When the first funeral is on the verge of death, you usually take a shower and change clothes. After death, cover your body with white cloth, blue cloth, black cloth or special quilt embroidered with ornaments, which is called "small fold". Before the small collection, some places require that certain items be put into the mouth of the deceased, such as money, coins, red cloth, five-color lines and so on. , respectively, called "hug" and "pressure". Moved to the spiritual bed in the main room, with children and relatives watching. The son or nephew of the deceased should "lead the way" with a candle straw, which means telling the dead where to go; After guiding the road, it is "sending water." Slurry water is made of raw water, raw noodles and millet, or just clear water, which means delivering meals to the dead three times in the morning, noon and evening. Three days after death, we should send travelling expenses and burn paper money for the deceased; In modern times, there are more paper cars, computers, buildings and so on. When the deceased enters the coffin, it is called "big gathering" and "burial", and it is necessary to "wash the face", "throw money", "cover the head" and "nail the town". Nowadays, due to the cremation system, funeral procedures are gradually disappearing, or ashes or urns are symbolically placed in another box.
There are three contents in the mourning process: mourning, hanging and wake. On the one hand, it is to inform relatives and friends, on the other hand, it is to inform the surrounding neighbors. According to the traditional ceremony, the mourners kowtow to the mourners and then report the situation of the deceased. Now, in addition to relatives and friends who need to pay their respects at home, they can also make announcements by publishing or delivering "obituaries" and "obituaries". In some places in Shandong, there are also special mourning signs. In Linqing area, the families of the deceased should stick a piece of white paper on the street gate to play the role of "losing cards", which is called "closing the door". Opening and hanging refers to a series of activities such as arranging mourning halls and accepting mourners to cry and worship. The funeral ceremony of the next of kin of the deceased is more grand, with elegiac couplets, sacrifices, yellow paper, paper ingots and the like. From the second day of the funeral, children and others should guard the coffin day and night, which is called a wake. During this period, men don't shave their heads, and women don't comb their hair. They burn "chicken paper" in the morning and "Ye Xiang" in the evening. If someone comes to offer condolences, they should kowtow and thank their filial piety.
Funeral Funeral is the most solemn ceremony in a funeral. Because the funeral ceremony is extremely complicated and needs more people, many friends and neighbors will come to the deceased's house to help. On the morning of the funeral, the drum team came to the main house and began to play, called "Noisy Mourning". The funeral ceremony begins with "pointing the Lord", that is, the dutiful son gives the spirit tablet to a local respected civil servant or a prestigious old man at home, and points the word "Lord" with a cinnabar pen; The dutiful son takes back the spirit tablet and can go to the funeral. "Chopping the bowl" means cutting the black bowl upside down in front of the coffin with a knife. After the people "wake up" and "carry the coffin", the dutiful son will "throw the basin"; The more decadent autumn is, the more prosperous future generations will be. In Liangshan area, the basin throwing ceremony is called "road sacrifice", while in other places, "road sacrifice" refers to the sacrificial activities on the way to the funeral.
Burying graves is commonly known as "digging graves", "opening holes" and "digging holes". In Linqu and other places, ceremonies such as "offering sacrifices to the tomb" and "offering sacrifices to the Yin House" should be held before burial. Music, offerings, incense burning, libation and firecrackers should be played, and buried objects such as ever-burning lamps, five barns, water tanks, grains and paper tied boys and girls should be placed in the grave. The coffin entered the cave, firecrackers and drums rang, and the dutiful son and others wept bitterly. In Qufu, Longkou and other places, after the coffin entered the hole, each of the children of the deceased grabbed three handfuls of soil and sprinkled it on the lid of the coffin. In some places, children pick up shovels and lead people to shovel dirt and build coffins. On the second or third day after burial, the dutiful son and relatives will come to surround the grave, that is, add soil to pray for the new grave.
After burial, there is a custom of "burning seven" all over Shandong to celebrate the anniversary of the family of the deceased. Every seven days, the children and relatives of the deceased will sacrifice at the grave. As the saying goes, "On the third anniversary of the 57th anniversary, you can't burn it completely without burning it", and the sacrifices on the 57th and 3rd anniversary are especially grand. In addition to burning for seven days, it will also be burned for one hundred days and anniversaries.
When an old man dies, his descendants and relatives have to change clothes according to the system, which is collectively called "Dai Xiao" by the people. The "system" mentioned here refers to the traditional "five-service system" in China, which refers to the five generations of grandfather, father, self, son and grandson. All the dead men and women in the five-service system should be Dai Xiao. The dutiful son should wear mourning clothes, a Dai Xiao hat, shoes, a rope around his waist and a stick. In the old days, dutiful sons wore hemp crowns, but now they usually sew a simple "filial hat" with white cloth, and some simply wrap it on their heads; The filial piety rope tied around the waist is mostly two strands of hemp rope; According to tradition, filial piety sticks must be fresh willow branches, peeled, wrapped in white paper, and labeled with white paper flowers and paper ears. After the ceremony, put this willow branch in front of or beside the grave, hoping it can take root and sprout, and bless the prosperity of future generations.
In addition to remembering and paying homage to the dead, the old funeral also contains more superstitious ideas and rituals, resulting in extravagance and waste. After the founding of New China, the Party and the government advocated breaking superstitions, carrying out funeral reform, and gradually simplifying etiquette. In the mid-1960s, many families held brick tombs, held memorial services and sent flowers, which was grand and economical. Since the 1970s, cremation has usually been carried out, and children wear black gauze. At the same time, inform relatives and friends of the date of mourning and hold a memorial service and mourning ceremony. After the ceremony, the children held urns and were escorted by relatives and friends to the fields for deep burial or burial in the cemetery.