Funeral ceremonies are commonly known as "white things". From the moment the old man died, the funeral ceremony began.
In the rural areas of Guanzhong, after the death of people in the past, at first, in addition to crying, relatives took a piece of paper, knocked on the earthen basin, went outside and burned the paper. It's called farewell. After the funeral, the earthen basin was brought back and placed at the feet of the deceased, which was called "filial basin". Burn paper in it, "send money" to relatives in the underworld, then put the body away and send people to the families and uncles of the deceased to report the funeral. After all the relatives and children arrive, a funeral ceremony will be held: first shave and wash the deceased, then put on a shroud, press a small coin under the tongue, and finally put on shoes and hats and put them in the coffin. After the funeral, a coffin shed is set up at home, incense tables are set up, offerings such as fruits and steamed buns are placed, and ever-burning lamps are lit, so that the families of the deceased will wake up day and night. Most of the mourners are children of the deceased, called "dutiful sons", dressed in Bai Xiaonong, wearing a white hat of dutiful sons, tying a thick twine around his waist and holding a mourning staff (wickerwork with a thick thumb wrapped in white paper). Anyone who comes to offer condolences, whether raw or cooked, should kowtow to express their thanks.
The night before the funeral, the relatives of the deceased will ask the self-help class to sing Shaanxi opera, or perform puppet shows and movies. Bills sent by relatives and friends are hung on the mourning hall. The dutiful son knelt on the left and right sides of the mourning hall according to his generation, his wife sat behind the mourning hall, and the drummer played suona, which made people cry. In the shouts, the dutiful son toasted and bowed to the dead.
The next morning, the funeral began. Generally presided over by a teacher of Yin and Yang. With a "up", the solemn and stirring suona sounded. Crying in the sky. 24 people got up carrying coffins. In front is a piece of white paper "White Crane" and a "Soul-inducing Flag" to guide the way. There are 24 paper banners and a wreath basket on both sides. Guided by the drummer at the back. The dutiful son pulled up a white tent more than ten feet long and dragged the coffin slowly forward. The coffin was surrounded by female dutiful sons, who sang and cried loudly with their hands, telling the thoughts of the dead in a "sad tone". The whole village came to the funeral and lit a fire on the mainland. When I arrived at the cemetery, the coffin was spared for three weeks, then placed in front of the tomb, and the dutiful son sent it to the grave. After that, the grave was filled and the funeral was tied.
After the initial mourning, mourning, seven-week ceremony, mourning and other ceremonies, the last link is burial. This is the last time the dead stay in the world, usually very serious.
Due to the different living environment of different nationalities, many different funeral customs and ceremonies have been formed. This burial ceremony is very special and complicated. The person who carries the coffin is called "Eight Immortals", and the cave where the coffin is dug is called "Construction".
Before the start of construction, there is a ceremony to break the mountain, and the dutiful son will burn incense and light candles. In some places, fairies should be invited and Tai Sui should be painted. When you start a mountain, you must avoid the direction of Tai Sui, otherwise it will be "Tai Sui's head is broken" and the family will be ruined. When cutting a mountain, put a stake in front of and behind the grave, and then let the dutiful son dig with a hoe three times within the range of putting the stake. Then the Eight Immortals made a cave, and then burned the traditional portrait when it was finished. This kind of tomb is to push the coffin in. Two bamboos or peeled, smooth and moist fir trees are laid at the bottom of the tomb. Put the top of the coffin on it first, then push it in with a crowbar, then remove the bottom after pushing it in, and finally shovel some turf to seal the hole.
There are many interesting customs after the coffin stops on the mountain. In some places, the filial daughter-in-law should bow before the spirit, then hold the loess in her arms and run home to scatter it under the pigsty, chicken coop and bed. It is said that this will be blessed by the dead. If there are many daughters-in-law, we must strive for the first good luck, and some even take off their shoes and take a shortcut to go home by boat. After paving the loess, the daughter-in-law has to rush to the kitchen to eat a few dishes. This is called "Jinbao", which means good luck.
2 Customs
In the past, people attached great importance to offering sacrifices to graves. Kill a rooster at the time of sacrifice and use its blood as a souvenir. The rooster doesn't die immediately, but flutters repeatedly in the grave. According to the old saying, where the rooster dies in the grave, which part of the offspring will flourish. The chicken feathers shaken off by the rooster are called "phoenix feathers" and must be taken off. Before burial, the son of the deceased will store the grains made of whole grains in the grave. There is a small pancake on the top of the storage. Put a ceramic pot in front of the grave, and put a soybean oil lamp on the pot, which is called the ever-burning lamp. With the development of science and technology, people have developed a solar ever-burning lamp that can be placed directly on both sides of the tombstone. In some places, a bronze mirror is embedded in the grave to symbolize the sun. In ancient times, rich people had to stay away from graves, shoot three arrows, and then retreat immediately. I dare not go near the coffin, because I am afraid that if I can't suppress the evil spirits, I will suffer. When the coffin is put into the grave, it must be shot, saying that it is for the dead to go to the underworld.
According to the old rules, the burial time should also be paid attention to, and the coffin must be buried at sunset. When the soil fell, the Eight Immortals slowly put it down by pulling the brown rope. When it is safe, relatives must grab the dirt and throw it on the coffin. This is called "adding soil". After the coffin goes down, it should be covered with a thin layer of soil, and then the soil swept out of the grave should be sprinkled on it, and then a bowl called "rice bowl" should be placed on it. This is to move the tomb lighter in the future, so as not to disturb the dead and bring misfortune.
According to folk custom, the soul after death may run out of the grave at any time and follow the living to go home. So people who are buried must go around the tomb three times, and it is forbidden to look back on the way home. Otherwise, it is not good for both sides to see the traces of the dead in the underworld. In fact, this is also a measure of mourning. Otherwise, it is difficult to convince the relatives of the deceased to keep looking back and not want to leave.
After burial, people must wash their hands, and some even wash their hands with wine. This means that no one will die in the future, which is used to drive away bad luck. Then you have to thank the trumpeter and the guests who held your funeral. After that, a ceremony will be held to worship the spirits of the deceased. In some places, as long as they are relatives, they have to eat together, which is called "grabbing the inheritance meal".
Drinking "longevity soup" and eating "longevity beans" are customs in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces. That is to say, after the death of an old man over 70 years old, a big barrel of meat and bone soup, that is, "longevity soup", and a big pot of boiled soybeans in Huang Cancan, that is, "longevity beans" should be prepared on the day of the funeral. Send the mourners back to drink a small bowl of longevity soup and eat some longevity beans at will, which means "adding happiness and prolonging life". In some places, long-lived fragrant glutinous beans are distributed to children in the neighborhood. It is said that eating longevity beans will lead to longevity in the future.
These traditional folk customs and habits reflect the wishes of the living to the dead and the good wishes for a prosperous life.
3 geomantic omen
Feng Shui has a long history, a long history and full of mystery. The essence of geomantic omen is actually a simple materialistic thought, because it pays attention to the unity of man and nature, studies the influence of Luan Tou, Qi and environmental magnetic field on people, and pays attention to nozzle and orientation. It was called geomantic omen in ancient times, and now it can be called environmental layout. We implement a preferential system for customers to adjust their geomantic omen, that is, customers pay appropriate fees first, sign contracts and pay, and then customers make up the remaining fees. Feng shui regulation is amazing. If you want to urge officials, you should urge customers, and if you want to urge money, you should urge customers. Once invested, three generations will benefit. Want money, want money, want officials.
Tomb investigation
On-the-spot investigation of the geomantic omen, good luck and bad luck of the old tomb shows whether the old tomb has fallen into the muddy water to give birth to termites, and its roots are black with ivory. This phenomenon is directly affected by the great evil, and future generations will be restless, and there will undoubtedly be orphans, widows, lunatics and disabled people. Those who know that bones are yellow and pure, golden and rich, the descendants of Wang Yi are prosperous. According to the laws of image change, three elements penetrating and divination flourishing, we can identify whether their orientation is correct, and all the environments such as the Star Peak, the water coming and going, the Shashoutang and so on.
A new point in the cemetery
Must conform to the incoming water, sand and water, auspicious photos of the stars, feelings of sand hands, spacious hall, gas and water gathering, turtles and snakes guarding the water mouth. Stand, come, go, sit, come to the water, use a divination to be clean and clear, draw a picture to change, three elements run through, endless, and three elements are invincible, so that future generations can enjoy wealth and glory forever.
In thousands of years of traditional culture in China, geomantic omen accounts for a large part. Before burial, we must invite a Feng Shui master to find a treasure house of Feng Shui to bless future generations. Because it is the thinking formed by China for thousands of years or an important part of China traditional culture, there are some mercenary swindlers involved.
There are two conditions for choosing the date of burial:
First, the sitting direction of the powder mountain.
The second is the date of birth of the deceased (mainly the date of birth, the month is only for reference, commonly known as "longevity").
Only by knowing these two points, can we avoid the collision between choosing a date and the tomb mound and the immortal life, and bring out the noble and lucky people sitting on the mountain and the immortal life (expressed by heavenly stems and earthly branches at the selected date), so that the dead can enjoy peace and the living can get wealth. But if you really don't know the year of birth of the deceased, you will be buried according to "good luck". And it is necessary to sit in the powder mountain, otherwise you don't have to choose a date!
However, burying ancestors is a serious matter and must not be hasty! For the safety of your family, Kenichi, you should find a well-known local Feng Shui master.
Five families built a simple mourning hall.
Portrait: I prepared an enlarged photo in advance and bought a special photo frame. Set the black ribbon.
Offering sacrifices: a bowl of whole grains, a censer, some incense, a bowl of seasonal fruit cakes and rice, a pair of big steamed bread chopsticks, etc.
Lamps: buy funeral supplies: black gauze, white flowers, white cloth, red cloth, burning paper, pottery pots (with holes at the bottom),
Paper: rooster, white flag, paper horse (paper cow for women), villa, gold and silver vault. On the night of death, family members burn paper in clay pots, and relatives and friends also burn it when they visit. The next day, I went to the police station to cancel my account. On the third day, the funeral.
Family clothes
Direct descendants are white blood relatives, and peers wear black gauze. Other relatives wear black veil. Grandchildren sewed a small piece of red cloth on a small white belt and black gauze. Other guests wear white flowers.
A prepared project
The paper ashes burned a few days ago were wrapped in seven small bags or seven coins and two one-inch photos.
Items to bring
Sacrifice in the mourning hall, death certificate of the police station, clothes of the deceased, and a bottle of white wine.
Before the funeral
Putting the portrait in front of the car, the eldest son led the younger generation to kneel in front of the car, raised the earthen bowl above his head and said, "Dad, have a good trip", so he broke the earthen bowl as hard as possible, but not twice. Putting the paper cock in front of the car means that the eldest son (or grandson) gets on the bus and raises the flag.
Every car in the convoy has a sign. For the age of the deceased. The deceased was 8 1 year old, plus one year old. Then the car number is 83. If the deceased is a male, stick it on the left rear side of the car, and if it is a female, stick it on the right rear side of the car.
There is also the custom of throwing paper money in some places. Scattered all the way, meaning "buying money for the road", some places put paper money on the bridge and hold it down with stones when crossing the bridge. After the hearse starts, it usually doesn't stop. Before the red light, the driver counts the time, moves slowly, waits in the distance, and accelerates when the green light is green.
Throw the paper cock out of the car before it reaches the funeral home. (Some places use live cocks)
After entering the funeral home, the body is collected and cremated.
Be buried
Before cremation, choose urn and small tablet. Wordpad can be written by staff. Pay attention to the writing of men and women: take the exam first and take the first step. After the body was taken out, an "opening ceremony" was held. When the body was taken out of the freezer, the eldest son held his head and the others held the body and put it in the car in the morgue. If you need to move, the eldest son is still on the body. Cut the red line on the corpse before opening the light, and put the burnt paper ash into the paper coffin, or put it into the pocket of the deceased, and then put the corpse into the paper coffin. It means money for children to travel.
The undertaker guides the filial son (eldest son or grandson) to open the light. The dutiful son holds a cotton swab, dips it in white wine or alcohol, and rubs it on the deceased, which is called opening the light. It means to restore various functions of its body. The lighting sequence is from head to toe, followed by head, eyes, nose, mouth, ears, chest, right hand, left hand and feet. The undertaker said that the dutiful son repeated it and then wiped it on the part. For example: open your nose and smell the flowers; ..... Open your right hand and write an article; Open your left hand and catch money and food; Open your feet and step on the lotus to open the hall. The opening remarks are slightly different for men and women.
When the light is turned on, family members can't cry, let alone shed tears on the body. After turning on the light, the body was handed over to the staff for makeup.
Hold a mourning ceremony or farewell ceremony. Before the ceremony, explain the life of the deceased to the master of ceremonies (prepare at home in advance), and give the list of major guests to the staff in the form of one-inch or two-inch photos. After the ceremony, the body was cremated. At the same time, under the leadership of the eldest son, a memorial ceremony and burning things were held.
Sacrifice portraits and memorial tablets, put grains, fruits and cakes (four in some places), and put flowers, liquor and cigarettes. The eldest son first incense, and then incense in order of seniority. According to the order of long before young, near before far.
Burn things. Burn some paper first, then burn the clothes of the victim, and then burn all the offerings. If there is a wreath, pick seven flowers and save them for burning at seven o'clock.
When cooking, sprinkle white wine on clothes to help burn. Burn things, finish the funeral, remove white flowers and filial piety. Immediate family changed to black veil.
Except for a few people, everyone else went to the funeral party. Prepare a few pots of water, liquor and candy outside the funeral hall. Anyone who comes back from the funeral home should wash his hands, sip with wine or contain a piece of sugar before entering the banquet hall.
Before the funeral, the family members lined up and the undertaker presided over it. The host announced that the family members thanked their relatives and friends for coming to the funeral, bowed to them, and then the family representatives spoke. The main content is thanks, and a thin wine is prepared for everyone to enjoy.
During the funeral, the main blood relatives of the younger generation will toast each table.
Get the ashes. In the urn, put seven coins in the shape of the big dipper. Then choose a large piece of ashes and put it in the urn. The last one should be the skull. Stick a photo of the deceased on the front of the urn. Ashes repository, over.
6 burial procedure
The old tradition of Han funeral is to pay attention to heavy burial, which is mixed with many superstitious customs. Coffin burial has been popular in Han nationality since ancient times. Funeral is grand and can be divided into three stages: burial, burial and burial.
The funeral is to dress the body and put it under the coffin. Before people die, they should summon spirits and bathe the dead. Funeral is divided into two steps: small funeral and large funeral. A small undertaker is a cloth used to wrap his body, silk is for the rich and jade is for the royal family. Great-coat is to put the body in the coffin. Coffins are called "longevity materials", male coffins are engraved with the word "longevity", female coffins are engraved with the word "blessing", and some coffins are engraved with the combination of the words "Fu Lushou". When he was dying, he put rice in the mouth of the dead man. This rich family owns jade, pearls, etc. , the royal family contains jade, modern silver, are called "rice". When you die, there are often some things buried with you. Generally, people have clothes, quilts and daily necessities, and wealthy families and royalty will have many valuable items buried with them.
A funeral is to stay in the funeral palace after the funeral. The mourning period varies from 3 days to 30 days, mainly depending on the mourners. In ancient times, coffins were buried for three months, up to seven months. According to the traditional customs of the Han nationality, children should mourn when their parents die, otherwise it is unfilial. Relatives and friends will mourn and pay homage to the deceased in the future, which is called "mourning" or "condolence". All mourners should mourn. In ancient times, the mourning clothes of Han nationality were divided into five types: Wei, Cui Zi, Dagong, Hong Xiao and Zhima, which were called "five clothes". They are made of coarse linen and fine linen, and wear different mourning clothes according to the relationship between relatives and friends, which is called "Pima Dai Xiao". In modern times, white cloth is often used for mourning. Modern cities generally wear white flowers on their chests and black gauze on their arms.
Burying is burying the body of the dead, that is, burying the coffin. Before burial, the old custom often depends on geomantic omen and chooses a cemetery, which is called "choosing good luck". Funeral is also called funeral. At the funeral, the ancient Han people were generally "dutiful sons", and undertaker sang an elegy. Elegy has evolved into elegy in modern times. Relatives and friends wrote elegiac couplets or funeral elegiac couplets, which evolved into wreaths of elegiac couplets in modern times.
Etiquette custom
In ancient times, the custom of offering sacrifices to people (mainly close relatives, near ministers and near servants, which remained until the Qing Dynasty) was gradually replaced by pottery figurines, and in modern times, paper figures were buried with them.
After the funeral, there are memorial ceremonies for the seventh, seventh, centenary and anniversary, and the memorial tablet belongs to the ancestral hall, which has changed from a ceremony for people at the funeral to a ceremony for "ghosts" and "ancestors".
In addition, the Han nationality also has the custom of "returning to burial", that is, transporting the bodies that died in other places back to their original places.
During the funeral, the relatives of the deceased should wear mourning clothes and wake in the mourning hall. In the ancient etiquette system of China, filial piety was divided into five grades according to the kinship with the deceased. There is also a word "five clothes" in modern Chinese to express the distance of blood relationship. Filial piety is made of white cloth, which is quite different from the custom of westerners wearing white clothes to make dresses. In the Qing Dynasty, an Englishman came to China for the first time. When he met the funeral procession, everyone was dressed in white, but his expression was painful, sad and strange. In ancient times, people sang elegies at funerals, and Tao Yuanming, a great poet in Jin Dynasty, wrote three elegies for himself before his death. The elegy of later generations evolved from the elegy of ancient times.
The scale of the funeral ceremony is closely related to the status of the deceased. In feudal society, there were strict regulations on funeral ceremonies for people with different identities and status.
After the death of the elder, children and grandchildren should stay at home for 27 months, during which time they should stop socializing and entertaining. Officials also have to leave their jobs and go home to be filial, which is called "keeping the system."
The cemetery should be chosen in a place with open terrain and beautiful scenery. On the basis of "a treasure trove of geomantic omen", we should also pay attention to the following aspects.
First, when you are buried, you should predict the day of wealth, and be careful not to dirty the grave, such as spitting and littering.
Second: if buried together, it is a very complicated problem. It is necessary to combine the orientation and orientation of the cemetery according to the parents' eight characters. If one of the old people has left first and the other is still alive, try to "cover" when burying, that is to say, the urn buried first should be sealed with a cover, so that it is not necessary to disturb the original one when burying the other one later.
Third: Whether moving a grave or building a new grave, digging or burying it, we should choose an auspicious day according to the orientation and orientation of the eight-character tomb.
Fourth, we must pay attention to the placement of funerary objects, not according to our own ideas, so as not to bring adverse effects. It is best to consult a professional first. Taomu products, metal sharp tools and other evil spirits have a large magnetic field, which not only affects the ancestors' residence, but also may bring adverse effects to future generations. Do not place them.
Fifth, if the method of chanting and scattering grain can be used, it will be more conducive to the early death of the deceased and benefit future generations.
Sixth: Every place has its own customs and habits, and burial should also respect and be carried out in accordance with local customs and habits.