Luonan Cold Clothes Festival Customs
"In October, October 1st. Meng Jiangnu, send winter clothes. Walk one mile and cry one mile, cry down the Great Wall for 800 miles." This is a folk song about the Cold Clothes Festival that is circulated in various places in Luonan. Luonan County has a long history and profound cultural heritage. The first day of October in the lunar calendar is the Cold Clothes Festival that has been passed down for thousands of years. This day is the last Ghost Festival in the folk festival of the year. Legend has it that this day is the day when the King of Hell gives ghosts a holiday. It is around the beginning of winter, and the weather is getting colder. The King of Hell kindly gives the dead a holiday and lets the living send winter clothes to the dead. There is also a legend about the origin of this festival in various places in Luonan. It is said that during the reign of Qin Shihuang, Meng Jiangnu's husband Wan Xiliang was captured to build the Great Wall. After he left, he disappeared without a trace. When the weather got cold, Meng Jiangnu made winter clothes and traveled thousands of miles to the Great Wall construction site to find her husband. Unexpectedly, her husband had died of exhaustion and was built into the wall. When Meng Jiangnu heard about it, she cried loudly, and cried until the Great Wall collapsed for 800 miles, revealing many dead bones. Meng Jiangnu bit her finger and dripped blood to identify the bones. All the bones of Wan Xiliang could be penetrated by blood. After she picked up the bones and wrapped them up, she went home. This day was the first day of October. In this way, the story of Meng Jiangnu crying at the Great Wall has spread farther and farther since then. According to legend, since the Qin Dynasty, people in Luonan have felt that winter is coming, and they should send winter clothes to their deceased relatives like Meng Jiangnu did. After being passed down through the dynasties, now in Luonan, on the day of the Cold Clothes Festival on October 1st, every household goes to the grave to burn paper clothes, paper shoes, paper hats, and paper money for their deceased relatives, so that their deceased relatives can spend the winter well. Some wanderers, or women who are too far away from their natal family, make a circle with grass ash at the crossroads and burn some winter clothes and paper money inside to express their commemoration for their deceased relatives. (No pictures available, please provide them.) (No pictures available, please provide them.)