First of all, we usually need to prepare memorial tablets on the afternoon of the twelfth lunar month. Memorial tablets are usually made of wood, or yellow paper is folded neatly to form a memorial tablet, which reads the memorial tablet of our ancestors and is written according to our local customs.
Then prepare some food, fruit, candy and so on. Worship in advance. Don't worship hot dishes yet. In many places, you need to pick up your ancestors on the night of the twelfth lunar month. Generally, people of the same clan will wait for them to pick up their ancestors near their homes or cemeteries with paper money.
After receiving it from home, we will serve hot dishes, wine and tea. Smoke, and finally a little more. Of course, there are some differences in the customs of worship in each place, but it should be noted that the objects of worship are generally vegetarian dishes, which can be packaged in Fluttershy.
Even if the ancestors are taken back, the incense can't be broken during this time, which means that the candle should be lit all the time, but the hand incense has been inserted on it, and the number of incense inserted is generally odd.
Customary ancestor worship
Taiwan Province Province: From New Year's Eve to Spring Festival, at midnight, the first important thing is to offer sacrifices to the gods and ancestors. At that time, red candles were bright, offering sacrifices such as green tea and red beans. People were serious and sincere. After worshipping God, you should worship your ancestors. This is called "spring".
Welcome the new, also known as "open". At the end of the ceremony, golden paper was burned for the ancestors. Ningbo, Zhejiang: On the first day of the first month, in front of the ancestor's portrait, incense sticks, cakes and fruits are lit for Chen Tangtuan, and the family members bow down in turn. Others worship the statues of their ancestors in the ancestral hall, and their families go to the ancestral hall to worship their ancestors.
Dongguan, Guangdong: On the first day of the first month, most families first choose an auspicious time in the calendar to hold ancestor worship ceremonies. Sacrifices include tea, wine, rice, boxes, fruits, dragons (rice cakes), piles of Lu and vegetarian dishes. Ancestor worship procedures: burning incense, lighting candles, burning gold ingots and setting off a string of firecrackers. The whole family worships their ancestors in the order of seniority and age. Ancestor worship in upper-middle class families is always brightly lit and filled with cigarettes.
Huizhou, Guangdong: The activities of sweeping graves in the Mid-Autumn Festival are related to the traditional customs in eastern Guangdong. Lin Huiwen, a scholar of Huizhou folk culture, said that the sacrifices of Huizhou residents can be divided into two festivals: Spring and Autumn.
Most people in old Huizhou choose to worship their ancestors from the second day of February to the eighth day of April in the lunar calendar (Spring Festival), while some Hakkas living in Huizhou choose to worship their ancestors on the Double Ninth Festival and the Mid-Autumn Festival (Mid-Autumn Festival). According to relevant research, many Hakkas migrated to Huizhou in the Ming Dynasty. In the early Qing dynasty, a large number of Hakkas moved to Huizhou to settle down, and Hakkas came to Huizhou to settle down for about 380 ~ 400 years.
The areas that attach importance to autumn festivals are mainly Hakka settlements near Huidong, such as Pingshan in Huidong and Danshui in Huiyang. Mid-Autumn Festival is generally divided into two periods, namely Mid-Autumn Festival and Double Ninth Festival. The Mid-Autumn Festival is the center of worship in Huiyang Danshui area, and Chongyang is the center of worship in Huidong area. Although there are differences in time, they are basically the same in concept and belong to autumn festivals. Huizhou Hakkas have two festivals, Spring Festival and Spring Festival.