leisurely little farmer

Chapter 6: Village Funerals
In the early morning of the next day, the sun shone warmly on the earth, passed through the jungle and mountains, and shone on to Zhaojia Village.

In the distance, cries came from far and near, and the news of the death of Zhao Long's father also passed through the mountain village like sunshine.

Most of the customs and habits have been inherited from ancient times, and new ways have been continuously derived in the changing times. Each of these activities has superstition or etiquette at the beginning.There is a saying that "three miles do not meet each other", which means that the customs and habits may be different outside the three miles.Zhao Long's hometown is an extremely poor small village, so naturally this funeral is also very traditional and diverse.

I remember the scene in "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms" where Zhou Yu's wife and children wear filial piety after his death. The customs of Zhao Long's family are similar to those there.People with different identities wear different styles of filial piety. Even if the elderly don't know anyone from Zhao Long's family, they can know their relationship with the deceased just by looking at the filial piety on their body.For example, daughters, nieces, and nieces all wear filial piety shirts, but the white hoops on their heads are different. The daughters wear a loose button in front, while the nieces wear flat ones, while the nieces wear a small piece of red silk on it. To tie hemp rope between.

It is generally said that the funeral should be counted from the day of death, and it will end at noon on the third day.period, very complex

The first day of the funeral...

It is customary in the mountain village to keep a night watch, but because the father-in-law was buried on the same day, he was spared this trouble.But during the day, we still have to accompany the spirit. The coffin is placed in the middle of the courtyard, and the people who accompany the spirit (sons and daughters-in-law, nephews and nephews) kneel on both sides of the coffin.A stick of incense is lit in front, and two pieces of white wax are lit. Everyone who comes to express their condolences needs to kowtow to return the salute. I can’t count how many times I kowtowed and knelt on the ground this day. In the end, I may not be able to stand up after kneeling. up.

On this day, the village chief was busy up and down, and told the women in the village to hurry up and cut filial hats, filial gowns, filial shirts, etc. Except for the men who were related to Zhao Long’s family, the older laborers became cooks. Those who order will set up tents and set up tables for those who come to express their condolences to rest, etc., those who wash vegetables, chop vegetables, cook vegetables, platters, and keep accounts for condolences, etc. The people in the whole village, almost They all gathered here, listening to the village chief's orderly arrangements.The men and women of Zhao Long's family and Zhao Long knelt beside the coffin, burning paper money and keeping the fire in the brazier from extinguishing.

Tingting knelt down beside Zhao Long, with tears in her eyes, Zhao Long wiped her tears for Tingting after seeing her, Tingting knelt down on the left and right, and finally said to Zhao Long: "Brother My legs are so sore, brother, can I sit here and burn money for my dad?"

Zhao Long said in a low voice: "If Tingting really can't hold on, she can stretch her legs a little bit. However, if someone comes to express their condolences, when they come to pay respects, they have to kneel, you know? Well, hurry up and give Dad some more money." Burn some money."

"Yeah," Tingting nodded her head in agreement.
It was late at night on the first day, and basically all the relatives came. Everyone was exhausted, sad and sad.

The day after the funeral...

The transportation in mountainous areas is inconvenient, and the village is extremely remote. Therefore, there is generally no concept of cremation. Firstly, it is located in a remote mountainous area. Second, cremation needs to provide information such as the ID card of the deceased. Zhao Long’s family and the elderly in the entire village have never had it. What ID card these things.

The next day, at dawn, Tingting leaned against Zhao Long and woke up with a yawn. Tingting saw that Zhao Long had woken up without knowing when, and hurriedly asked, "Brother, when did you wake up?" Woke up? So early?"

"Tingting, brother, I didn't sleep, my brother is in good spirits." As he said, his hands were still adding paper money to the brazier one by one.

Zhao Long is also strange, there is no one who does not sleep for one night, even if he does not sleep, the next day his spirit is also sluggish, but now he is not only in good spirits, but also suddenly feels refreshed, he always feels that there is a gas in his body that is constantly moving, When Zhao Long felt tired, the gas moved quickly, and after that, he didn't feel tired at all.

Zhao Long then got up to take a rest, and when he walked to the door, the door was already covered with wreaths, on which were written so-and-so condolences, etc. There were two neat rows on both sides of the door, which made Zhao Long's mood , All of a sudden, I feel all kinds of flavors in my heart.

After returning, Zhao Long saw that there was a paper-made person on the left and right outside the coffin tent, and there were paper-made people not far away; horses, cows, and sedan chairs.TVs, cars, mountains of gold, mountains of silver.

Zhao Long was in a daze looking at these, when his mother came from behind and said, "Long! Go and take your father's clothes that you packed that day to the old house and burn them."

At this time, the village chief also came over, and added: "Yes, take it quickly, go to the house where your grandfather lives, and burn the clothes."

Zhao Long nodded, took his clothes, got on his bicycle and left. Not long after, he came to the old house, leaned the bicycle against the wall, took the clothes into the house, and started burning them beside the bed
This is the funeral custom of Zhaojia Village. First tidy up the clothes. Before the person dies, let the old man look at the clothes and let him remember that they are his clothes. Burning also means that you don’t have any distracting thoughts, and you can go with peace of mind when you leave, and you don’t have to look for things when you come back. Some people say that in the past, when the village was just established, an old man died, and the clothes were gone. In the first seven nights, when they heard the sound, the family saw that it was the old man who had come back. They were very angry and blamed their relatives for not giving him the clothes. After that, the old man would come and make a scene every night. After a few days, I quickly burned all the clothes. In the following three years, no crops could be grown in the family's farmland, and the family members fell ill one after another. Finally, the family thought that the old man was still angry, so they gritted their teeth and threw everything away. I sold it, including the humble house, and got 1000 yuan. At that time, the 1000 yuan was equivalent to half a year's income. I bought all the paper money and burned it for 49 days. Only then did my family gradually recover from illness, and the crops began to look a little bit better. .

Zhao Long continued to burn his father's clothes. Immediately, the scene of his childhood reappeared in his mind. After some time, Zhao Long suddenly smelled a burning smell. Even the bed was on fire, Zhao Long resisted to calm himself down, and hurried to the door to find a bucket, taking advantage of the fact that the fire was not too big and could still be put out, Zhao Long hurriedly ran to the edge of the well in the middle yard and quickly set the well down. The rope on the side was tied to the bucket, and he quickly threw it down the well.

Zhao Long suddenly had a bad feeling, it was done in the past, decades have passed, and the funds were insufficient at that time, the drilling was very shallow, now there is no water, it has become a dry well, Zhao Long ran back to the house with an empty bucket Li looked at it and said to himself: "Water...water! Where is water...????"

"By the way, space!" Zhao Long thought of his own space, which is rich in water resources. Zhao Long quickly recalled everything in the space, opened his eyes and saw that he was standing in the space without daring to think about it. , He picked up a bucket of water and went out of the space, and poured all the bucket of water towards the uncontrollable fire.Zhao Long hurriedly brought another bucket of water, and seeing that there was still a small fire, he poured out half of the bucket and left half of the bucket.

Zhao Long washed his face, felt the water was unusually cool, couldn't help but take a sip, the taste was really refreshing, Zhao Long looked at the half-burned bed, not only lingering in fear

Zhao Long washed his face, rectified himself, and rode his bike back without mentioning the fire to anyone.I went back to watch the spirit in the coffin
Unknowingly at night, people will be invited to blow the trumpet at the funeral, as well as acrobatics and singing, etc. These are all customs in my hometown. As for the effect, some say it can relieve the atmosphere, and some say it can be seen by the dead. Watching the last scene, some people said that it was an ancient ceremony, and it was later transformed into this, mainly because of the opening of the final laying ceremony.

Before you know it, the main event is the Dian Dian, which means that all relatives and friends will perform the final worship. The process is, whoever shouts the name, whoever comes out, first kneels down three times from a distance, and then walks closer to the altar. The two people on the left and the right hold the steamed buns, incense, and white wine for the dead to worship, and pray three times in a row, and they kowtow at the end as a thank you
Some close relatives, or some kind of relatives, will cry to death when they look at the portrait so close to themselves, and there are people who come to pull it beside them. This process is most likely to make people more emotional.

After all the laying of the hall is completed, the playing, playing and singing will start, and will not end until around 12 o'clock at night.

Zhao Long and the others continued to guard their father's coffin in the mourning hall, not in any mood to care about the outside affairs. Tingting leaned against Zhao Long and felt a little sleepy. While burning paper money, Zhao Long was still thinking: that magical space Zhao Long wants to go into the space to understand everything in the space after sending his grandfather away.
The next morning, this is the third day, that is, the last day. Before noon, the coffin must be buried in the ground. After a series of worship, the village head finally shouted: "Lift up the coffin! Those who are kneeling in front of the brazier The eldest son, the uncle, held up the brazier with a brick under it, crying and shouting: "Father, the wind is on the way." He said and threw the whole brazier on top of the brick. Immediately, the whole brazier broke into several pieces. Afterwards, the relatives Seeing the coffin being lifted up by eight big men, and following the sound of the village chief raising the coffin again, everyone cried to death. This means that from now on, the old man will really leave this house forever, and the wailing on the scene escalated. At the top, the eldest aunt, aunt, and younger sister were all lying on the ground crying, and Tingting had already burst into tears by this time, shouting: "Daddy!Dad... Dad is gone! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! "

Zhao Long and the others followed the coffin on the road together, dragging the portrait of their father in their hands, their sleeves were already wet with tears, and they walked towards their field with heavy steps, where the grave had already been dug. With the sound of blowing and beating all the way, the coffin took about an hour to arrive at the place, and several people were waiting there with a shovel.

The coffin was placed on the ground. This orientation was seen by the Fengshui master hired by the village. He believed that burying in this orientation would surely protect future generations from promotion and wealth, and the safety of the whole family. At this time, all the paper wreaths, cars, gold mountains, Mountains, Golden Boys, Jade Girls, Cows, Horses.The TV, etc., were all piled up together. The village head looked at the time and hurriedly shouted: "Light the fire and burn the paper!" Then he threw a few coins into the grave, implying promotion and fortune.

Then they shouted: "Lift up the coffin, turn around!" Then several big men lifted up the coffin, turned it around the tomb three times, and then put the coffin into the tomb.Turning around the tomb three times means that it is also a tradition in Zhaojia Village. It means: turning around three times is to make the dead person dizzy, so that he can't find his way back and can't disturb his family.Firecrackers sounded, and the coffin was then buried in the tomb.After Zhao Long and others knelt down and worshiped, the uncle, as the eldest son, shoveled the first shovel of soil onto the coffin, which meant that the family had buried their relatives with their own hands, and then everyone left, leaving a few grave diggers to continue filling.

After the burial is completed, a few men with shovels return to the village, and a fire is lit at the entrance of the village. Everyone who has dug and buried the coffin has to jump over the fire, which is also meaningful. , which means: get rid of bad luck, and the villagers think that in order to avoid any unclean things following them, walking over the fire will also make them disappear.

When Zhao Long came back all the way, he suddenly didn't want to go back to work and wanted to develop at home, leaving his mother alone. Zhao Long was really reluctant and planned to discuss it with the village chief first. He knew that his mother would not agree. Hope, You can persuade your mother through the village chief...

(End of this chapter)