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An exhibition of ancient sacrificial utensils is underway at the Shanxi Museum in north China's Taiyuan city during the Qingming Festival, providing visitors an opportunity to have a better knowledge of the Chinese history and culture.
The Qingming Festival, or Tomb-Sweeping Day, fell on Thursday this year. It is a traditional Chinese holiday for people to pay tribute to the deceased, worship ancestors, and embrace nature.
In an exhibition hall of the Shanxi Museum, the Hufu wine vessel made in the end of the Western Han Dynasty (202 BC-25 AD) drew a lot of attention from visitors. It not only has patterns of real animals like tigers and camels, but also contains mythical creatures like nine-tailed fox.
Wine vessels had a wide range of uses during the Han Dynasty (202 BC - 220 AD), which could be used not only for containing wine, but also for ancestor worship on Qingming.
"What's special about this wine vessel? We used to think that it could be heated up by fire to keep the wine warm. However, with further researches by archaeologists, it turned out that the vessel was for brewed wine. Nowadays, when the Qingming Festival comes, people usually worship ancestors. At the ancient times, people would pour brewed wine into bronze ware as a way to worship ancestors," said An Jing, staff member of Shanxi Museum's external exchange department.
During the three-day Qingming Festival holiday which started on Thursday, a plenty of local residents have come to visit the museum.
"I just take him out to tour this museum. He has shown great interest in history. Although he may not understand a lot, he still can be edified," said Xia Meiling, a tourist.