Volume IV, Chapter 87 Funeral Attendees
After Qin's father died, Qin Yufan informed all the relatives and friends of the Qin family of the news of his father's death.
After learning of Qin's father's death, Qin Yufan's two aunts' family and other family members rushed to Qin's house first. Subsequently, some other relatives of the Qin family also rushed to the Qin family one after another.
Due to the relatively long distance, Qin's father's relatives in Henan's hometown only came with a few representatives from each family. They also rushed to Qin's house in advance by train the day before Qin's father's funeral, and came to the funeral for Qin's father.
Father Qin's father had a large number of brothers and sisters. Except for one of his siblings, who married in Qinghai Province, the rest lived in their hometown in Henan.
Qin's father was the second oldest of his many siblings. He has a brother and a sister, a second brother and a second sister. Of them, with the exception of his fourth brother and wife, as well as his sister in Qinghai Province, who is still alive, the rest have passed away. Due to the tight time and the long distance, the families of these cousins of Qin's father, each of whom had several representatives, came to attend his funeral.
Qin's father is a very important friend in his life. He and his cousins, though thousands of miles apart, have not lost touch. Whenever there is a festival and encounters a "big event", they still come and go with each other.
His relatives in his hometown, except for his eldest uncle and aunt when he died, due to the "** movement" (Qin's father was imprisoned in the cowshed at the time, and Qin's mother was not long after giving birth to Qin Yufan), and their family was unable to attend his eldest uncle's funeral for some reason, the rest of the people he attended their funeral.
Just seven or eight years ago, after his third uncle died, he and his wife led Qin Yufan's two sisters to the funeral. Because of this, after his death, his cousins and relatives rushed here from their hometown in Henan to mourn him.
Qin's father's uncle's family was also a large family, and their family also lived in a village not too far from his hometown. Qin's grandfather was a small local rich man at the time, and his family married several concubines, and his mother was the child of one of his grandfather's aunts.
He has two half-brothers and a half-sister on his mother. There is a brother of the same parents. Of his mother's many siblings, all but one of her half-sisters-in-law and sister-in-law are still alive.
Therefore, after Qin's father died, several representatives from his uncle's family and his aunt's family each came, and they rushed here to attend his funeral.
Among all the relatives who came to the Qin family today, especially the relatives of Qin's mother's family were the most numerous.
Qin's mother's family lives in a rural village only a dozen kilometers away from City A. Her mother's family can be regarded as a "big family" in their village. The clan members are very large, accounting for more than 70 percent of their village.
Mother Qin has many brothers and sisters. She had two older sisters and a brother, and a brother and two younger sisters. Cousin siblings are even more numerous.
Among her many relatives, except for her second sister's family and a cousin's family, who were out of town, and failed to make it to her house, the rest rushed here.
Qin Yufan's grandfather was trapped by hunger due to living conditions in the early sixties of the last century, and accidentally ate some poisonous wild vegetables and contracted "skin swelling disease" when he was "******". Soon after, he passed away prematurely. Since then, her grandmother has been alone and painstakingly pulling their siblings to adulthood.
Early this morning, Qin Yuji's grandmother, with the support of one of her granddaughters, also rushed here from the countryside more than ten kilometers away.
Don't look at this old woman who is 83 years old, and her teeth have already fallen out. But she is not deaf or blind. Sometimes you don't need to be supported when you walk, and your body can be strong!
Qin Yufan treats her grandmothers, not to mention how filial she is! Whenever she encounters her grandmother's birthday or the New Year's holidays, she will take her grandmother to live in her house for some time.
When the two Qin Yufan sisters were young, whenever they had summer vacations or winter vacations, the two sisters spent most of their time at her grandmother's house. Her aunts and uncles also treated their two nieces from the city differently.
The sisters receive special "preferential treatment" every day in their home. Several of her cousins are also very "loving" to the two sisters. If anything happens, let the two sisters first. The two sisters have been in their home as casually as if they were in and out of their own home since they were children.
These people, early this morning, all rushed to Qin's house early.
After 12 noon, Qin Yufan's relatives and friends basically arrived at Qin's house on time.
After seeing that all the relatives and friends of the Qin family had basically arrived, with the host's order, Qin's father's funeral slowly began.
After the funeral began, the female relatives of the Qin family first cleaned the cemetery for Qin's father under the leadership of the band, and then the male relatives of the Qin family invited back the ancestral spiritual seat of the Qin family under the leadership of the band.
After the "spirit" was over, they began to pay homage to Qin's father's spiritual seat, and then began to bring the gifts of their relatives back to Qin's father's spirit in order.
Due to the fact that the Qin family has more relatives. The ritual began at 11 a.m. and continued until after five o'clock in the afternoon, when it gradually came to an end.
That night, the courtyard of the Qin family was even more lively. Watching the lively crowds almost the entire alleyway is crowded.
In the alley not far from the gate of the Qin family, dozens of cars are neatly parked in the shape of "one". These cars are blocking the already narrow lanes. Only a small passage was left for pedestrians. Next to these cars, a dozen little urchins are playing with the cars and laughing beside them.
Due to the narrow lanes, the Qin family originally planned to show movies in the lanes, but they were forced to move to the street outside the lanes. At this time, the streets were already crowded with people watching movies. They've blocked the whole street. When all the passing cars got here, they had to turn around again and take a detour.
After passing through the crowded streets and entering the laneway, he came to the gate of Qin Yufan's house. I saw that in the center of the gate of the Qin family, there was a paper flower cut out of hemp paper. On the walls on either side of the gate are a black and white couplet. The upper part of the elegiac couplet reads: Go first before the ambition is prepared, and the lower couplet reads: The children and grandchildren who hate the children and grandchildren are full of tears. The banner reads: Forever.
On both sides of the gate, less than a meter away from the gate, hang two "dragon lanterns" made of cloth. Inside the dragon lantern is a string of colorful lanterns, which are shining one after another.
On the left and right sides of the gate of the Qin family, dozens of wreaths of different sizes were placed on each side. At the top of the list is a large wreath. It is a wreath collectively laid by Qin's father's unit during his lifetime. Behind the large wreath lay dozens of wreaths that were slightly smaller than it. They are wreaths laid by Liu Jianguo, the general manager of Qin Yufan's unit, and several other leaders. Behind these wreaths are also wreaths offered by the two sisters Qin Yufan and Chen Yongfu. On the right side of the gate are some flowers presented by the relatives of the Qin family and the relatives of the Qin father in Henan, in addition, behind these wreaths are also placed some wreaths presented by some of the relatives of the Qin family during his lifetime, as well as some wreaths offered by the relatives of the Qin family.
On either side of these wreaths hangs a note made of white paper, on which are written simple couplets and the names and units of the dedicators. Around these wreaths, there were several crowds of people watching the excitement. One by one, they were judging the wreaths.
After entering the gate of the Qin family, I saw a lively scene. I saw that the entire Qin family's courtyard was full of people watching the excitement. In the center of the crowd, there were more than a dozen entertainers. One by one, they were shaking their heads and tearing their voices and singing "sit in the stall". Among them, there are not only the Qin dialect that we Shaanxi people love to listen to, but also the Henan Henan opera that Henan people like to listen to.
These crowds of people watching the excitement almost filled the entire courtyard of the Qin family. Some of them, because they couldn't see the play inside, stood on chairs and tables and watched the play.
After passing through the lively crowd, I came to the door of the upper room of the Qin family, and on the right side of the door of the upper room of the Qin family, there was the place where the mourning hall of Qin's father was parked.
In the innermost part of Qin's father's mourning hall, Qin's father's coffin was parked, and a quilt was placed on top of the coffin. On the lid of the coffin, near the front of the coffin, there is an oil lamp. The faint flame on the oil lamp was swaying gently in the breeze.
The two ends of the coffin were covered with wheat straw, and on the wheat straw, Qin Yufan and Qin Yunan sisters were wearing heavy filial piety, and one knelt on the wheat straw to guard the "spirit" for their father. There were also several women kneeling beside the two of them, and they were also crying Father Qin. The whole mourning shed was full of weeping.
Outside Qin's father's coffin, there was a cloth curtain. Outside the curtain is Qin's father's "mourning hall". The mourning hall enshrines the spiritual seat of Qin's father. In the center of the mourning hall is a black and white portrait of Qin's father, which is more than a foot long. On the portrait, Qin's father had a smile on his face, and he looked particularly amiable.
The frame is surrounded by "black gauze".
In front of the statue, there is a "tribute" to Qin's father. There were a lot of things in the "tribute", and only a few were also arrested.
On both sides of the "tribute", there are two delicate small "incense burners" on the left and right, and there are more than a dozen incense sticks in each of the "incense burners". Green smoke is rising from the "incense". The entire incense burner is surrounded by green smoke, giving people a mysterious atmosphere. It is as if you have entered the atmosphere of a fairyland.
Outside the mourning hall, all the male filial sons of the Qin family formed a circle. These people were offering food to Father Qin.