Chapter 422 Sweeping the Tomb and Worshiping the Ancestors 2

1.

At more than eight o'clock in the morning on April 5th, the spring took his wife Xu Dan and son Chunguang back to Shimengouzi Village on a motorcycle.

When I got home in the spring, more than a dozen people had gathered in the courtyard and hall, smoking and drinking tea, gossiping at the same time, and Chun Shuli and Zhang Xiuli were busy inside and out. These people who came were all elders of the Lao Chun family, and many of them were peers of Chun. Over the years, the Lao Chun family in Shimengouzi Village has slowly formed a habit that if there are major events or activities that need to be participated in collectively, they will invariably gather in the spring parents' homes, such as today's ancestor worship and tomb sweeping. This has become a habit, which comes from the hospitality of Chun Shuli and his wife, and also from the achievements of Chun and Chunyu brothers in society, and it is also a manifestation of Chun Shuli's prestige and status in the family.

After Spring entered the door, he warmly greeted Lao Chun's family one by one, and the young man laughed and laughed with Chun and Xu Dan. The eyes of the old people have long been attracted by the chubby son Chunguang in the spring, and they have stepped forward to play with Chunguang, the child Chunguang does not recognize life, and can already stretch out two little arms to move a few steps in the yard by himself, and the toddler posture like Donald Duck makes people laugh.

In the spring, I hurriedly packed up the things used to worship the ancestors, such as wealth, offerings, tobacco and alcohol. At this time, other people in the Lao Chun family also rushed to the Chunshu family one after another, and the fourth uncle of the spring house, the Chunshu family, stood on the steps of the hall and counted the representatives of each family. This kind of tomb and ancestor worship during the Qingming Festival, each family has to produce a representative, generally the man who is in charge of the house, and there are also male protagonists with their sons.

After all the personnel arrived, under the greeting of the Chun Shujia, the team of the old Chun family to worship the ancestors in Qingming set off in a mighty way. More than 30 people opened a long line, and Chunshujia took the lead in the front of the line with a proud face. To a large extent, this is a demonstration of family power, a demonstration of family cohesion, and the best way to promote filial piety and family affection. In Shimengouzi Village, there is no family like Lao Chun's family, which has many family doors and is united and good.

The men went out to worship their ancestors and sweep the tombs, and the women of the family were not idle at home, they had to prepare the noon food and drink before the men went home, and waited for the men to come home and put on a feast. Like Chun Shuli's house, one or two tables are set up every year on the Qingming Festival, and the men in the family will take turns to drink, which is very lively.

2.

In the Toyama area, there are many cumbersome procedures for worshipping ancestors and sweeping tombs during the Qingming Festival.

According to custom, the order of sacrificial sweeping is to sweep the tomb first, that is, to clean the cemetery. The second is the sacrifice, this procedure is very critical, one is to send sorrow, the other is to feel with the ancestors, because the mountain has a spirit and no owner, the ancestors have a master and no spirit, and the ancestors can better get the aura of heaven and earth, in order to bless the descendants. This is also commonly known as Yin House Feng Shui.

When sweeping the tomb, it is necessary to bring offerings, wealth and other items to the cemetery, offer food to the tomb of the ancestors, and then incinerate the wealth and silk, cultivate new soil for the tomb, and trim the tomb to press some paper money, (this is to inform the gods of heaven and earth and others that this tomb still has descendants, not an ownerless tomb, and others or other living beings should not be easily offended.) Then prostrate and worship. The prostrations should also be performed in accordance with the principle of order, with the highest or respected person in the family (some of whom are the patriarch or the immediate family of the deceased) worshipping first, and the others in order of seniority and age.

The time of the Qingming Festival is generally completed from 7 am to 4 pm, this is because after 4 pm, the yang energy has gradually subsided, and the yin energy has gradually increased. Of course, this is a folk saying, and if you believe it, you don't believe it.

There are fifty or sixty ancestral graves of each family in the Lao Chun family, scattered on the slopes of various hills around Shimengouzi Village, some of the graves do not know who the tomb owner is because of the age, but there is a saying in the Hushan area that "the door does not fall into the grave", which means that the two families who have a bad relationship in the family, even if they do not talk to each other on weekdays, do not come to the door, but when worshipping the ancestors, they must go to each other's ancestral graves to burn a few pieces of paper money, which reflects filial piety and reverence for the ancestors. Therefore, as long as you know that it is the ancestral tomb of the ancestors of the Lao Chun family, whether you know who the owner of the tomb is, the descendants of the Lao Chun family must go over to pay respects.

It takes more than two hours to turn this circle. At twelve o'clock in the afternoon, Chun Shuli, Chun Shujia and Spring went home after sweeping the tomb. Two tables of wine and food had already been set up in the hall and on the kang, waiting for the men of the Lao Chun family to go home and sit down.

I drank this wine until the sun was setting, and in the spring I got so drunk that I had to stay at home for the night. Alcohol anesthetizes the cerebral cortex, but family affection is drunk on people's hearts, and the strong family affection that can't be given up will really make people intoxicated. It's a pity that in this era of rampant materialism and people's desire for "money", how many people can really put down fame and fortune to truly appreciate family affection?