The portraits are generally put away and put out during memorial ceremonies.

What are the first seven:

On the seventh day after a person dies, his soul will return home to pay his last respects. The family will prepare his favorite food and food for the deceased. To pay last respects, the Chinese call this day the first seven days.

The first seven days, the Chinese funeral customs, are based on the time of death of the deceased, and the days and hours calculated based on the heavenly stems and earthly branches. However, it is customary for everyone to believe that the "first seven days" refer to the death of a person. The seventh day after. It is generally believed that the soul of the deceased will return home on the "first seven days". Family members should prepare a meal for the soul of the deceased before the soul returns, and then avoid it. The best way is to sleep. If you can't sleep, you should hide in bed. ; If the soul of the deceased sees his family members, it will make him miss him, which will affect his reincarnation as a human being. It is also said that when returning home at midnight on the first seven days, family members should burn something in the shape of a ladder at home to let the soul follow this "ladder" to heaven.

How to pay homage to your loved ones on the first seven days?

The "First Seven" is handled by the son, the "Two Seven" is the Xiao Qi, the "Three Seven" is the responsibility of the married daughter, the "Four Seven" is also the Xiao Qi, and the "Wu Qi" is the sacrifice of the married granddaughter. "Liu Qi" is also Xiao Qi, and "Qi Qi" is also called "Man Qi" or "Yuan Qi". It is handled by the son from beginning to end, and the merits are complete. Due to the development of industry and commerce, modern people are busy with work, so they tend to shorten the 7749 days. Taking the shortening to 24 days as an example, the method is seven days each in the "first seven" and "77", with every two days in between. "Seven" means twenty-four days. During the period of mourning, there is no festival before the funeral, and no worship is allowed on the anniversary of the ancestor's death. Except for those who have reached a certain age, the last seven is seven or forty-nine days. People who have not yet reached the end of their life are the so-called "dead people who are passing their days soon". Generally, they start from the second seven and shorten it to six days. Therefore, in fact, the last seven is the third day. Forty-three days.

Procedures to be followed after death

Before the founding of the People's Republic of China, the people paid great attention to funeral rituals, which were complicated and extravagant and full of feudal superstition. According to the custom, the grandness of the funeral is regarded as the standard of filial piety for the children. The burial custom is to be buried in a wooden coffin. Children, nieces and nephews all wear mourning mourning. The mourning period for children is three years, and the mourning period for nephews and grandchildren is one year. The children are not allowed to have their heads shaved or put on makeup for one year, which is called "disfigurement due to grief." No Spring Festival couplets will be posted at home during the Chinese New Year for three years. The main procedures of the funeral ceremony include small coffin, coffin mourning, mourning announcement, large coffin, burial ceremony, hanging ceremony, funeral ceremony, setting up sacrifices, burial and post-burial round grave, making a memorial ceremony, death anniversary sacrifices, etc. The funeral schedule can range from five to seven days to as long as half a month, which is very expensive. In ordinary families, when a person reaches the age of 50, the younger generation will start making shrouds, making coffins (called "longevity coffins" and "happy coffins"), repairing graves, and preparing funeral arrangements for the elderly, which is considered filial piety.

1. Small coffin

When the deceased is about to die, the family members quickly clean the body and put on the shroud for the deceased, which is commonly known as "small coffin". The shroud is made of cotton or silk, and should be made of cotton or silk. Avoid using satin and fur materials, and avoid using black as the color. The number of pieces of clothing should be single rather than double. The best ones have seven collars, and some only wear three or two pieces. Sew on a few more collars. Cloth strips should be fastened to the shroud, but buttons should not be fastened. After putting on the shroud, put a copper coin or a pearl in the mouth of the deceased, and then let the deceased hold the coin in one hand and a millet pancake in the other, called "dog pancake". Legend has it that the deceased can deal with hungry ghosts and evil dogs in the underworld. used. Cover the deceased with a quilt and cover his face with yellow paper or white cloth. Then, the coffin is moved to the middle of the main room. An offering table is set up in front of the coffin, and a bowl full of half-cooked dry millet rice is served, which is called "top rice". After the family members burned incense, burned paper and expressed condolences, the children knelt beside the coffin to accompany the deceased. At this time, it is "obeying the rituals and becoming attire".

2. Reporting the funeral

After a person dies, immediately send people to the homes of relatives, friends, and neighbors to report the funeral. Most of the upper-class families in the city send out invitations first and ask relatives and friends to help with the funeral. Those who handle funerals include the Prime Minister, who is in charge of funeral affairs, as well as the inner cabinet, the outer cabinet, the kitchen manager, the acquaintances, etc. The Prime Minister sends "long notices" and obituaries to relatives and friends. The format of the obituary requires appropriate titles. All names are male. If the father dies, he is called "orphan son", if the mother dies, he is called "ailing son", and both parents are called "lonely son". Some official and business families also issued "condolences" and "death reports" along with the obituary. A mourning notice is a notice signed by a filial son detailing the deceased's life, good words and deeds; a deed is a biography written by a famous person for the deceased, which is used to collect obituaries, sacrificial inscriptions, inscriptions, etc. A white note is affixed diagonally to the front door and house door of the bereaved family, which is called "door sealing". Then use a 2-foot-long piece of straw to clip a few pieces of fire paper and insert it on the door frame. Male mourners are placed on the left, and female mourners are placed on the right, which is called "chudangao" to indicate that there is a funeral in the family.

3. Wearing mourning clothes

Commonly known as "wearing mourning clothes". Members of the deceased's family wear white cloth robes, and white cloth covers are sewn on the shoes. They are called "filial piety clothes" and "clothing shoes" respectively, and are collectively called "broken filial piety". The son, wife and unmarried daughter of the deceased should wear a linen scarf and tie a hemp rope outside the filial piety clothes. The filial son should wear a white cloth turban on his head, add a hemp beam crown, and hang two cotton balls next to the turban, as if the father is still alive on the right. Nails, if the mother is still alive, are nailed on the left side, which means extreme sorrow and deafness. A filial wife and a filial daughter have their heads tied with white cloth (called Bai Zhenzi) and white hair rope. In the old days, the mourning dress system was divided into five categories: Zhan Shei, Qi Shei, Da Gong, Xiao Gong and Qi Ma, which were collectively referred to as the "Five Clothes". Zhansheng is the heaviest mourning dress, with a service period of 3 years; Qisheng is second to Zhansheng, with a service period of 1 year; Dagong is worn for 9 months, Xiaogong is worn for 5 months, and Qi Ma is worn for 3 months.

4. Guiding the way

On the night of the death, the family buys various paper bundles (commonly known as colorful ribbons) and burns them outside the gate. If the deceased is a male, the paper-wrapped horse and groom should be burned; if the deceased is a female, the paper-wrapped sedan and sedan bearers should be burned. When burning, the children circled the fire 3 times forward and 3 times backwards, shouting the name of the deceased and shouting: "Go to the southwest!" to guide the souls, also known as "burning the head of the son of a man".

5. Reporting to the temple

Also known as "sending pulp water". On the day of death, a filial son leads his descendants to carry a wooden tray, put an incense burner, incense sticks, fire paper on it, and a bucket of water, go to the earth temple or crossroads, burn incense and paper, and pour water to pay homage. Legend has it that after a person dies, he must first go to the Earth Temple and then go to the underworld. This was done to bribe the land lord to take care of the souls who went to the underworld, and to give gifts of liquid to wild ghosts so that the souls would not be bullied. The syrup and water had to be delivered for three consecutive days. The last time, my son-in-law and nephew also went together. After sending off the water, I returned home crying, and then burned incense and paper to express my condolences.

6. Send the travel expenses

After sending the water, the next step is to send the travel expenses, that is, to send the travel expenses to the souls traveling westward. In urban areas, people usually burn some gold and silver paper foil folded ingots, ingots and burning paper with money stamps on them at the street entrance not far from the gate, and in rural areas at the crossroads outside the village. In addition, they burn some paper ribbons. , Tiecai includes cows, horses, sedan chairs, gold mountains, silver mountains, treasure trays, etc. When burning, family members pay homage to the deceased to send off their souls to the West.

7. Pick up three, send three away

On the third night after the death, family members carry wooden trays with incense burners, incense sticks and burning paper inside, and go outside the gate, facing the southwest. Light the incense stick and put it up on the wall. The family members kneel down and worship on the ground. One person pulls out the stick from the door frame, uses the straw holding the stick to pick up the incense stick, puts it into a plate, takes it home and puts it in front of the altar. Burning it together with the incense sticks means that you have taken the ghost back home. At this time, the whole family should be silent, offer food in front of the spirit, kneel down and worship in turn, retreat outside, close the door, wait for about an hour before opening the door again, burn incense and paper, kneel and worship, put the incense burner on the wooden plate, and hold it. Go outside the gate and kneel down to the southwest to send the soul of the deceased away and then go home to mourn. This move is regarded as bringing the dead soul back home, inspecting it and then sending it back to the underworld. It is commonly known as "picking up three souls" and "sending three souls away". The ancient ritual is called "calling the soul".

8. Big coffin

Commonly known as "coffin". After a person dies, the family will paint the prepared coffin. The coffins placed by wealthy families are mostly made of cypress, followed by fir, which require three or four coats of oil and paint. Poor families mostly use thin-board coffins made of willow wood with only a layer of black paint on the outside, commonly known as "big-headed boxes." During the burial, the coffin is carried to the side of the coffin. Several people lift the deceased, first move the mattress and pillows into the coffin, and then slowly put the body into the coffin. At this time, the family members again use cotton balls dipped in wine to cleanse the face of the deceased and make the deceased close his eyes and mouth. The family members must bear the grief and not shed tears on the face of the deceased. Then put the burial objects into the coffin. Before the Republic of China, wealthy families mostly used gold, silver and jewelry as burial objects; after that, the use of valuables as burial objects gradually became less common. After the burial objects are placed, the coffin is immediately closed and pinned. At this time, the children should kneel down and pray: "Dad (Mom)! Put the nails in!" Otherwise, it is said that the nails will not be easy to enter. White lead oil is used to write on the coffin head "the coffin of a certain official with a certain word, a certain line, and a certain number". In rural areas, only the word "福" in white or red paint is written on the coffin head. In the late Qing Dynasty, if someone had an official position during his lifetime, a whole piece of red satin, with the highest official title of the deceased written on it with white lead powder, would be used to cover the coffin.

9. Pointing the Lord

After the burial, the family makes a wooden tablet for the deceased and calls it the "Holy Lord". It is also an ancestral tablet for future generations to offer sacrifices to. In the homes of wealthy officials and businessmen, a solemn ceremony of writing and naming the book should be held during the funeral. The bereaved family first asks someone to write a deity card. The deity card is about 2 inches wide and 6 inches high. In the middle line, write "Xiankao (concubine) the deity of the monarch of such-and-such house". Next to it, write the date and time of his birth and death. The signature should be " A filial man worships someone." The word "lord" is written without dotting the upper point, leaving it to the "dot master" person to dot it with a ballpoint pen. The dotting master must be a well-known person, but it cannot be a law enforcement official who has held the power of life and death, such as a prefect or county magistrate, because it is taboo that he has dotted on the names of death row prisoners. When the Lord is called, the person singing the praises will guide the person, and two distinguished guests will accompany the person who calls the Lord. They will use a brush dipped in pearl sand to dot the dots above the word "lord". After the order is finished, the filial son should take off his filial piety, wear plain clothes and a red felt, kneel and kowtow to express his thanks, and hold a banquet to entertain the book owner, order master and Xiang Dian guests.

10. Hanging

Hanging is the biggest funeral during the moribund period. On the day of mourning, relatives and friends come to pay homage to the deceased, which is called "mourning" or "filial piety". The eldest son of the deceased kneels on the left side in front of the soul to answer the salute, and the nephews kneel on the right side. "Zhang Qisheng" (Zhang is a stick held during the mourning period; Qi is a year of mourning. Those who wear a stick during the period are called "Zhang Qi"; those who do not use a stick are called "No Zang Qi", such as a legitimate son mourning a concubine. "Husband" For the wife, if the parents are not present, they are also called "Zhang Qisheng") or "Qifu brother" standing on the left side of the altar, and "Buzhang Qisheng" or "Qifu brother" stands under the altar on the right, facing each other. The guests bowed in gratitude. The female family members knelt on both sides of the coffin and cried in unison when mourning the guests. A worship mat was set up in front of the coffin. There is a custom in Jinan that the female mourners should first cry and then bow, and the male mourners should kowtow or bow three times. The opening of the memorial ceremony lasts for one to three days. During this period, there is an accounting office dedicated to accepting "living gifts". Those who offer sacrifices usually send burning paper, tin foil, memorial tents, etc., and some also send elegiac couplets, Mingyang notes, etc. 40 After the 1930s, cash was mostly given. During the funeral, the bereaved family hired music troupes to play mourning music, and some even invited monks and Taoist priests to recite sutras to help the souls of the dead.

11. Warm pot

Before liberation, rural families usually brought pans, firewood, cooking oil and mixed cake dough to the funeral on the night before the deceased was buried. Pancakes are fried in front of dug graves, which is commonly known as "warming pot" for the deceased. After the cake is fried, it is taken home and eaten by the whole family in front of the deceased, which is called having the last meal with the deceased. This custom disappeared after liberation.

12. Faying

Commonly known as "funeral", "mourning", "mourning", etc., it is the last funeral ceremony before burying the deceased. There are two types of funerals: major funerals and minor funerals. In the old days, there were flag poles that specialized in funeral arrangements. Generally, only eight people are used to carry out the funeral, and several trumpeters play the funeral music. In large funerals, there are 16 people to support the funeral, multiple trumpeters and several pairs of honor guards. The largest funeral has 24 or 32 people to support the funeral, and the maximum number is 48 or 64 people to support the funeral, but it is rare. The honor guard includes pairs of wooden painted gourds, axes, stirrups and snow willows, plain flags, etc. Some honor guards can be placed as far as one kilometer away.

In the early morning of the day, the bereaved family, relatives and friends hold ribbons to pay their respects. At noon, when the coffin is launched, the minister of ceremony smashes the bowl containing the rice, which is called "Ci Ling". After that, a strong pole puller faces forward and carries the coffin. 8 people are on the left and right of the coffin, and 1 is at the end of the coffin, all with both hands. Holding the bottom of the coffin, with the sign of throwing bowls, 10 people lifted the coffin, and the bereaved men and women fell to the ground and howled loudly. The coffin bearers followed the leader of the pole bearers to knock the bang as a signal, and carried the coffin to the outside of the gate. They placed the coffin on the large pole frame and covered it with a coffin cover. The filial son cried and knelt in front of the pole, the eldest son played the "soul-leading flag" and smashed an earthen basin (commonly known as "Fa Yin"), and then the pole bearers began to carry the coffin forward. The order of the honor guard for a great funeral is: at the front are the paper-made path-breaking ghosts and pioneer gods; followed by the elegiac couplets, snow willow team, featurette team, Mingjing Pavilion, and video pavilion; then are the trumpeters and monks mourning the sutras; and then are the funeral monks. Among them are the male relatives and friends who are buried in front of the coffin. Among them, the son-in-law of the deceased will stick a small bat cut out of red paper on the arm sleeve of his mourning clothes and scatter "buying money" along the road. Behind the male relatives and friends are those who are wearing heavy mourning clothes and holding a hand in mourning. The filial son and grandson of the stick lead the coffin forward. Behind the coffin are the eldest son-in-law carrying cakes in a mourning robe and the female family members in mourning clothes. Along the way, there are road sacrifices arranged by relatives and friends, and filial sons should kneel down to receive them and thank them. The funeral procession first carries the coffin westward after leaving home, goes around the streets and through the city, and then carries it out of the city to the cemetery for burial.

13. Burial

In the old days, most middle- and upper-class families had their own family cemeteries, also known as woodlands and ancestral tombs. People in urban areas of Jinan mostly ask professionals from the Banner Bank to handle burial matters; for people in rural areas, it is done by mature men among the villagers. Most of the tombs in Jinan area are "channeling holes", that is, you first go down into a straight (vertical) pit, and then dig out a horizontal cave along the bottom of the pit. When buried, the coffin is hung into a straight pit, then pushed into a horizontal cave, the cave entrance is sealed with a stone slab, and the grave soil is piled on the straight pit in the shape of a horse and hyena. Wealthy people used bricks and stones to make the top of their tombs, which were called "Dafa Ding". Most people use bricks and stones to build a straight pit into a stone box. After lowering the coffin, they cover the top with a stone and pile the grave soil on the stone box. It is commonly known as "Jinjingzi". The simplest method is to dig a straight pit that can accommodate the coffin, and pile the grave soil on the coffin, which is commonly known as "straight pit". When covering the earth, a person with status in the family should shovel the first shovel of earth first, and then everyone will lift the earth, pile up the grave, and set up a monument in front of the tomb.

14. Sacrifice after the burial

Three days after the burial, the family members go to the tomb with sacrifices to worship, commonly known as the "round grave." Starting from the day of death, people have to visit the grave to offer sacrifices every seven days until May 7th, with May 7th being the most solemn. When Wuqi goes to the grave, the daughter of the deceased will cry. Legend has it that the daughter's cry can move the five halls of Yama and let the soul of the deceased pass. After that, on the 100th day, the anniversary and every year during the Qingming Festival, the 15th day of the seventh lunar month, and the first day of October, the family will go to the grave to pay their respects.

After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the funeral custom of wooden coffins was still followed, and the cumbersome and superstitious funeral rituals were gradually simplified. In the 1960s, Jinan built a crematorium and gradually promoted cremation. In general funerals, after a person dies, the family sends an obituary notice to relatives and friends. Family members wear black gauze on their arms, mourners wear small white paper flowers on their chests, present wreaths, and hang elegiac couplets. Generally, the corpse will be kept for 3 days, and then the deceased will be transported to the crematorium and a memorial service or farewell ceremony will be held to the body. The time for holding the farewell ceremony depends on the family situation of the deceased. If there are still elderly people in the family of the deceased, the farewell ceremony will be held in the morning, otherwise it will be held in the afternoon. After cremation, some will store the ashes in the urn at the crematorium, while others will take them home or bury them in the fields. In recent years, more and more people are buying urns for burial in cemeteries. When handling funerals, some families still follow the old funeral customs of kowtowing to announce the funeral and burning paper to pay homage to the deceased.