1 has something to do with the natural environment in which you live. In the vast area of the Central Plains of China, the land is fertile and the agricultural civilization has a long history. For generations, people have given priority to agriculture and regarded land as the foundation of life (where there is land, there is life, and where there is no land, there is death). They think that burying people in the earth after death is the best way for the soul to rest in peace. The so-called "burying in the ground" has become the belief of the Han people and has far-reaching influence.
2. Burial is in line with the living habits of the Han people and the ethical feelings of pursuing the future with caution. The concept of "life comes from the earth and returns to the earth" is deeply rooted. Han people advocate yellow, and emperors of all dynasties regarded yellow as the color of dignitaries, but yellow is actually khaki. In the five elements of yin and yang, "earth" is in the middle position and is the most stable and reliable foundation, so burial conforms to the living customs and traditional concepts of the Han nationality.
3. Burial For the feudal system, only burial can preserve the power and status of the deceased for a long time, such as majestic tombs, tombstones, stone statues, stone beasts and other ancillary buildings. Only burial can often carry out various symbolic activities in front of the tomb, showing the feelings of the living mourning the dead, showing the luxury of ostentation and extravagance, and meeting the needs of patriarchal politics.
Second, the general procedure of burial.
1, geomantic choice
Generally, when the deceased dies and loses his home, he will look for his elders at home. Invite prestigious feng shui masters to go to the family cemetery. Determine the burial place of the deceased according to the generation, age and male members of the family. If the feng shui of the ancestral grave is not good, you can also choose to bury it nearby. If the deceased did not die suddenly, the work would have been completed when the deceased was critically ill.
Step 2 dig a grave
The excavation of the grave was carried out after the death of the deceased. In the northern countryside, digging a grave is called digging a pit. Most people who cheat are mistresses of the same family. There are also neighbors to help. Before digging a hole, the dutiful son should pay homage to the ancestral grave, burn some paper money, and then pay homage to the grave. The memorial ceremony is very simple. Just light a wick and kowtow a few times. The first three shovels should be dug by the dutiful son himself to show filial piety. The graves are all vertical. Similar to a coffin, it is also big-small. Both length and width are two or two feet larger than the coffin. Make room for the coffin. The depth of the tomb depends on the terrain, high slopes should be dug deep, and low-lying areas should be shallow. The depth is usually seven or eight feet, so there is a soil layer four or five feet thick on the coffin.
3. Warm spots
After the grave is dug, burn a fire in the cave, commonly known as warm nest. After passing through a warm cave, the dead buried in the cave can live in a warm and comfortable underworld. Some people pour some plant ash into their graves, which means that fireworks keep on and life is happy.
4. Funeral
The funeral procession came to the cemetery, and the porter adjusted his direction and carried the bar bed to the grave. Aim the coffin at the grave, with the front facing north and the back facing south. The victim rushed northwest and southeast in the coffin. Sitting up facing the southeast symbolizes reincarnation and will once again set foot on the world.
Three, the reasons for the prohibition of burial:
1. Burial takes up too much cultivated land resources.
Compared with ancient times, the land resources we have in modern times are really tight, even scarce, and the mismatch between population and cultivated land resources leads to various economic and resource crises such as food shortage.
The cultivated land occupied by burial is really not small, which was not obvious before. With the gradual increase of population, the competition for land resources between the dead and the living will become more and more fierce.
2, afraid of environmental and land pollution.
In ancient times, burial was relatively simple. A coffin and funerary objects with corresponding identities have completed the placement of the deceased, and the pollution caused to the environment and land is relatively tolerable and gradually decomposes naturally.
Legal basis:
Regulations on funeral management
Article 4
Areas with dense population, little arable land and convenient transportation should be cremated; Where cremation conditions are not met, burial is allowed. Areas where cremation and burial are allowed shall be designated by the people's governments of provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government, and the civil affairs departments of the people's governments at the corresponding levels shall report to the civil affairs departments of the State Council for the record.