What are the customs and habits of worshipping the deceased elderly in Sichuan during the Spring Festival?

Many areas in Sichuan have the custom of sweeping graves during the Spring Festival, but it is different from that in Tomb-Sweeping Day. In fact, it is to invite ancestors to go home for the New Year.

The whole process is divided into three parts:

First, please go home and reunite with your deceased relatives.

On the afternoon of New Year's Eve, the host of the family took sacrifices, money paper and firecrackers to pay homage to the ancestral grave and wished the ancestors to go home for the New Year.

Second, worship at home.

On New Year's Day, the whole family burns incense in front of ancestral tablets or portraits.

Third, send the dead relatives back to the mountains.

On the third day of New Year's Eve, the whole family went to the grave to worship and burn paper with sacrifices and money, and sent their ancestors back.

As we all know, due to years of war, Sichuan was almost deserted in the late Ming Dynasty, and then the famous "Huguang filling Sichuan" came into being. Therefore, Sichuanese come from all over the country, and the above customs are likely to be brought in from the Central Plains and Huguang areas. Its inheritance is also inconsistent. Nowadays, the popular ceremony is much simpler, and it is often just to burn paper in front of the grave on New Year's Day.