭) is a traditional Chinese dish eaten in some regions of China, it is particularly common in Jiangsu province during the Winter Clothes Day. A legend from Dafeng, Jiangsu says that people eat a bowl of glutinous rice mixed with red beans on the Winter Clothes Day in Jiangsu to commemorate a shepherd boy who revolted against a landlord. It is said that a long time ago, an adorable shepherd boy was born into a poor family. His parents could not support him, so he made a living by shepherding for a landlord when he was a child. One day, his carelessness in tending to the sheep resulted in those sheep falling into a valley and dying. After hearing the news, the landlord was extremely angry. Consequently, he beat and scolded the shepherd boy. The shepherd boy begged for the landlord to stop the beating but he did not. When the shepherd boy believed that he was on the brink of death, he picked up a knife next to him, and killed the landlord. The blood of the shepherd boy stained the glutinous rice on the ground red. By coincidence, that day was the 1st of Shiyue. ¹

The Bouyei nationality who live in Guizhou Province, China celebrate the Winter Clothes Day by fighting a battle with pumpkins. According to a legend, the purpose of fighting a battle with pumpkins is to please ancestors, to scare ghosts away, and to protect earth. On Shiyue first in Chinese lunar calendar, teenagers of the Bouyei nationality choose a pumpkin from their gardens, and thrust the pumpkin with a sharp bamboo pole. When the ceremony of sending ancestors off is over, teenagers burn a bundle of incense and stick them into pumpkins. Once the leader of their village shouts, teenagers run to the wild, with bamboo poles held in their hands, to gather together with others from other villages. When they encounter teenagers from other villages, all of them pretend to abuse each other and to fight with each other with pumpkins. Finally, singing a song, they go back to their own villages smilingly. ¹

On the day before Shiyue first in Chinese lunar calendar, the elders lead children and grandchildren to add soils to their ancestors' graves. The soils should be carried by their clothes rather than baskets. The more soils they added, the more populations their families would have. On Shiyue first, in patriarch's leadership, male carried foods and abundant tributes to worship ancestors' graves, and to offer sacrifice to their ancestors. After the ceremony, what's most important is to burn winter clothes made by colorful paper, including red, yellow, blue, black and purple paper. There is a popular belief in China that if you want to deliver something to the dead, you must burn it completely. Otherwise, the dead could not receive it. This belief is linked with the story of Cai Mo burnt paper. The Winter Clothes Day is not only the day to deliver winter clothes to the dead, but also the day for the livings to prepare for the coming of winter. On that day, women take out winter clothes that they have made for their children and husbands, and ask them to try clothes on. Men are used clearing up fireplaces and chimneys to make sure that fireplaces and chimneys can keep the house warm when winter comes. ¹

It's also said that burning winter clothes on the Winter Clothes Day originated from a businessman's promotion strategy. According to historical records, paper was invented by a man named Cai Lun during the Eastern Han dynasty (25–220 AD). After Cai Lun invented the paper, many people came to his paper factory to purchase the paper. When Cai Lun's sister-in-law named Hui Niang found that papermaking was profitable, she persuaded her husband named Cai Mo to learn papermaking form his brother. However, her husband was not very patient. He set up his own paper factory before he was skilled at making paper, leading to that no one came to his factory to buy paper because of its low quality. Hui Niang tried to help her husband get away from the trouble. Suddenly, an idea occurred to her mind. One night, she pretended to be ill and died. Her husband was extremely sad and guilty for he thought her death partly resulted from his behaviors. He blamed himself when he burnt the paper made by himself. ¹

The text above is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Winter Clothes Day”, available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 licence. ¹

hanyijie is ancestors remembrance day (on the first day of the tenth month of Lunar calendar) Chinese traditional festival, according to the structured record cited below. This entry was generated automatically from that record and has not yet been reviewed by a person familiar with the tradition. ²

The source record links this tradition to 1 external register, which can be verified through the citation. ²