Funeral Etiquette of Zhuang Nationality

Zhuang people mainly live in the south of China, starting from Lianshan Zhuang and Yao Autonomous County in Guangdong in the east, reaching Wenshan Zhuang

Funeral Etiquette of Zhuang Nationality

Zhuang people mainly live in the south of China, starting from Lianshan Zhuang and Yao Autonomous County in Guangdong in the east, reaching Wenshan Zhuang and Miao Autonomous Prefecture in Yunnan in the west, congjiang county in Qiandongnan Miao and Dong Autonomous Prefecture in Guizhou in the north and Beibu Gulf in the south. The funeral etiquette of Zhuang nationality is roughly as follows:

Declare sb. dead

After the death of the banker, the family immediately set off firecrackers three times to show that someone in the family had died, and sent a funeral report to the villagers, relatives and friends. At the same time, the main family sent people to send funeral reports to their relatives and friends, and asked Daogong to do the Dojo and begin to handle the funeral.

baptism

After arriving at the funeral home of the deceased, the men and women at home automatically went to the main house to help with all kinds of funerals. Filial piety to men, women and their clansmen, wearing hairpins and bamboo hats, carrying bamboo tubes or buckets, went to the ponds and springs to wail, threw a few dollars into the water and came back to bathe the bodies. Filial piety, filial piety, filial piety and close relatives scrub the dead, commonly known as baptism. The deceased were a man who shaved his head and a woman who combed her hair. Men put on new hats and women put on headscarves. Then put on new clothes and shoes for the deceased, and put a silver dollar in his mouth, which is also commonly known as gold. The male deceased gave him a fan and the female deceased gave her a towel. The purpose is to let the dead go to another world and live clean and dignified.

Knock sb.

After Daogong came, when all the children arrived, Daogong chose an auspicious time and held a funeral. The ceremony is: the people put a room of plant ash in the coffin, then spread a room of white cloth, carried the body of the deceased into the coffin, covered it with a piece of white cloth as a new quilt, sewed it into a mosquito net cover, and exposed the cloth corner outside the coffin. When everything is ready, cover the coffin and nail it with big nails. At this time, filial piety and people burst into tears. After the funeral, the coffin was placed in the center of the mourning hall and covered with a piece of cloth to avoid offending the ancestors' spirits in heaven. The curtain hung down from the coffin head, and the square table was set up, on which the coffin of the deceased was placed and incense was lit. The ground was covered with mats, and filial sons and daughters sat vigil day and night.

Stop mourning

The mourning period, depending on the wealth of the family, is generally three to five days. Filial piety men wear white clothes, a bamboo paper hat, a hemp belt around their waist and sandals on their feet; The filial daughter is also dressed in white, with a white belt around her waist, a filial towel on her head and sandals on her feet. She waits by the coffin day and night and cries to show loyalty and filial piety. Relatives and friends who came to pay their respects all wore linen towels. The man tied it on his left arm and the woman tied it on her head to show her condolences. Daogong recited the scriptures day and night. Turn people over.

Carry the coffin to the cemetery

The time of the funeral is decided by Daogong, mostly during the day and after the afternoon. At the funeral, a relative walked in front with a basket of firecrackers and paper money, lighting a gun and scattering paper money all the way. Daogong beat gongs and drums all the way, holding a sword and opening the way. After the coffin is Daogong, filial sons and daughters hold the coffin in front, and the funeral procession of relatives and friends is behind. On the road, the coffin must not touch the ground until the cemetery. After arriving at the cemetery, before burial, Daogong took a rooster in his hand, turned it around several times and put it in front of the grave to augur good or ill luck. Daogong also threw the food he brought into the air to show that the dead can eat and drink in the underworld. Immediately, coffins and funerary objects were put into the grave. First, the filial sons and daughters filled in some dirt, and then they and the funeral procession turned to the road, where people buried coffins and built graves. On the way back, Taoist priests are not allowed to beat gongs and drums, and mourners are not allowed to cry or look back. On the way, people will also pick the branches and leaves of peach trees on the roadside to whip clothes to drive away evil spirits. When people return to the funeral home, everyone should wash their hands in a basin filled with peach leaves to ward off evil spirits. After dinner, people dispersed to go home.

After the funeral, the mourners set up a table in the corner, set up the coffin of the deceased, offered sacrifices day and night, and lit lamps and burned incense on holidays. It takes three years to show filial piety to men and women.

At the funeral of the deceased, the Zhuang people once had various funerals. Such as cave burial, hanging coffin burial, squatting burial, water burial, cremation and deboning burial. Boning burial is popular among the people.

Boning burial, also known as moving grave burial, is to bury the coffin, build a grave on the soil, choose an auspicious day three to five years later, then open the coffin and pick up the bones for moving grave burial, commonly known as "picking gold", and then bury it.

Zhuang people believe that deboning burial is to help ancestors' souls return to the ground from the ground, so that they can go home and reunite with their relatives on holidays. Nowadays, the custom of eviscerating bones and burial exists especially among the people.

After 1950, many changes have taken place in the funeral etiquette and customs of Zhuang nationality. Funeral, dressing, undressing and moving are all very simple. However, funeral services and funeral services generally follow the old customs. In some places, Taoist priests will be invited to chant in the Dojo.

There are "old people's clubs" similar to those in funeral committee in many places of Zhuang nationality. If the family is a member of the "Old Association", they must go to the funeral immediately, and the "Old Association" will come out to help with the funeral immediately. The "Old People's Association" still exists, but there is no superstition and it has become a pure mutual aid group. The members present at the meeting handed in ten bowls and spoons. And write the name on the business card, the association has accumulated a large number of tableware for the lost members to borrow. Usually you can rent it. Every year, the sixth day of the sixth lunar month is the day when the president and vice president are re-elected. Each member sent a person to the designated place to attend the meeting, and each member brought some homemade rice wine. Slaughter a pig for the party. The president presided over the meeting, explained his purpose as usual, announced the application list, and elected the next president and vice president through consultation. After the meeting, I drank unity wine. When the old man died, the president called Qi Xin, a member of * * *, to handle affairs together. In Zhuang language, it is called "drinking with Lu", which means rowing across the river beach and helping the people in the same boat. The president raised money, rice, wine and other things for the families of the deceased. All the able-bodied members of the family will come out to help firewood, repair bridges, pave roads, dig pits, help coffins and arrange condolences. After the event, the president will hold a banquet to reward them. The president will also be the commander-in-chief of the funeral. With the "Old People's Association", even poor families can hold a grand funeral to let their children be filial. This is a good tradition for strong families to unite and help each other.