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Ghosts'Festival

Ghosts'Festival

In some parts of northern China, Tomb-Sweeping Day, Mid-Autumn Festival and Cold Clothes Festival are collectively called "Three Ghosts Festival". Legend has it that ghosts haunt this day. At night, every household sets off firecrackers in every household to scare away ghosts and drive them away.

Qingming Festival

brief introduction

Ghosts'Festival

Ghosts'Festival

Sweeping graves on Qingming Festival is called "respecting thinking about time" for ancestors. Its customs have a long history. In the Ming Dynasty's "A Brief Introduction to the Scenery of the Imperial Capital", it was written: "On the Qingming Festival in March, men and women went to the grave to pay their respects, and the gold ingot was hung on the back of the sedan chair, and the road was full of embarrassment. Worshipers, mourners, weeping, weeding, adding soil to graves, burning ingots several times, and buying graves with paper money. If you can't see the paper money, it will be a lonely grave. After crying, don't go back, go to the fragrant tree, choose the garden, and sit down and get drunk. " In fact, grave-sweeping existed before the Qin Dynasty, but not necessarily during the Qingming period, but after the Qin Dynasty. It was not until the Tang Dynasty that it became popular. Qing thomas lee said, "On New Year's Eve, the Cold Food Festival and the First Frost Festival, you should offer sacrifices to sweep the graves. During the period, I will serve my bed with vegetarian food, use wine and tools for cutting vegetation, seal trees in the middle of the week, and break Cao Jing, so it is called sweeping the grave. " And spread to this day.

Tomb-Sweeping Day's sweeping ceremony was supposed to be held in person, but because of the different economic conditions of each family, the way of sweeping was different. "Burning a bundle" is the main form of paying homage to ancestors. The so-called "baggage", also known as "package", is

Refers to the package sent by filial piety from Shi Yang to the "underworld". In the past, Nanzhi store sold the so-called "wrapped skin", that is, a big bag was pasted with white paper. There are two forms: one is a woodcut version with Sanskrit transliteration of "Death Mantra" printed around it, and a lotus memorial tablet printed in the middle with the name of the deceased who received the money, such as "The late Zhang Fujun was afraid of the boss in Yunshan", which is both a package and a memorial tablet. The other is plain foreskin, which does not print any patterns. Just put a blue sign in the middle and write down the name of the deceased. Also used as a master card. There are many kinds of money in the bag.

First, burn paper, nine k white paper, four lines of round money, five yuan each.

Second, ghost banknotes are copied after foreign currency vouchers are available in the world, with the words "Paradise Bank", "Ghost Bank" and "Bank of Hell and Cao Yin" written on them, and with the pattern of the capital city, mostly in huge denominations, with the Buddhist "death curse" printed on the back.

3. Fake foreign money, centered on hard paper, wrapped in silver foil and stamped with the same pattern as the prevailing silver dollar at that time.

Fourth, the "death curse" printed in red on yellow paper is round money, so it is also called "death money".

Five, with gold foil and silver foil stacked ingots, hammers, and some string into a string, with a colored paper ear at the bottom. In the old society, no matter rich or poor, there was a burning burden. On that day, a confession case was set up in the ancestral hall or the main room of the family house, with the luggage in the middle. In front of it, there are offerings such as jiaozi, cakes and fruits, burning incense and holding candles. After the whole family salutes according to their generations, they can be incinerated outside the door. When incinerating, draw a big circle and leave a gap in the direction of the cemetery. Burning three or five pieces of paper outside the circle is called "special delivery."

Some rich people want to take their families and their families to the grave to pay homage. At this time, it is necessary to repair the grave, or symbolically add soil to the grave and put some paper money on it to let others see and know that there are descendants in this grave. After the sacrifice, some people sat around to eat and drink; Others fly kites and even compete with each other for entertainment. Women and children will also fold some Yang Liuzhi nearby and put on steamed food with wicker. Others put wicker into reeds and put them on their heads, saying, "If you don't wear willow in Qingming Festival, you will become a yellow dog in the afterlife." This is a grave-sweeping and an outing. You can't go home until you are happy.

history

Grave-sweeping in Tomb-Sweeping Day is related to funeral customs. According to records, in ancient China, "tombs were not graves", that is to say, only graves were dug, and no graves were built, so there was no way to offer sacrifices to sweep them. Later, graves and graves, the custom of offering sacrifices to sweep graves, were supported. During the Qin and Han Dynasties, offering sacrifices to tombs has become an indispensable custom. "Once"? The Book of Ming Di quoted the official etiquette of the Han Dynasty as saying: "In ancient times, there was no tomb sacrifice, and Qin Shihuang slept next to the tomb, so Han remained unchanged. All tombs serve meals with gloom, hope, 24, dog days, society, wax and four o'clock. " The emperor is almost a festival. Ordinary officials and ordinary people don't have so much time and money, so Tomb-Sweeping Day gradually freezes in the 24 solar terms. At that time, the government will allow officials to take time off to offer sacrifices to sweep, and the people will also "go to their parents' graves for fields and roads, full of scholars and women, humble servants and beggars." "In the Tang Dynasty, the sacrificial sweeping has combined cold food with Qingming, and it is spring, so you can go to the grave with wine in your hand. Tomb-Sweeping Day is not only a ghost festival for sacrifice, but also a day for outing and entertainment. From a secular point of view, the setting of these two ghost festivals is just right. Qingming coincides with the melting of snow and ice in the north. After rain erosion in autumn and winter and snow cover in winter, some loess on the tomb was washed down and became shorter and smaller. Sweep it with Qingming and add some soil to prevent the ancestors' houses from leaking and getting wet. July 15, beginning of autumn has passed, and the weather is getting colder and colder. It's time to add clothes. It's time to send some money to the underground ancestors to buy some clothes so as not to catch cold in winter.

The Chinese nation is a state of etiquette and has always paid attention to paying homage to its ancestors. I remember when my family used to pay homage to their ancestors during the Chinese New Year, the words above were "woody water source" and "Zongshen pursues distant places", which means not to forget the ancestors. During the Cultural Revolution, who dared to burn paper on the grave when capitalism was broken and superstition was opposed? There is no burning paper to buy in the city, but many people still buy white paper to order books for primary school students and secretly burn them to their relatives on the graves. With the development of economy, sacrificial supplies have become a major category for businesses to make money. Every Qingming Festival and July 15th, the burning paper in the street is pushed into a hill in front of the store, and the variety and quantity are as many as the fruit boxes piled up during the Dragon Boat Festival and Mid-Autumn Festival. Moreover, there are some modern commodities, which are burned into bundles, neat and beautiful, and the marks of ancient coins are evenly printed on them. There are also colorful dollars and Hong Kong dollars, all with large denominations, each of which is hundreds of millions. Coupled with the gold ingots of different sizes in Huang Cancan, if there is a ghost country bank, it will be ashamed of the lack of financial resources and willing to close down. Can burning so much money really make the deceased relatives live a rich life in the underworld? I don't know, there is a saying that "sincerity is the spirit", which means that the heart is there. I remember when I was a child, the old man said that it was not easy to print ready-made burning paper, and no matter how big the face value was, it was useless. It is best to take a chisel that carves wood into copper coins and tap it on the paper with a small hammer. There are many things to pay attention to when typing a paper. It is best to be a descendant of ancestors, and it must be a boy. The hammer must be made of wood, and the marks of hitting cannot be stacked together. When I was a child, I used to do it during the Spring Festival or two Halloween. The old man told me that it would be good to put a seal on it, but I was afraid I didn't know. When he goes to the underworld, he always hits hard. He is also afraid of having less money and not enough ancestors, so he has been playing closely. Although there is more paper and it looks beautiful, I think the paper money made by future generations as children can better reflect my true feelings for my ancestors. Halloween sacrifice cannot be simply regarded as superstition. In western Christian countries, modern science has sent people to the moon and rockets to Mars, but they still believe in God, which is actually a spiritual sustenance. We burn some paper for our deceased relatives, which seems vulgar, but in fact it contains rich moral and ethical connotations. This is a kind of gratitude and nostalgia for the deceased relatives, a dialogue with people in another world, an exchange with ancestors and a continuation of human race and spirit. Even if relatives are alive, there are cases of unfilial or thoughtless care. When burning paper on the grave, you can get a psychological balance by chanting a few words. Perhaps with the development of the times and the improvement of people's education level, our nation will find a better way to commemorate our ancestors, but in any era, it is indispensable to pay tribute to and remember our ancestors.

Ghosts'Festival

brief introduction

Ghosts'Festival

Ghosts'Festival

Ghost Festival (3 pieces)

According to legend, from July 1st every year, the King of Yan ordered to open the gates of hell, so that the ghosts who suffered and were imprisoned in hell all the year round could get out of hell, get a short wander and enjoy human blood. Therefore, people call July a ghost month, and this month is considered an unlucky month. They neither get married nor move. The 15th day of the seventh lunar month is the annual Ghost Festival in China. Buddhism calls it "Magnolia Festival". It is said that on this day, Yan Luowang will open the "Gate of Hell" and let the imprisoned ghosts come out to move freely until the end of July. Therefore, during this period, it was popular among the people to worship their dead relatives, burn gold ingots, paper candles and set off river lanterns, so as to pray for ancestors' blessing, eliminate disasters and increase happiness, or turn over the dead and resolve grievances.

Many people don't know the origin of Mid-Autumn Festival in China. [1] The Yulan Festival originated from the story of Mulian saving his mother in the Buddhist Tripitaka: "A monk with eyes is powerful. His mother fell into the hungry ghost road, and the food mouth turned into flames. Hunger was too bitter. Unable to save her mother, Manglietia asked the Buddha for advice. In order to talk about the Lanpen Sutra, he taught July 15 to be a Lanpen to save his mother. " It is said that Manglietia (full name Manglietia), a student of Buddha at that time, showed his eyesight. When he met his dead mother, he found that she was trapped in a hungry ghost path because of her crimes (killing, eating and chewing, and living in luxury) and became a hungry ghost with a throat as thin as a reed pipe and a stomach as big as a water tank. Manglietia uses pots and pans to hold food. Mu Jianlian had to turn to the Buddha for help. The Buddha was moved by Mu Jianlian's filial piety and awarded him the Buddhist Scripture. According to the instructions, Mu and other monks used an Euler basin to hold 100 flavors and five fruits and a vegetarian meal on the 15th day of the seventh lunar month to offer sacrifices to all beings in hell. The hungry ghost finally got the food. So Buddhists have a grand "bonsai" every year, which is what we call "Ghost Festival".

Ghosts'Festival

Ghosts'Festival

The meaning of "hanging upside down" in Indian Sanskrit originally had nothing to do with China's Central Plains, but it happened that the local officials in China's local religion also came to atone on this day. Taoism has so-called heavenly officials, local officials and water officials, collectively referred to as the three officials. These three are the representatives of the Jade Emperor sent to the world. Every year, they patrol the good and evil in the world and report to the heaven. The birthdays of the three officials are the fifteenth day of the first month, the fifteenth day of July and the fifteenth day of October, also known as Sanyuan. July 15th, known as the Central Plains, was the time when local officials were pardoned. On this day, he will take out a thick roster and draw a picture according to the performance of immortals, mortals and animals, so as to atone and avoid punishment.

Ghost Festival Sacrifice Activities

Sacrificial activities for Halloween (19)

Taoist Mid-Autumn Festival is actually a festival to spread morality and ethics, that is, to advocate people to pay attention to Xiu De on this day. On the Mid-Autumn Festival, people with thoughts and time will get together to study Laozi's Tao Te Ching, communicate with each other and reflect on themselves. For the general congregation, Taoism has created some stories of "entertaining through education". For example, in the invention of Taoism, a man named Chen Ziqi married the daughter of the Dragon King and gave birth to three children, namely, the "celestial officer, local officer and water officer" on the 15th of the first month, the 15th of July and the 15th of October. These "three officials" are in charge of the three tasks of human blessing, sin forgiveness and salvation respectively. They have infinite magic power, and they want to tour the world in these three days to check whether people's moral quality is good or bad. However, Taoism in China is a very tolerant religion, giving people the opportunity to change and renew themselves at any time. Therefore, the Mid-Autumn Festival is not only a festival of rewarding good and punishing evil, but also a festival of atonement. Therefore, the Mid-Autumn Festival is also a confession festival and atonement festival in China. People who have committed crimes for one year can have various ceremonies on the Mid-Autumn Festival.

So the story of "Orchid Club" merged with the Central Plains, adding many China elements, such as Confucian filial piety, and forming a traditional folk festival in China-the Mid-Autumn Festival. [ 1]