Traditional Chinese funeral customs are generally a mixture of primitive concepts and feudal concepts, which have been circulated among the people for thousands of years, forming local customs and people's feelings.
1.1 Jianghan Plain: gongs and drums are the same as weddings and funerals
On Jianghan Plain, people usually play gongs and drums for weddings and funerals of the dead, but the customs in Haokou Town, Qianjiang are special. No matter whether they are married or funerals, they only play gongs and drums.
Legend has it that once upon a time, there was a county grandfather in Qianjiang who was a famous goat. As soon as he heard the horn sounded, he ordered his men to drag the bride into the county government for one night, and many young men and women lost their lives fighting against it.
A poor scholar had a brainwave before marrying his wife, and greeted her with funeral drum music, that is, only those who played gongs and drums and set off firecrackers were invited to the wedding, but those who were not invited. Sure enough, the poor scholar married his daughter-in-law safely, but the county grandfather was completely ignorant.
Later, people learned to marry like a poor scholar, and after a long time, it gradually became a custom. Not when you are still married in Qianjiang area.
1.2 Jingzhou: please drink the soul-forgetting soup for the king of Yan.
"Go out for three or five miles, and you will find a local flavor everywhere". The funeral customs in Jingzhou counties are different and have their own characteristics. It is said that the terrifying sent the "impermanence" to recruit those who have been written off in the book of life and death. Therefore, there is a custom in Songzi county: when the patient is dying, his relatives should ask a strong man to hold a sword and sit around the bed, and put a fishing net on the bed, saying that this can prevent impermanence from approaching the patient. Once a person dies, his family members burn "gas-falling paper" outside the door. This is a straw sandals fee for Yin Cha, so that he should not be too rude when escorting the ghost; People also ask the monks to "open the way" and burn paper cars and paper horses for the dead to walk instead of walking; The purpose of "opening the throat" is to let the dead eat in the underworld.
There is another custom in Xiantao area. After death, a few pieces of tea are put in the mouth of the deceased. Legend has it that people don't forget their loved ones after they die, and they cry every day and refuse to go to see the king of hell. Yan made a kind of "forget the soul soup", put some tea leaves in the soup, and sent a hag to persuade the dead to drink. The dead man cried dry, thinking that the tea was served, and he took it and drank it. As a result, he forgot everything and went to see the dead.
somehow, the family of the deceased knew about it. They didn't want the deceased to forget their loved ones, so they tried to fool the hag. Put some tea leaves in the deceased's mouth in advance, and when the hag came to persuade him to drink "Forgetting Soup", he saw tea residue in the deceased's mouth and thought he had drunk "Forgetting Soup". So that the dead will not forget their loved ones.
1.3 Huanggang, Northeast Hubei: A husband dies, a wife dies and a sister cries
There is a peculiar custom in Huanggang, Northeast Hubei. No matter whether the husband dies or the wife loses her husband, when they cry, they always say "My sister!" Why not call them sisters instead of husband and wife? It is said that this is a custom handed down from ancient times.
according to legend, when the world was split, there was no one in the world. Wondering how to make a man, when I looked up and saw the sun and the moon, I asked them to get married and have children.
Sister Moon is a clever girl. Hearing this, she turned pale with fear and quickly hid in the Woods. Brother Sun blushed and shouted, "We are brother and sister, how can we be married?" Said: "There is no one in the world, what do you want the sun and the moon to do? Tell you what, I have a pair of stone mills here. Each of you takes a mill and rolls it from the sky to the ground. If you run in together, you will be married. If you can't get together, you will still be brothers and sisters. " The sun nodded in agreement.
Give the mill to the sun and the moon, and they lift it and roll it down, secretly using their hands a little, and the rolling mill just fits together. Said, "This is God's will, so you have to do it." The sun is still hesitating, afraid of jokes from future generations, and gives him a needle and says, "If someone dares to look at you and smile, you can prick his eyes with a needle."
Brother Sun and Sister Moon are married. Since then, couples in the world have been called brothers and sisters. Future generations also dare not look at the sun, and it hurts when they look at their eyes.
1.4 Manmei: Bind the deceased to a chair
There is a strange custom in Manmei, that is, after death, people should put the body on a chair, tie it up with a rope, and put a small square table in front of the deceased. Why is there such a custom
It is said that once upon a time there was a daughter-in-law who often abused her mother-in-law. When she was old, she had to swallow it.
Soon, my mother-in-law died, and the body was put on a chair. Relatives and friends came to mourn, and my daughter-in-law went to the chair to cry. Unexpectedly, her mother-in-law haunted her, jumped up from her chair and hugged her daughter-in-law desperately, but people couldn't get rid of her.
The daughter-in-law knew that her mother-in-law had died and remembered her unfilial behavior, so she had to tell her how she abused her mother-in-law one by one in front of many villagers. Everyone knelt down to plead for their daughter-in-law, and her mother-in-law slowly loosened her hand and sat in the chair.
Later, people were afraid that this would happen again, so they tied the dead to a chair and put a table in front of them, so that the dead could not jump.
1.5 Tujia people: Happy to jump at the funeral to see off the dead
Jumping at the funeral is a unique funeral custom of Tujia people, which is also called "dispelling worries" and "living in the same place". This custom of dancing in front of the dead for a night of mourning and encouragement is said to have been handed down by Ba people.
In Tujia mountain village, no matter which family lost the old man, the neighbors came from each family regardless of fatigue and danced for the dead one night. Changyang has such a proverb: "I hear the funeral drums ringing in the middle of the night, whether it is the south or the north, you are the south and I want to go, and you are the north and I want to go. I can't afford tofu and I can't afford it." The family of the deceased also prepared the wedding wine early to make room for the funeral, parked the coffin of the deceased in the middle of the hall, and put a big cowhide drum in the left front of the coffin.
With the sound of "three guns" outside the door, groups of men, women and children poured into the hall, inviting each other in the open space in front of the coffin and dancing while standing on the drums. Their heads, hands, shoulders, waist, arms, feet and feet move in coordination and dance with varied steps. They high-five each other from time to time; Sometimes wear elbows around the back; Sometimes twist your shoulders and wipe your back; Sometimes the lips touch the ground, saying that it is "the swallow contains mud"; Sometimes squat down on tiptoe and spin; Sometimes play with each other; Sometimes silent; Sometimes whistling and singing. It's hard to tell whether it's joy or sorrow. However, Tujia people have such a habit: to accompany the dead with excitement and to hold funerals with joy.
1.6 Wuhan: Tomb Sweeping Wonder in Qingming Festival
Every time before and after Qingming Festival, the cemetery areas such as Shimen Peak, Biandan Mountain and Jiu Feng, which have always been quiet, suddenly become lively. The sound of cars, firecrackers, crying and laughing, as well as the shouts of vendors calling incense sticks, paper threads and food, spread all over the fields. I saw that the mountain was full of smoke and fire, and there were people from the foot of the mountain to the top of the mountain, forming a unique custom landscape of sacrifice and sweeping in Wuhan.
what Wu values most is temple sacrifice and mountain sacrifice. Once upon a time, wealthy families had to burn 91 Jin of paper money to show their support for the deceased's "narrow escape", and they also had to order 9 sticks of incense and 9 red candles. The food they offered must have meat buns and sweet cake, so that the deceased would not be pestered by vicious dogs when he was reincarnated and walked out of the underworld.
Of course, most of these old rules no longer exist today, but Wu still retains some traditional customs, only changing them in form. For example, when sweeping the grave, people take their family and friends for an outing. After the sacrifice, people sit around and eat a cage of wine, food or bread and cold drinks, then go for an outing in spring and dig wild vegetables while chatting. It is said that this kind of wild vegetables can make people avoid evil spirits and prevent diseases after eating. Some families don't have family graves, but they also come to the suburbs with grave-sweepers, choose an elegant place, draw a circle on the spot with branches, and use it as the tomb of their ancestors to burn paper and incense, then sit on the floor and have a picnic, and finally walk in the countryside. This kind of family takes sweeping as the second time and outing as the main thing.
funeral custom: funeral period
funeral period refers to the period from death to coffin. Filial piety occupies a very important position in China traditional culture and is regarded as the foundation of virtue. Confucius said to Ceng Zi, a disciple who is famous for his filial piety, more than 2, years ago: "When a husband is filial, he will serve his relatives, and he will serve the monarch, and finally he will be established." However, since ancient times, the universal standard to measure "filial piety" mainly depends on its attitude towards parents' "living, raising and burying", so the characteristics of filial piety are very obvious from the beginning of funeral rites.
All people who are 5 years old or are "grandparents" should "go to the hall" when they are dying, that is, let them lie on a simple bed made up of four bed boards at the side of their home or ancestral hall, with their children, grandchildren and daughter-in-law waiting for them to die. When the deceased is about to die, relatives should change the shroud and put on shoes and socks while crying, and act quickly. If it is too late to die, it is suspected that "the deceased can't get it". After the death of the deceased, he immediately covered his body and face with his sheet, and his relatives wailed around the body, and the funeral service began.
When the filial piety man went out, he retrieved a piece of soil from the pool, the bank or the intersection, used tiles to retrieve it, put incense on the soil, and put it on the ground at the foot end of the corpse to show that "it is safe for people to die in the ground", and put a bowl of rice with a pair of bamboo chopsticks on it, which is called "foot-tail rice" or "raw rice". Relatives should continue to burn incense and paper (paper money used in the underworld) to prepare enough "travelling expenses" for the dead to go to the underworld. In order to make the deceased walk towards the light, it is still necessary to light a white candle or an oil lamp, and be careful not to put it out, which is called "lighting the foot and tail candle". If you add the "birthday celebration" (commonly known as "birthday celebration") that was erected a hundred years after the deceased's preparation before his death, and the "paper festival" that was burned when he was doing meritorious deeds after his death (including all kinds of daily necessities with paper, even servants and cars), it can be said that it is a great help to the deceased's clothes, food and cars.
A funeral home should hang a piece of white cloth on the gate, or cover it with white paper at the place where the original red couplet was posted, so that people around it can know it, and send a message to relatives in other places or overseas, so that children can hear the news and attend the funeral. Among them, it is especially prudent to report the funeral to the relatives in marriage. In ancient China, it was popular for ethnic groups to get married outside the family, but not with the same surname, so joint marriage became an extremely important emotional bond to strengthen the relationship between tribes, clans, families and surnames. Therefore, when describing the function of marriage in Book of Rites, the first emphasis is "the harmony of two surnames". However, the results of joint marriage often have twists and turns because of the unfortunate death of one party. In Quanzhou, some in-laws died because they suspected that their daughters were abused in their in-laws' homes (some of them were true), so they gathered troops to go to their in-laws to "eat people's lives". Therefore, when people hold funerals for female elders, they pay great attention to in-laws and form some corresponding customs, which are recorded in detail in the newly compiled Anxi County Records and Customs Records.
before the funeral, the filial male elder should carry a small bucket, lead the whole family to a nearby public well to beg for water as soon as possible, return to the door, fetch a bowl of water, wash the body in the house, dump the rest of the water outside the door, and then "offer a memorial service" for the deceased, and then enter the funeral. At the time of burial, all the five elements and the deceased should be avoided, so as not to make a "rush". After the funeral, the filial sons and daughters need to send the daily necessities used by the deceased to the suburbs or outside the village for incineration, commonly known as "sending grass" or "sending feet and tails". After the event, the Taoist priest will perform some fierce and exorcist ceremonies indoors and outdoors, commonly known as "collecting Wu" (or at the end of the wake)