Folk funeral custom in Fuzhou
Fuzhou had a set of unwritten funeral regulations in its early years, which have continued to this day. Today, many of them have been gradually innovated and simplified, but there are still traces.
There are seven things to do when people die. Every seven days is called17,7749 days. Every 17 days, a Taoist priest should be invited to do the Dojo, or a monk and nun should be invited to recite the scriptures and set up a table in front of the spirit. Every morning and evening, soup and rice are sung.
Secondly, after the death of parents, men should mourn. In ancient times, it was said that when a father died, he was lonely, when his mother died, he was sad, and when his parents died, he was lonely. It is very embarrassing in mourning, so there is an ironic saying in Fuzhou called "it's really like a soliton", which is what it means.
People who live on a long life die, and there are rules for posting vegetarian posts (that is, obituaries) and corporate "screens". They call themselves "unfilial people" in simple posts and screens. In Dai Xiao, it usually begins on the seventh day, which is called "filial piety". Before going to filial piety, men should get a haircut and shave, otherwise they can't get a haircut until 7: 00 on July 49. Filial piety men wear linen sandals, tied with a straw rope around their waist, and hung two cotton balls on their linen hats. When buried, the filial piety man should hold a "filial piety stick", which is three feet long and made of white paper. The dutiful son sticks, the father dies with a stick, and the mother dies with a bamboo pole. This is the so-called "Chai Niang Ba (father), Zhu Niang Milk (mother)".
"do half a paragraph"
Villages in the suburbs of Fuzhou have already had a customary village celebration activity-doing half a paragraph. Most of the village's celebrations are held in the slack season after the summer harvest or the autumn harvest, all of which are held after July of the lunar calendar. Village Celebration Day is just half past the Lunar New Year, and this year has passed the "half stage", so the village celebration activity is called "doing half stage". Neighboring villages are staggered for half a day, once a year in each village, so that villages can invite each other, the celebrations in the villages will continue, and the festive atmosphere will be lively and lasting.
The villagers attach great importance to holding half a festival. In order to make the celebration in the village grand and decent, they prepared the banquet in the first half of the year, fattened chickens, ducks and pigs and brewed rice wine. When we meet on the road, we always remind each other or tell each other that the children in the village are eager to try.
At that time, the whole village will be immersed in a happy atmosphere, and the sound of boxing and drinking will come and go. Relatives and friends get together to talk about family and friendship. At the banquet, we will talk about business or Sang Ma, celebrate the bumper harvest of crops and the prosperity of six livestock, plan the spring ploughing in the coming year, and look forward to the good weather and peace and prosperity in the coming year. After a few rounds of wine, the bright moon is in the sky, guests are full of food and drink, and guests from afar stay overnight.
Please go back to the door to "pinch vegetables"
After the woman gets married, she will send the bride's brother, nephew and other people to the man's house the next day or the third day to "please call back". At this time, the bride and groom will walk together under the guidance of the younger generation representatives. If the families of the two sides are far apart, they should take a sedan chair, carry a bag, ride a bike or take a boat. The transportation is convenient now, so take the bus.
Please go back to the ancient name of mother. Those who have only been here for one day and return to their husband's house that night are called "please catch candles" and will return to their husband's house in the middle of the night. If the journey is long, or the scene of the bride's family is lively, you can stay for three to five days, not only to meet relatives and friends of the bride's family, but also to make fun of the groom (commonly known as his uncle and brother-in-law) in the lively scene. As a new son-in-law, you must be polite and civilized, and be tactfully correct, so as not to fall into the "trap" of conspiracy calculation and be punished and teased. Any mistake will be punished (fined). From a single fine, bought a gift cake, etc. To the relatives and friends present, call it a small "pinch of vegetables"; After receiving a few fines, they held a banquet to invite relatives and friends to be present. This is called "pinch of vegetables", and the parents-in-law intervened excessively, as long as they did not belong to the new son-in-law who was mentally retarded or made a fool of himself.
Tomb-Sweeping Day and Bo Guo Bo
Every year around Tomb-Sweeping Day, every family in Fuzhou will go to the suburbs for a walk to sweep the grave and press paper for their ancestors. Grave sweeping is mainly for weeding and repairing the graves of ancestors. Some people will plant an evergreen pine and cypress or other trees next to the graves. The last procedure of sweeping the grave is to press paper, that is, to press some money paper on the head of the tomb to show that the tomb has been swept by future generations, or to show passers-by that there are future generations sleeping here.
After sweeping the grave, we must break the pine branches and put them in front of the house to show people that our family has fulfilled the responsibility of sweeping the grave for our ancestors. The offerings for sweeping graves are not complicated, only light cakes, tofu and cakes, but there is a main flavor that is absolutely indispensable, that is, Bo Guo Bo, also known as Qingming Pot, which is unique to Fuzhou. Before and after Tomb-Sweeping Day, every household in Fuzhou had to make spinach buns. Now, the "Mi's" shop on the street also sells a lot of spinach buns.
Pineapple and spinach (an edible wild vegetable grown in the south, sweet and cool, mashed and squeezed into turquoise juice) are squeezed into juice, infiltrated into rice pulp, kneaded into shells, and kneaded into balls with jujube paste, bean paste and shredded radish. The shape is relatively simple. The turquoise color of spinach gives pineapple and spinach a unique flavor. Spinach is a good snack on the way home from the grave.
Author: 48691412 2005-9-2416: 46 reply to this speech.
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2 Fuzhou folk funeral customs
In the first month, the countryside welcomed the gods.
Worship to God is a custom activity held in the first month in rural Fuzhou, which has Taoist color. From the third day to the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, it is a wandering time, and it has also become one of the important activities of "making the year" (Spring Festival) in rural areas. Wandering gods often take villages as units, and sometimes several villages meet together. They carried the statues of local gods in open-top sedan chairs, supported by people respectively, and marched in groups in the village amid the sound of gongs and drums and firecrackers. The people watched and greeted, and the scene was warm.
Fifteen yuan midnight snack, the activity of worshipping and welcoming God reached its climax. The Lord God was already sitting on the throne, and several little gods who were led into the temple were led by young people, vying to run into the temple from fields miles away. The first one will get the most blessings. When all the gods were seated in the temple, fireworks and drums were deafening in front of the temple until late at night.
In the early years, there were many activities to welcome the gods in Fuzhou, such as welcoming Master Yanwu, Mount Tai, the Town God and Shangshu. Therefore, this kind of activity has a strong color of feudal superstition and gradually fades away. Only the wandering gods known as "Welcome the New Year" during the Spring Festival can still see it.
"Pie Eating Show"
In the past, small troupes with weak economic strength in Fuzhou performed in remote mountain villages. Because of the long mountain and inconvenient transportation, it is often impossible to arrive in time within one day from one place to another scheduled performance place, so I sent someone to the village that must pass between these two places first, and put a "red paper sheet" on the paper, indicating that a troupe passed by your place one day, stayed in your place and sang in your place. When the local squire saw this red paper list, he asked people to knock gongs to inform the whole village to prepare for the reception of the mirror troupe.
As soon as the troupe entered the village, the local squire asked the troupe owner to make a list of people, and then drew lots according to the number and distributed them to households for dinner according to the number of villagers. Either one person is allocated to each household, or two people are allocated to each household, depending on the economic situation of the head of household. In this way, the problem of actors' eating is dispersed to all households to solve. Eating is free and all meals are free. This is the custom of "giving people away for dinner and performing".
In order to thank the reception in Jingcun, the troupe will perform a play in the afternoon or evening, and snacks will be delivered to the stage by each household. If the troupe performs well and is welcomed by the local villagers, some will stay for two more days.
Send three Dan full moon wine.
When boys and girls are born, grandparents have to "send three denier". "Send three denier" means giving birth for three days, which is designated as "Three Dynasties to Wash Children" Day. As a family member, we will give pregnant women gifts such as chicken, noodles, eggs, glutinous rice and brown sugar for breastfeeding and parenting. Some parents are well-off, and they also give longan, sheep, ducks and children clothes, coats, quilts, blankets and so on. There are even gold and silver ornaments and wedding gifts. The relatives of the bride's family also have a "peace ceremony", usually chicken noodles or peace, and generous gifts are also given to high-end things. These are concentrated in the mother's house, and on the third day after delivery, someone carries or drives. Most of the "three-denier gifts" were picked by maternal brothers and nephews, and some places were given by grandma. Fuzhou people attach great importance to postpartum aftercare. They should eat several chickens, noodles or glutinous rice for three meals, and avoid eating seafood and other things. In order to nurse, they should protect their health. When the baby is one month old, Jia Xi will treat him to "full moon wine". Everyone had a drink together. After drinking the wine, the guests all looked at the baby separately and presented "next month's celebration" red envelopes. This is a courtesy. If you accept someone else's, you have to pay back when you have a child.
At present, childbirth is mostly treated in the obstetrics and gynecology department of the hospital, and the custom of "sending three denier" is not popular, and it is mostly changed to "sending a full moon". At this time, all relatives "give peace" and get together to drink full moon wine to celebrate the first time. In this way, the tedious things were finished in one day.
Solstice in Winter and "Meal Time"
The winter solstice is one of the 24 solar terms, but it is usually called the winter festival in Fuzhou. In the old days, on the eve of this festival, people got together and had a "meal time" in front of the ancestral tablets. "Meal time" is to mix rice and glutinous rice according to a certain proportion, grind them into pulp, press them into semi-dry, knead the dough, cook them, and eat them with bean flour and sugar outside. When Fuzhou people rub rice, there are bamboo baskets on the table. There are several red oranges, a pair of red chopsticks and a pair of paper flowers in the basket. Rubbing "meal time" is also called "rubbing round", which means reunion; "Rice market" symbolizes "transshipment". The family sat around the round table and sang while rubbing "meal time". Many lyrics have the meaning of harmony, increasing happiness and prolonging life.