How to pay homage to the first seven days after death?

Old people say that during the first seven days, people's souls were still floating around, watching their hometown all the time on the homesickness platform. In the middle of the first seven nights, their relatives burned a ladder-shaped thing next to the chimney at home, called "ladder". Only by burning this ladder can the soul follow it to heaven. Although this is just heartless, we should believe in our relatives even if they are superstitious. Who is willing to let their relatives be wronged in this matter?

The funeral custom of China people is based on the time when the deceased died and the date and hour calculated by heavenly stems and earthly branches. However, it is customary for everyone to think that the "first seven" refers to the seventh day after the death.

Different places have different customs of "the first seven days". However, it is generally believed that the soul of the deceased will return home on the first seven days. Family members should prepare a meal for the soul of the deceased before it returns, and then they must avoid it. The best way is to sleep. If you can't sleep, you should hide under the bed. If the soul of the deceased sees his family, it will make him miss it, and it will affect his reincarnation.

It is also said that people's souls will wander around in front of the "first seven days" after death, and when they return home on the day of the "first seven days", their families should burn a ladder-shaped thing at home and let the souls follow this "ladder" to the sky.

The first seven days after death, people come home to visit, which comes from the Sutra of Tibet's Death (also known as Zhongyin Salvation).

The July 7th in Northeast China refers to the first seven, the third seven, the fifth seven and the seventh seven. It's a custom of Han people to burn paper these days.

Funeral custom After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the funeral custom in the county has been reformed, but the peasant families generally still follow the traditional custom of history.

(1) prepare for the "aftermath". If you are 1 years old, you will die. When people get old, I or other family members should prepare things for them to use after their death. The most important thing is the coffin, and the second is the shroud. According to local customs, these two things are usually prepared before the old people die. In the past, cypress was the best wood for coffin preparation, and the thicker the sheet, the bigger the coffin, the better. Shrouds should be prepared with clothes, trousers (skirts), shoes, socks and hats. Clothes and trousers should be made of cotton, and the colors of shrouds are mostly red and blue. Avoid black and flowers. These spare items seem unlucky, but no one is afraid of them. Some people prepare early, and as a result, they will not die for many years, so their clothes and "houses" in the other world have to be kept in reserve.

(2) Etiquette and custom during the period when the elderly are seriously ill, children must accompany them, otherwise it will be unfilial. Relatives must bring gifts to visit, otherwise if the patient dies, he will not be able to face the deceased and his family (except those who don't know). All important relatives should visit patients many times. When the patient is critically ill, the important relatives who are not around the patient should be informed to come to prevent "complaining" afterwards.

(3) Before dying and dying, children should guard their side, and cut their hair (women comb their hair), clean their face, wash their feet and look at the shroud. The whole family mourned when they died. When entering the fold, the deceased's face was covered with yellow paper, saying "covered face paper"; With a copper coin in your mouth, it is called "money", and with a copper coin or coin on your back, it is called "money on your back"; Hand-held string of small cakes, called "dog cakes", the number of small cakes is equal to the age of the deceased. At the head of the coffin, a black porcelain lamp is lit, which is called a "soul lamp", and a pottery basin is placed for burning paper during the period of mourning. A shed is set up at the door of the coffin house, which is called a "spirit shed", and a table is set up in the shed for holding a mourning ceremony. Outside the courtyard, "soul paper" is placed, and the number of white notes is equal to the age of the deceased.

(4) white with filial piety. When a son shaves his head, wears a hat with a diagonal angle and orders hemp, it is called "wearing hemp"; A rope tied around the waist mops the floor, which is called a "waist rope"; Wearing sandals barefoot, holding a willow mourning staff wrapped in soul paper. Daughter-in-law wears hair, a crown, a waist rope and sandals. Daughter Dai Xiaotong and daughter-in-law. My nephew wears a boxy hat, and my grandson wears a persimmon flower hat. The son-in-law, nephew-in-law, and son-in-law of the hanger wear mourning belts and boxers' hats; Sun's husband and grandson's husband wear filial piety and a "persimmon flower" hat; The rest will wear boxers' hats.

(5) Soup delivery is called "soup splashing" locally. People in Linshu are usually buried three days after they die. Before burial, soup is served three times a day in the morning, noon and evening. Before the soup is delivered for the first time, the ceremony of "reporting to the temple" and "guiding the way" should be held for the deceased, and the report should be made to King Jing at the Land Temple and the route should be guided. When the soup is delivered, filial piety is carried out separately. The male is led by the eldest son; The daughter is led by the eldest daughter-in-law, who carries the soup pot. Filial piety men and women must cry when delivering soup, and the more painful they cry, the more filial they are; If you don't cry, you will show no feelings for the dead and be unfilial. Every time the soup is delivered, in addition to the mourning men and women, the hangers also have to kneel and mourn, and the mourning children accompany the sacrifice.

(6) The funeral home is called "correspondence". The day before the funeral, the person in charge arranged the list of relatives who should come to attend the mourning, and several people separately informed relatives around the country, and the person who believed in it held a white cloth strip to explain to each relative the name of the deceased, the time of receiving the hanger and the date of the funeral. Relatives go to mourn according to the notice, commonly known as "hanging paper".

(7) If one of the couple is dead, a funeral ceremony should be held for the deceased the night before the funeral. Write down the memorial tablet of the invited soul in advance, and then write a letter of invitation to the spirit. The dutiful sons go to the alley or the suburbs, and the person in charge reads the letter of invitation to the spirit, burns it, and returns home after saluting. The spirit of the dead is coming home. The first deceased and the later deceased enjoy the sacrifice at home. This is also a way to commemorate the deceased father or mother by the filial sons and grandchildren. At the dawn of the funeral day, the soul of the deceased will be sent away, saying "send the spirit." Because then the dead will also return.

(8) A ceremony to send the soul of the deceased away from home in the afternoon of the funeral day. By mourning the family, filial piety and filial piety, together with the hangers.

(9) Send travelling expenses. This is the time when the living are about to return to another world for the dead. Send food, clothing, flowers, daily necessities, etc. In addition to burning paper, these objects are cows, horses, sedan chairs, cars and vaults, silver vaults, boys and girls, etc. Burn it along with the memorial ceremony, and the ceremony will be completed.

(1) after the funeral, the funeral is followed by the funeral, which is also called "pulling coffins" locally. The ceremony of pulling coffins is simpler than the ceremony of offering farewell to spirits and sending travelling expenses. Before receiving the coffin, the dutiful sons should bow down to the wooden frame where the coffin was placed or the vehicle that pulled the coffin, which is called "worship the frame" or "worship the car" to pray for the safety of the deceased on the way home. After that, on the way to carry the coffin out of the hospital, the filial piety knelt in front of the coffin. At the moment when the coffin started, the person in charge put the "old basin" on the eldest son's head and smashed it in a circle, which was called "breaking the old basin". Then, the thick-skinned team composed of Zhuang neighbors carried the coffin into the grave, or pulled it into the grave by cars and tractors. At this time, the neighbors of Zhuang, who helped, went to the graveyard to add soil and bury the dead with tools such as shovel, shovel and car. At the time of funeral, the filial sons and the main male relatives should be sent to the cemetery until the coffin burial ceremony is completed.

(11) wake According to legend, after death, the soul will not leave the spirit house for five or seven years, even though there is a funeral, so it is necessary to wake up. The wake is the children, grandchildren and nephews of the deceased. They sleep in the grass shop in the spirit house, and sleep with the dead, so as not to be lonely. Wake for January and five days.

(12) Look at the grave. For the first three days, children and grandchildren will visit the grave every night, which is called "Look at the grave". Look at the grave. It means that the living comfort the dead, and it also implies the meaning of guarding the grave against theft and destruction.

(13) Go to the "three-day grave" three days after burial, go to the "first seven grave" on the seventh day, and go to the "Erqi grave" every second seven days.

The custom here is to go to the grave on every 7th and stop on May 7th.

among the five grave visits that must be made on every seventh day, if the deceased has several boys, it is not necessary to visit several graves. Because it is said that the number of sons of the deceased and the number of graves on every seven days are taboo. Among them, the five or seven graves are the most valued.

On the day of the funeral, a notice of the May 7th Sacrifice Day is issued to explain the specific date of the May 7th Sacrifice Day, and relatives and friends are cordially invited to come.

On the May 7th Tomb Memorial Day, all important relatives and friends will come to attend the memorial ceremony.

The ceremony will be held in the afternoon, and guests attending the memorial ceremony will be given a feast at noon.

for a deceased person, after going to the grave for five or seven days, he will go to the grave for hundreds of days every hundred days, to the "anniversary grave" every year, to the "three-year week" every three years, and to the "ten-year week" in the ninth year ten years ago.

The folk funeral custom was formed in the long river of history, which contains feudal superstition, but deeply contains the affection, friendship, care and remembrance of the deceased by the later generations of human beings. The dead are gone, everything is unknown, and the living are unforgettable, so they treat the dead with their own spiritual path.