It is April 3. People are preparing qingtuan—"green cake". This snack is popular at this time of the 1, especially in Shanghai and some other places in the lower parts of the Yangtze River. Though2 can think of a forgotten festival—the Cold Food Festival(Hanshi Jie).
According to tradition, the Cold Food Festival3one day before the Pure Brightness (Qingming) Festival. It lasts for three 4, during these days people don't make a fire and instead eat 5 food prepared before the festival.
Few places still have the custom(习俗)and city people are no longer strict about6 the custom, but in the countryside many people still eat only cold food on these days.
The beginning of the custom goes back to the Spring and Autumn period (770 — 476 BC). It is a story about Chong Er, the king of the Jin State. Later, the Cold Food Festival became 7 all over China and it had been an important festival before the Tang Dynasty (AD 618— 907). Then it became8 important, until it disappeared in the Yuan Dynasty (1271 — 1368).
A professor said that the Cold Food Festival did not disappear, but 9 the Pure Brightness Festival. In some parts of China, the Pure Brightness Festival is 10 called the Cold Food Festival.
