Idioms related to the Cold Food Festival can include: leftover soup and cold food; frugal food and clothing; cold food in the morning and Lantern Festival every night; cold food in spring and flying flowers.

The Cold Food Festival is also known as the "Cold Festival" and "No Smoking Festival". On this day, people ban fireworks and only eat cold food. Historically, different dynasties and different regions had different dates for the Cold Food Festival. Some were one or two days before Tomb Sweeping Day, and some were one day after Tomb Sweeping Day, but they were basically close to the time of Tomb Sweeping Day. In the process of development, the customs of the Cold Food Festival are gradually approaching those of the Qingming Festival. Most of them include activities such as sweeping, outing, swinging, Cuju (playing football), Liangou (tug-of-war), planting willows, and chanting poems. Poets also left famous sayings for the Cold Food Festival such as "Flowers are flying everywhere in the spring city, and the east wind and the willows are slanting in the cold food" have been passed down through the ages.

As for the origin of the Cold Food Festival, according to historical records, it comes from a story in Chinese history. During the Spring and Autumn Period, the prince Chong'er of the Jin Dynasty fled to other countries for nineteen years to avoid disasters. The minister Jie Zitui always followed him and never left him. Even when Chong'er was suffering from hunger and cold, Jie Zitui cut meat from his own thigh and gave it to him. Chonger makes soup. This is the origin of the idiom "cut off the stock and eat the king". After Chong'er returned to Jin, he worked hard to govern and became a famous king, the famous Duke Wen of Jin in history. However, Jie Zitui did not seek wealth and wealth, so he and his mother retreated to Mianshan (now Mianshan, Jiexiu, Shanxi Province). In order to force him to come out of the mountain to meet each other, Duke Wen of Jin ordered the mountain to be set on fire. Jie Zitui refused to come out of the mountain and was eventually burned to death. In memory of his loyal minister, Duke Wen of Jin buried him in Mianshan, built an ancestral temple, and ordered a ban on fire and cold food on the day of Jie Zitui's death to express his grief. This is the origin of the "Cold Food Festival".

From the Spring and Autumn Period to the present, the Cold Food Festival has a history of more than 2,600 years. Shanxi, where the story takes place, has designated the Cold Food Festival as the day before Qingming. On this day, customs such as eating cold food, offering sacrifices, and going outing have been passed down and become Accepted nationwide. With the passage of time, the Cold Food Festival has quietly merged into the Qingming Festival, and the feudal ideology of stupidity and loyalty represented by Jie Zitui has also sunk into the long river of history. However, the people's praise of loyalty, integrity, and political clarity represented by the Cold Food Festival have become Same for thousands of years.