What are the traditional funeral rituals?

For different ethnic groups and different regions, the customs and habits are very different. It is the so-called "different customs ten miles apart"

The old funeral tradition of the Han people emphasizes heavy burials and rich burials, and is mixed with many superstitious customs. Burial in coffins has been popular among the Han people since ancient times. The funeral is grand and carried out in three stages: exhumation, funeral and burial.

Encourage means dressing the corpse and placing it in the coffin. When a person dies for the first time and before he is buried, the soul of the deceased must be summoned and bathed. There are two steps of burial: small coffin and large coffin. A small coffin is used to wrap the body in a quilt, usually cloth, rich people use silk, and some royal families use jade clothes. The body is put into the coffin. The coffin is called "Shou coffin". The male coffin is engraved with the word "Shou", the female coffin is engraved with the word "福", and some are engraved with the combination of the three characters "Fu, Lu and Shou". Rice is also placed in the mouth of the deceased during the burial. Wealthy families include bis, beads, etc., royal families include jade, and in modern times, rice is placed in the mouth of the deceased. They are all called "rice containing". Some items are often buried along with the burial. Most people have clothes, quilts and daily necessities. Rich families and royal families have many and valuable burial items.

Funeral means placing the coffin in the funeral palace after the burial. The length of the funeral period varies, ranging from 3 days to 30 days, mainly determined by the mourner. In ancient times, the coffin was usually kept in the coffin for 3 months, and sometimes it took up to 7 months. According to the traditional custom of the Han people, when a parent dies, the children must go to the funeral, otherwise it is considered unfilial. Relatives and friends will mourn and pay homage to the deceased in the future, which is called "mourning" or "condolences." All mourners must wear mourning clothes. In ancient times, the mourning clothes of the Han people were divided into five types: zhansheng, qixian, dagong, xiaogong and weaving linen, which were called "five clothes". Wear linen and wear filial piety." In modern times, white cloth is often used as mourning clothes. In modern cities, it is common to wear white flowers on the chest and black gauze on the arms.

Burial means burying the remains of the deceased, that is, placing the coffin into the ground. According to old customs, before burial, one often has to look at Feng Shui and choose a cemetery, which is called "choosing an auspicious place." Funeral is also called funeral. During funerals, the ancient Han people usually held the mourning ribbon in front of the "filial son", and those who carried the coffin sang elegy. Elegies evolved into sad music in recent times and modern times. Relatives and friends wrote elegy words or elegiac couplets at the funeral. In modern times, it evolved into sending wreaths with elegiac couplets written on them.

In ancient times, there was the custom of burying human sacrifices (mainly close relatives, close ministers and close attendants, and there were still remains of human sacrifices in the Qing Dynasty). Later, pottery figurines were gradually replaced, and in modern times, human figures tied with paper were used for burial.

After the funeral, there are memorial ceremonies such as the seventh, seventh, hundredth, anniversary and so on, and the tablets are returned to the ancestral hall. This has changed from the etiquette for people during the funeral to the etiquette for "ghosts", Rituals of "ancestral spirits".

In addition, the Han people also have the custom of "return burial", which is to bury the remains of those who died in other places back to their place of origin.

During the funeral, relatives of the deceased should wear mourning clothes and keep vigil in the mourning hall. In the ancient Chinese etiquette system, filial piety clothes were divided into five grades according to the closeness of the blood relationship with the deceased. In modern Chinese, there is also the word "five clothes" to indicate the distance of the blood relationship. The mourning robe is made of white cloth, which is very different from the Western custom of wearing white robes as a formal dress. During the Qing Dynasty, an Englishman came to China for the first time and found it very strange that everyone in the funeral procession was wearing white clothes, but their expressions were painful and sad. In ancient times, people sang elegy during funerals. Tao Yuanming, the great poet of the Jin Dynasty, wrote three "elegy poems" for himself during his lifetime. The elegiac couplets and elegies of later generations evolved from the elegies of ancient times.

The scale of the funeral ceremony is closely related to the status and identity of the deceased. In feudal society, there were strict regulations on funeral rituals for people with different statuses. Princes, nobles and wealthy families often use grand funeral ceremonies to show off their power. In "A Dream of Red Mansions", it is written that Qin Keqing died in the Ningguo Mansion. The coffin used was worth thousands of taels of silver. Two to three hundred monks and Taoists chanted sutras. The funeral procession was "mighty and mighty, as heavy as a mountain of silver." As the poor people cannot even meet the basic needs of food and clothing, naturally they cannot talk about "heavy burials and generous burials". Sometimes the body can only be wrapped in a mat and buried hastily.

After the death of an elder, his descendants must stay at home for twenty-seven months, during which time they must stop socializing and entertainment. Officials must also leave their jobs and go home to observe filial piety to express condolences for their respected relatives, which is called "keeping the system"

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Examples of funeral procedures

Suppose someone is 81 years old, male, a soldier, and full of descendants.

Change, wear military uniform and longevity shoes. The body is covered with yellow silk and the face is covered with a white silk scarf.

All buttons on the clothes should be cut off, and the clothes should be tied with cloth belts, but no "dead knots" should be made.

Preliminary plastic surgery: reset the facial features, and put a gold ingot or a gold ingot in the mouth coin. The left hand holds a gold ingot (both imitations), and the right hand holds a dog beating stick (convenient for chopsticks).

The corpse was tied with red thread, mainly the hands and feet. If there are cats or dogs in the house, they should be well taken care of and should not get close to the corpse. (To prevent the soul of the deceased from being possessed by the animal) Transport it to the funeral home.

Setting up a simple mourning hall at home

Portrait of the deceased: An enlarged photo has been prepared in advance and a special photo frame has been purchased. Place a black ribbon.

The offerings on the table include: a bowl of grains (using five kinds of grains), an incense burner, some incense, seasonal fruits and pastries. The old style also offers a full bowl of rice, a pair of chopsticks, big steamed buns, etc.

Bright lantern: Purchase funeral items: black gauze, white flowers, white cloth, red cloth, burning paper, clay basin (with holes at the bottom),

Paper crafts: rooster, white flag, paper horse (female) On the night of the death of the deceased (using paper cows), villas, and gold and silver treasury, the family members will burn paper in a clay pot, and relatives and friends will also burn paper when they visit. The next day, go to the police station to go through the procedures for canceling your account. On the third day, there was a funeral.

Family attire

The direct descendants of the family wear a white mourning belt, and the ordinary people wear a black gauze. Other relatives wear black veils. The grandchildren sew a small piece of red cloth on the white mourning belt and black gauze. Other guests wore white flowers.

Items to prepare: seven small packets or seven coins of paper ashes burned for several days, and two one-inch photos.

Items to bring: offerings in the mourning hall, death certificate from the police station, clothes of the deceased, and a bottle of liquor.

Before the funeral, the portrait was placed in front of the car. The eldest son led all the younger generations to kneel in front of the car, raised the earthenware basin above his head, and said, "Dad, you have a good journey." Break it hard, the more broken it is, the better, but don’t break it twice. Putting the paper rooster in the lead means "the golden rooster leads the way". The eldest son (or eldest grandson) gets on the carriage and holds a flag.

Each vehicle in the fleet has a logo on it. is the age of the deceased. The deceased was 81 years old, plus one day of age and one day of age. The vehicle number is 83. If the deceased is a male, it will be posted on the left rear side of the car, and if the deceased is a female, it will be posted on the right rear side of the car.

There is also the custom of throwing paper money in some places. Keep scattering paper money along the way, which means "buying money for the road". In some places, when crossing a bridge, paper money is placed on the bridge and pressed with stones. The hearse usually does not stop after starting. Before encountering a red light, the driver calculates the time, moves forward slowly, waits in the distance, and accelerates to pass when the light turns green.

Throw the paper rooster out of the car in front of the funeral home. (Some places use live roosters)

After entering the funeral home:

Collect the body and go through the cremation procedures.

Before going through the cremation procedures, choose an urn and a small memorial tablet. You can ask staff to write the spiritual tablets for you. Pay attention to the writing method of male and female: first test, first concubine. After the body was taken out, a "consecration" ceremony was held. When the body was taken out of the refrigerator, the eldest son held his head, and the others held his body, and put the body on the morgue. If it needs to be moved, the eldest son is still at the head of the corpse. Before consecration, cut the red thread on the body, put the burnt paper ashes into the paper coffin, or put it into the deceased's pocket, and then put the body into the paper coffin. It means travel money given by children.

The undertaker instructs the filial son (eldest son or grandson) to consecrate the ceremony. The filial son takes a cotton swab, dips it in white wine or alcohol, and rubs it on the body of the deceased, which is called consecration. It means to revive the various functions of its body. The order of consecration is from head to toe, followed by head, eyes, nose, mouth, ears, chest, right hand, left hand, and feet. The undertaker says one sentence, the dutiful son repeats one sentence, and then rubs it on the area. For example: open your nose and smell the fragrance of flowers;... open your right hand and write articles; open your left hand and grab money and food; open your feet and step on lotus flowers to open the hall. The consecration words are slightly different for men and women.

Family members should not cry during the consecration, let alone shed tears on the corpse. After the consecration, the body is handed over to the staff for makeup.

Hold a memorial or farewell ceremony. Before the ceremony, the life of the deceased should be explained to the emcee (prepared in advance at home), the list of main guests, and a one-inch or two-inch photo should be given to the staff. After the ceremony, the body was cremated. At the same time, under the leadership of the eldest son, a memorial ceremony and burning of things were held.

Enshrine the portrait and the memorial tablet, place grains, fruits, cakes, five kinds (four kinds in some places), flowers, liquor, cigarettes, etc. The eldest son offers a stick of incense first, and then the incense is offered in order of generation. According to the order of growing first, then young, first near and then far.

Burn things. First burn a few pieces of paper, then burn the deceased's clothes, etc., and then burn all the offerings. If there is a wreath, seven flowers should be removed and left to burn later during the "seven hours".

When burning something, sprinkle the liquor you brought on the clothes to assist the burning.

After the things are burned and the funeral is over, the white flowers and filial piety ribbons are removed. Immediate family members wear black veil instead.

Except for a few people, everyone went to the funeral banquet. Several basins of water, white wine and candies should be prepared outside the funeral banquet hall. Anyone returning from the funeral parlor should wash their hands, drink wine or hold a piece of candy in their mouth before entering the banquet hall.

Before the funeral banquet begins, family members line up and the funeral director presides over the ceremony. The host announced: The family expressed their gratitude to all relatives and friends for attending the funeral, bowed to everyone, and then the family representative spoke. The main content is to thank you. Please prepare a small amount of wine for everyone to enjoy.

While the funeral banquet is in progress, the main younger blood relatives will go to each table to toast.

Collect ashes. In the urn, put seven coins in the shape of a Big Dipper. Then choose a large piece of ashes and put it into the urn. The last one should be the skull.

Put a photo of the deceased on the front of the urn.

The storage of ashes is over.