Traditional Culture Encyclopedia - Traditional festivals - One of the puzzling folklore: why sing opera when you're dead?

One of the puzzling folklore: why sing opera when you're dead?

Wailing is one of the Confucian rituals, from the Zhou ritual. It is one of the major features of funeral customs in China and even in the East Asian Confucian cultural circle. It is a form of weeping to send condolences for the death of a loved one, and a form of singing to commemorate the life of the elders.

Wailing is also a profession, and this custom of singing is mostly conducted by women, with the aim of allowing the dead to reach the underworld in peace.

The instruments accompanying the wailing songs are drums and gongs, which are either sung while beating or sung in a section and then beaten in a certain number of sets, such as Three Points of Water and Sparrow Haunted Formation.

All descendants, especially the men, must "sing and cry" at the funeral, or else they will be regarded as unfilial according to old folk customs. In addition, the volume of the cry is also very important, if the dead family is not accompanied by the sound of the cry, it will be a laughing stock for dozens of miles around, and their children and grandchildren will be regarded as ungrateful and treasonous.

Expanded Information:

. p>The song sung during the mourning is called the mourning song, and it is customary for the Zhuang to invite two folk singers to sing the mourning song. The two singers dressed as uncle and nephew, a question and answer, singing all night, praising the performance of the ancestors, and persuade the descendants not to forget their ancestors.

Many ethnic groups also have mourning songs and dances. The Yi people call this "jumping feet", by four people holding gossip in the body next to jump, jumping while singing songs of filial piety, it is said that this can be for the dead to step on the thorny road to the netherworld.

Jingpo people call this "cloth roll Go", to ask the nearby cottage young men and women with jump, all night long. In addition, two men in long shirts will dance with spears and make stabs around bamboo streamers to drive away evil spirits.

The earliest custom of mourning, in which the bearer sings an elegy, originated in the Han Dynasty. The representative works of elegy are "leek dew" and "Artemisia". Chive Dew" was sung for the funeral of princes and nobles; "Artemisia" was sung for the funeral of scholars and common people.

The lyrics of "Leek Dew" are: "The dew on the leek is not easy to dilute. Dew on leeks will be resurrected tomorrow, when will people return once they are dead?" The lyrics of "Artemisia" are: "Whose land is Artemisia? There is no wise or foolish person to gather the souls. Why does the ghost urge us on? Human life must not be less hesitant."

Baidu Encyclopedia - Wailing

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