I deeply mourn the life-saving hero Fang Shenghu of Wuhan Sports Hospital. Does anyone know the detailed funeral customs of the Li people in Hainan?

I know a little bit. Let’s see if it helps you!

In the long history, the Li people gradually formed their own funeral customs. The Li people have always given priority to burials in the ground, and the funerals are grand. However, customs such as funeral rituals and taboos vary from place to place.

1. Funeral Ceremony

The Li people believe in ancestor worship and believe that everything in the world has a soul, the soul is immortal, and the soul still exists after death. Therefore, funeral management is serious and the procedures cannot be simplified. The funeral procedure has the following aspects:

1.1 Announcement of funeral

When the patient is dying, relatives gather around to listen to his instructions. When a person dies, relatives bring food and water to the deceased's mouth, and call on the deceased not to "leave" but to "come back to the world", indicating that the deceased has relatives who respect him and that he will have a mouthful of food when he leaves the world. The family members of the deceased mourned with wailing and gunfire, and sent personnel to spread the bad news. The funeral attendants wear their clothes backwards and notify relatives, uncles, and friends of the deceased to come to attend the funeral.

1.2 Cleansing

Relatives wash the face, hands and feet of the deceased with clean water, comb the hair and wear longevity clothes. The body was lying down with its hands and feet straight. The Li people in the joint-mu system areas and the Baisha Nankai area use charcoal to mark the tattooed parts of the dead woman's face after cleansing. This means that if a woman does not have her face tattooed, her ancestors in the underworld will not receive tattoos. people.

1.3 Funeral rites

There are two methods of burial rites. In areas such as the joint mu system, Nankai, Nanfeng and other areas, the body is buried and a memorial tablet is set; in Qiongzhong, Baoting and Ling In Shui, Sanya, Ledong, Dongfang, Changjiang and other areas, coffins are left to set up memorial tablets.

Mortuary position: The body of the deceased is placed at home, with the head of the male corpse facing the front door and the head of the female corpse facing the back door. A mat of exposed leaves is spread under the body, and covered with a yellow or gray felt quilt, or a dragon quilt (Li Brocade) for rich families. A silver dollar or a frog gong is placed under the body's head as a pillow. The man on the left and the woman on the right hold a silver dollar in their hands. It means that the deceased is rich and has money to pay the toll to the underworld. In Nanfeng area, ropes are tied to the lower legs of the deceased, which means that the deceased is not allowed to wander in the world and can walk the right path to his ancestors. Place a bowl of wine, two handfuls of rice, an ox or pig mandible and a kerosene lamp in the direction of the corpse's head. Place a kerosene lamp on one side of the corpse's feet. There are straw mats placed on both sides of the memorial tablet as seats for the wake members. Mortuary for 3 days.

Coffin placement: The wooden coffin is placed in the hall of the deceased's home, with a straw mat and black and white cloth as the bottom. The body is put into the coffin with its hands and feet straightened, and a silver dollar is placed on the head. The left hand holds a silver dollar, which is covered with black and white cloth and gray felt. After the coffin is covered, the coffin is covered with gray felt or dragon quilt. A kerosene lamp is lit at the beginning and end of the coffin (the kerosene lamp is not allowed to be extinguished before the funeral). Straw mats are spread around the coffin for the mourners to sit on, and the coffin remains for 3 days.

1.4 Wake

People generally keep the coffin at home for three days. During the wake, relatives of the deceased sat on both sides of the coffin in order of generation and cried bitterly and sang mourning songs. Everyone attending the funeral drank and sang mourning songs to recall the merits and demerits of the deceased during his lifetime. Relatives and friends who came from a distance to attend the funeral brought pigs, sheep, rice wine, money, etc. to the funeral site to express their condolences and sing mourning songs. The mourning song Li said "Wei Wu". The content of the funeral songs mainly describes the merits of the deceased and the pain of the living people losing their loved ones. The melody is sad and the charm is touching. During the wake, the lights were brightly lit, mourning songs were played, and the scene was very sad. It is forbidden for dogs, cats, chickens and other animals to cross the body of the deceased. For relatives and friends who come to express condolences, the bereaved family gives each person one yuan or puts a leaf in their pocket to express good luck to the living.

2． Burial style

2.1 Coffin

The burial custom of the Li people is earth burial. There are five types of coffins: wooden coffin, bamboo coffin, bark coffin, dew leaf mat coffin, and pottery urn coffin. The Li people in the Wuzhishan area mainly use single-wooden coffins. The Li people in the coastal plain area use thick wooden boards to make coffins. It is a custom in areas where there is a joint-acreage system that when a person dies, he goes up the mountain to cut down logs and dig out a single wooden coffin. Those who died abnormally, such as hanging, drowning, falling from a tree, or being struck by lightning, were regarded as causing trouble by "evil ghosts" and were buried in coffins with exposed lozenge leaves. The urn coffin was used to bury the remains of the deceased for the second time when digging and moving the grave (one pottery urn was used as the "mother coffin", and another pottery urn was placed upside down to cover the mouth of the mother coffin, which was called the "male coffin"). Lingshui and Sanya Li District have the custom of burial in urn coffins.

Except for areas where the joint-acreage system is not allowed to prepare coffins for the elderly, other Li districts have the custom of preparing coffins for the elderly.

2.2 Funeral

According to funeral customs, the dead are not allowed to be buried in the morning and noon. It is believed that people die like the sun sets, so funerals should be held in the afternoon.

The funeral ceremony will be held three days after the deceased's body or coffin has been laid in state.

For funerals in areas under the collective mu system: the body is wrapped in black or blue cloth, and then wrapped in a gray felt quilt and a rhizome leaf mat. Take five mangosteen sticks to make a carrying frame, and take one thick bamboo stick to carry it. Put the body into the carrying frame, put the carrying handle on it, and fix it in five sections with red vine pieces. A dragon quilt was placed on the coffin, two relatives carried it, and others helped it. During the funeral, an old woman who is a relative of the deceased walks in front of the funeral procession with a torch to open the way. Walking in front of the coffin is an Oya (an old man) who is well versed in the genealogy of ancestral ghosts. He is dressed in funeral clothes and carries two handfuls of rice on his shoulders, as well as mourning objects such as cow mandibles, pottery bowls, pots and pottery altars. Oya sang mourning songs while walking, asking the ancestor ghosts to lead the deceased to the underworld. Behind the coffin was a long funeral procession that fired earth guns and sang mourning songs.

Li District in plains and coastal areas: During the funeral, Oya presided over the ceremony, and four relatives of the deceased carried the coffin to the cemetery. The mourners carried wreaths made of leaves, as well as paper lanterns, cows, horses, sheep and other images of the deceased. Some funeral processions are one or two kilometers long. During the funeral of the Li people in Diaoluoshan and this area of ??Lingshui County, the deceased's youngest daughter sat on the coffin and covered the head of the coffin with an umbrella. The sons lie on the ground according to their seniority and let the coffin bearers pass over them to show their respect for the deceased. During funerals in the Daben area of ??Baoting County, sick old people or children sit on the coffin under an umbrella. This kind of funeral ceremony means that the living people are often sick because of the possession of "evil spirits". Through this ceremony, the "evil spirits" are buried together with the dead to bless the living in peace in the future.

2.3 Tombs

There are tombs with dense trees in Hemu Zhili District, Baisha Nankai, Changjiangwangxia, Dongfangjiang River and other places. That is to say, there are only tomb hills belonging to the same ancestral lineage. Trees on the tomb hills are not allowed to be cut down during normal times. Only when the dead are buried can roads be cut down. There are people who died normally and people who died abnormally in the tomb mountain. In other areas, there are cemeteries left by ancestors.

When he was buried, Oya first dug three hoes to determine the size of the grave, and everyone else followed suit. The acupuncture points are arranged according to the terrain and orientation, with the head of the grave facing the source of running water. Graves are generally 1.5 meters deep and 1 meter wide. After the grave is dug, Oya sweeps the grave with leaves, which means to call the souls of the living back from the grave and let the dead rest in peace. In areas where there is a joint-acreage system, the coffin is placed first and then the coffin is placed. Before the coffin is covered, the blanket is removed to allow relatives to pay homage to the remains of the deceased. After closing the coffin, Oya stood in front of the grave, calling out the name of the deceased and the names of his ancestors, asking them to take the deceased back. Those who participate in the funeral throw their own unlucky things, bad omens and other disasters into the coffin in the tomb by throwing leaves, indicating that the deceased will take away the disaster and the living will be safe. Then Oya covered the tomb with soil, and everyone filled the tomb with soil. The tomb is long and about 70 centimeters above the ground.

The coffin is placed on the grave and covered with thatch in a "Λ" shape on the left and right sides, indicating that a new house has been built for the deceased. After that, no digging or cutting of vegetation is allowed on the tomb. In the Ha dialect along the coast, when a person dies and digs a grave, "Sanbogong" takes his son who will hold the incense burner to the ancestral cemetery to "ask the soil", which means where the deceased is buried. After the "San Bo Gong" recited the incantation first, the "filial son" threw the egg to the ground. If the egg breaks, it means that he agrees to be buried here. If the egg does not break, he will choose another location. At the location where the egg was broken, "San Bogong" would first dig three times with a hoe, and then everyone would dig a hole at this location. The tombs in cemeteries in coastal and plain areas are cone-shaped, about 1.5 meters high, and have tombstones. Every year on Qingming Festival, there is a custom of sweeping graves. According to the funeral customs in the Hemu area, tools such as hoes and shovels used to dig graves for buried people are not allowed to be washed in the river. They must be taken back and placed at the funeral home. After the mourning period is over, they are washed in the river before being taken home.

3. Post-burial customs and taboos

3.1 Widows

In areas where there is a joint-tenure system, the wife of the deceased is taken back by her natal family on the day of her husband's funeral. He did not enjoy the property of his husband's family, but took away his luggage, his food rations for the year, and his weaned babies. This kind of marriage custom that does not leave the husband's family believes that it is unlucky for a widow to live in her deceased husband's family. After her death, she will not belong to her husband's family and her ancestors will not recognize her, and she will become a homeless hag in the underworld. For families where the wife dies, the husband's family will assist the mother-in-law of the mother-in-law's family to handle the deceased's funeral arrangements and bury the deceased in the tomb of the mother-in-law's family. In other Li districts, young people whose husbands have died remarry, and the old husband's family supports family management, and the children handle the aftermath.

3.2 Relics

After the folk bury the dead, they should take the items that the deceased used daily, such as clothes, bedding, straw hats, knife baskets, bows and arrows, and textile tools. The belongings of the male deceased will be placed under the big banyan tree at the edge of the village or next to the grave by the male elders of the family.

If the deceased is a woman, the old woman will place it. When placing the relics, ask the name of the deceased and tell him or her that all his or her belongings have been delivered and that he or she is not allowed to return to the human world to make any noise.

3.3 Filial Clothes

During the funeral period, relatives of the Li ethnic group must wear mourning clothes. Qi dialect in the Hemu system area and Run dialect in Baisha County, clothes are worn inside out during the filial piety period. The Kazakh and Meifu dialects in Ledong, Changjiang, Dongfang, Sanya and other places wear yellow linen filial piety clothes. People who speak Qi, Sai, Ha and other dialects in Qiongzhong, Baoting, Lingshui and other places wear black mourning clothes. During the period of mourning, you are not allowed to change clothes, take a bath, or go out to participate in funerals and various entertainment activities. Otherwise, it will be regarded as disrespectful to the deceased and the future will be unlucky. Nowadays, in some Lebanese districts, funerals are held with black veils.

3.4 Mourning period

It is a mourning custom in co-acreage areas. If someone dies in the village, all the adult men and women in the village will not eat rice for three days, and they will drink it at the funeral home every day. Filial piety wine, eating meat and vegetables, and singing mourning songs before and after meals express condolences to the deceased. If the deceased is a parent, the children will have 12 days of wine and filial piety from the day of mourning; the deceased brother will have 7 days of wine and filial piety; the deceased child will have five days of wine and filial piety. During the funeral, relatives of the deceased wear mourning clothes instead, and are not allowed to play gongs or drums, sing ballads or play wind instruments, work in planting, or go out to visit relatives and friends. On the morning when the mourning period expires, relatives of the deceased go to the river to cleanse themselves, change clothes, and wash the tools such as burial hoes in the river, which means that the clean water can wash away evil spirits. Then, pigs and chickens are killed to offer sacrifices to the ancestors and to drive away evil spirits and attract good fortune. A banquet is held at the deceased's home to entertain relatives and friends who have supported the funeral, and to discuss matters such as the support of the deceased's children and the inheritance of property.

For the Li people in other areas, the mourning period lasts for seven days. During the filial piety period, except that eating rice is not taboo, other funeral rules are the same as those in areas with the mu system.

4. Special burial systems

As for the funeral customs of the Li people, funeral rites and burial styles vary from region to region. The special burial systems include the following:

4.1 "Soul Coffin"

In the Ha dialect in the Gaofeng area of ??Sanya City, when conducting funerals, for the previous deceased who did not hold a "Buddha" ceremony (that is, no funeral ceremony), the "soul coffin" of the subsequent deceased will be filled. That is, two coffins are placed in the coffin. The left coffin contains the body of the deceased, and the right coffin is the soul coffin of the deceased. When a funeral is held, it is carried out according to the burial ceremony. Qi Dialect children in the Daben area of ??Baoting County are often sick and are considered to be haunted by "evil spirits". On their children's birthdays, their parents kill chickens and ask the "Taoist" to make a "soul coffin" for their children. That is, they took the "Linen" grass from the mountain, made a small coffin, caught a cockroach and put it in the coffin, and the whole family cried and buried the "soul coffin". This kind of funeral ceremony is believed to bury the evil spirit and bring peace to the living.

4.2 Sharing the tomb

In the Li funeral ceremony in Hongfeng area of ??Qichai Township in Changjiang, there is a custom of sharing the tomb together for one family. That is, when the son dies, he is buried in his father's grave. This is a stacked coffin. This funeral custom of stacking coffins believes that father and son will end up in the same family in the afterlife.

4.3 Percussion Funeral Ceremony

Qi Dialect funeral customs in the Baoting Xinzheng area require killing cattle and pigs, setting up funeral mats, and burying the body at home for seven days. During the wake, gongs and drums were played all night long. This funeral ceremony expresses condolences for the deceased. In Lingshui area, there is a mourning custom in the Kazakh dialect. The coffin is kept at home for 12 days. The family members shed tears of grief and the men and women sitting at the funeral banquet outside the door sang in antiphony. While performing Buddhist rituals at home while the body was being laid to rest, they danced the firewood dance at night. The deceased are remembered with songs and dances.

4.4 The funeral custom of "making seven Buddhas"

In the Ha dialect of Nanlin Township in Baoting and the peak area of ??Sanya, the funeral custom of "making seven Buddhas" is popular. The so-called "seven Buddhist practices" means that the burial ceremony must be performed seven times, totaling eighty-four days. Twelve days from the day of mourning are counted as a "seven", and a mourning ceremony must be held for each "seven". The funeral ceremony involves praying to the Buddha, that is, after the expiration of the "seven" period, a Buddha ceremony is held. It takes one day and one night to become a Buddha, and the scene is grand. Relatives and friends should bring wine, paper lanterns, white cloth and other mourning items to the bereaved family. When a family performs a funeral ceremony, people from all over the world come to attend, and the bereaved family holds a banquet to receive the funeral. Inside the house, the bereaved family mourns and grieves, while outside the house, young men and women sing and flirt and make noise, presenting a scene of mourning and joy. This method of mourning believes that after death, the soul of a person becomes a Buddha in the underworld, and that all living people in the world should be happy.

4.5 Funeral rites and ceremonies for abnormal deaths

The Li people believe that there are auspicious and evil spirits in the world, and those who die abnormally are regarded as "evil ghosts". Caused by. In Li language, it is called "Wuzhi". Those who died abnormally in the village were not allowed to be buried in the ancestral tomb; those who died outside were buried on the spot, and their bodies were not allowed to be carried into the village. In areas where there is a joint-acreage system, those who died abnormally are buried in red mourning clothes.

When the Kazakh dialect in the East buries an abnormal death, the body is buried upside down and wooden sticks are nailed to the top of the grave. This burial custom means that "evil ghosts" will not be allowed to come out to cause trouble in the world. People of the Li ethnic group regard cemeteries where abnormal deaths are buried as places they are afraid to enter, fearing that "unusual" ghosts will haunt them.

5. Burial objects and sacrifices

The Li people live in a tropical area with lots of wind and rain, and the ground is moist. In addition, the Li society has been in a state of low productivity for a long time. Judging from the funeral customs of the Li people and the relics unearthed from the tombs, the burial objects are The products are mainly bamboo and wooden furniture, linen and cotton fabrics and ceramics. These bamboo and wood furniture and linen and cotton fabrics are perishable, and only the ceramics remain. In folk funeral rituals and burial styles of the Li ethnic group, it is forbidden to put iron or bronze utensils into the coffin for burial. Only the deceased's clothes, straw hats, knife baskets and other living and production utensils are placed next to the tomb. The funerary objects placed next to the tomb include: a jar, a pot, a pottery bowl, or a porcelain bowl.

Funeral sacrifices in the joint-acre area are divided into two levels. For those whose coffins are made of wooden coffins, cows are killed during the funeral and the cow's mandible is placed at the top of the grave. If the coffin of the deceased is a bamboo coffin or a bark coffin, only pig mandibles are used as sacrifices. If the coffin is a straw mat coffin, there will be no sacrifices in the tomb.

In other Li districts, an altar is set up in the tomb, with an incense burner and three small ceramic cups. The offerings are pork or chicken, white wine, rice, as well as incense and money.

6. Post-burial rituals and taboos

The Li people call the funeral day of their dead parents "Wan Mao" (that is, the forbidden day). "Wanmao" is banned for seven years. The days are calculated according to the Li calendar zodiac. During the "Wanmao" period, it is taboo to plant seeds, build a house, get married, install a stove, and install a bed. On the day of mourning, rice, sugar cane, plantains, bamboo, etc. are planted, with seven trees of each species planted. When all these crops have grown (that is, each tree is alive), the "Wanmao" forbidden day can be lifted. In areas under the joint-acreage system, the "Wanmao" forbidden day is lifted, pigs are killed to worship ancestors, and the dead are included in the "ghost genealogy" of the clan line. There is also a banquet, a gathering of people beating gongs and drums, singing ancestral songs, and performing lucky dances. Other Li districts. On the anniversary of the death of parents, chickens are killed as sacrifices, and the "Taoist" is asked to set up a ghost tablet for the deceased. Every Qingming Festival, people worship and sweep graves. It is forbidden to place dead objects or build houses in the cemetery of the deceased. It is forbidden among the people to publicly mention the names of dead parents, otherwise it is considered unlucky.