The so-called funeral is the whole process from the moment when a person dies in a mountain village to the moment when he dies to the time he is buried in the earth. In the countryside, red and white things are very important, red and white things are divided into red things and white things, red things include good things such as marrying a wife and having children or high school and the first, and white things are the funerals handled by people when they die. There are two kinds of funerals, one is called happy funeral, that is, the elderly die due to old age and normal physical failure. The other is called violent mourning, that is, the funeral of people who die under abnormal circumstances, including car accidents, hanging, drinking medicine, etc., this kind of dead people are not experiencing normal birth, old age, sickness and death, most of them are young people. Today, we are talking about funeral, for the situation of joy and mourning.

Death is a terrifying word for everyone, everyone hopes that they will live a long life and live forever, whether it is from the poor people at the bottom of the society to the high-ranking officials and emperors at the highest level of society. But life is just a process, and everyone cannot escape the natural cycle of birth, old age, sickness and death. Throughout the ages, especially those at the highest level, they always hope that they will get eternal life, from the childhood of Qin Shi Huang's three thousand boys and boys overseas to find medicine, but in modern times people through scientific and technological means to prolong life, but in the end are in vain, slowly people began to understand that people will eventually die, since they can't stop this result, then they hope that their souls after death can get eternal life in another world. In China, the so-called souls, that is, ghosts, will eventually enter the underworld, pass through the judgment of the ten halls of Hades, and finally go to the place where they should go. A person who is kind in the human world can eventually become an immortal or be reincarnated as a human. And those who do all kinds of evil in the yang world and steal chickens and dogs will end up being tortured over and over again by the punishment of the underworld, and finally sent to the eighteen layers of hell, or reincarnated in the next reincarnation and become chickens, ducks, geese, dogs, and so on.

When a person is about to breathe, relatives will gather around him, and at this time, there is also this dying person, and the previous generation will also come to him, others can't see it, but the person who is about to breathe can see it, for example, his dead parents come back, and they are considered to have come to pick him up and leave together, but children under the age of 7 can see it, because children under the age of 7 have not experienced the pollution of the world, and their eyes are relatively clear, so when that person is about to die, children are not allowed to be around. At this time, the dying person will experience a short return to the light, everyone understands that this is about to fail, and then quickly let the relatives put on the shroud, do not wait until the person dies to wear it, there are two main reasons, one is that the person dies and the body is stiff, and it is not easy to wear clothes. Second, if he wears it after he breathes, if his relatives dream of him in the future, he will wear old clothes.

When the breath is swallowed, the soul of the deceased person will leave the body and will wander around, which cannot be called a ghost at this time, but can only be regarded as a soul. The spirit will float around, watching what is happening, and it will not know that it is dead. At this time, there will be special people in the countryside, that is, people call half-fairies, will roll a dummy with straw paper, and then through special means, attach the soul of the dead person to this dummy, so as to prevent it from running around. After attaching it, let the children of the deceased hold the dummy, cry all the way, and store it in the temples around the village.

At this time, the deceased had already put on their shrouds, and the coffins had been placed in the courtyard, and the coffins were generally covered with red lacquer, and were placed on two benches, with the coffin head facing the gate. The inside of the coffin is pasted with chalk paper. When all this is ready, the people will carry the dead into the coffin and then close the lid. There is incense on the head of the coffin, and a magnetic tile basin will be placed under the head of the coffin, which is used to place the ashes after the paper money has been burned. Relatives of the deceased will come in twos and threes to burn paper and worship.

The time of the funeral is calculated through the half-fairy, which is usually in the morning. Everyone was ready to wait for the funeral. The time of the funeral must be auspicious, and when the hour is approaching, there will be a farewell ceremony, and someone will open the lid of the coffin to let the close relatives and the deceased say goodbye for the last time. At this time, it is not allowed to cry, let alone let tears drip into the coffin. When the ritual is completed, the coffin is covered with lids and riveted to prepare for the resurrection. When the coffin is lifted, the eldest son of the deceased will carry the clay pot with the ashes on top of his head and kneel on both knees. There is a stone in front of the body, and then you suddenly bow your head and drop the clay pot on the stone accurately, which is called a mourning basin. If the pot is not broken, the relatives of the deceased will quickly pick up the pot, hold it with both hands and rush back to the house, and then put it in a rice jar and bury it with rice, at this time the pot is called a cornucopia. If it breaks, the ashes in the jar will scatter to the ground, and a clear mark can be seen on the ashes, some like chicken footprints, some like cow hoof prints, and some like human footprints. These footprints correspond to what the deceased person will be reincarnated into in the next life.

After the completion of the coffin, everyone carried the coffin on the road, each of the women of the family held a mourning stick made of willow wood, and followed the crying all the way, and after the halfway point, the women were not allowed to enter the cemetery, they would throw the mourning stick in their hands to the side of the road, and then return home. Others carried the coffin into the cemetery and buried it at the exact hour.

The end of all this means that the burial procedure is over, that is, the body of the deceased is buried in the ground. After that, when the sun is about to set, the final step is --- sending the coil entanglement, which is also the most important part of the whole funeral, sending the soul of the deceased away.

In the afternoon, when the sun was about to turn west, the relatives of the family would bring all kinds of utensils to the open space at the southwest end of the village. If the deceased is a man, he needs to roll a paper horse, and if a woman is a paper ox, this is particular. These paper cows and horses will act as the foot force of the dead on the way to the underworld, and as for the women's paper cows, there is also a special purpose, on the way to the underworld, there will be a large river, muddy. When a female soul comes to the river, it needs to drink all the dirty water that was used to wash clothes when it was born, and this paper cow comes in handy, and it will be responsible for drinking this dirty water. The family would also cook some dumplings and bring them in a bowl, as well as toiletries such as a washbasin and comb. When everything is ready, the children of the deceased will go to the temple where the paper figures are kept, and carry them all the way. At this time, someone will come to wash and clean the paper man, and feed some dumplings to the paper man. Finally, they will take a mirror to look at the face of the dummy, and at this time, children under the age of seven can see the appearance of the deceased in the mirror. When everything is done, the people will burn the paper cow and the paper money, along with the paper man. At this time, the dead man really knew that he was dead, and he also started his journey to the underworld.

After Liu Wuye finished talking about this, the sun was already in the west, and I could listen attentively, and I had forgotten the time. Liu Wuye smacked his lips and smiled at me, "Boy, haven't you heard enough?" ”

Although I have seen the general appearance of the funeral, I am still ambiguous about some details, and I don't believe in the exquisiteness of those gods. casually said, "Fifth master, you said that people are dead, can you really be seen by children when you send the plate to be entangled?" ”

Liu Wuye pursed his lips and said, "Don't believe it, I have experienced ..... myself," and then lit a dry cigarette and took two puffs, and began to talk again.

At that time, Liu Wuye was still young, that is, in his thirties, it was the time to walk the streets and alleys to sell crafts, and one autumn, the weather was getting colder. I went around outside for a few days, and because it was cold, there wasn't much work. Liu Wuye picked up the craftsman Shi'er to rush to the village, and when he arrived at the head of the village, it was already the end of the sun, and he could vaguely see the shadows of the people in the village appearing in sight. Liu Wuye also breathed a sigh of relief, thinking in his heart that he was finally going home, so he hurried home and drank some liquor to warm up his body. As he spoke, he threw his pick on his shoulders and walked towards the broken archway not far away. At this time, I suddenly saw a person not far away, sitting sideways on the back of a scalper, and was walking towards him. Liu Wuye muttered in his heart, who would ride a cow out of the village at such a late hour.

Because people traveled in the past, in addition to walking, they were riding donkey carts, or riding cattle and horses, Liu Wuye didn't care, so he continued to walk forward towards that person, and as the two people got closer and closer. Liu Wuye also gradually saw the face of the person clearly, it turned out to be the old woman of the He family, this old woman is over 70 years old, she is usually an idle person, and she always goes door to door when she is fine. So Liu Wuye couldn't be more familiar.

While speaking, the two walked to the front, and Liu Wuye hurriedly greeted, "Aunt He, where are you going so late?" ”

I only looked at the old woman of the He family, wearing a new dress, sitting on the back of a cow, her face was red but there was no expression, she looked wooden and stiff, she just looked at Liu Wuye sideways, and said, "I have nothing to do, go out on a long trip." Then he turned his head in the other direction, and sat down on the back of the ox and staggered past him. Liu Wuye was inexplicable, thinking that this old woman usually doesn't go out much, and she is a chatterbox, and when she sees others, she always talks non-stop in her mouth, what's wrong today.

Liu Wuye just shook his head and continued to walk towards the village.

When he arrived at home, as soon as Liu Wuye put down his pick, he saw Xizi in the village coming over with a cigarette in his mouth, and Liu Wuye asked casually, "Xizi, just now I saw the old woman of the He family riding a cow out of the village, and I don't know what to do." ”

Kiko stopped abruptly, stunned. Then he stumbled and said, "You, who did you just see?" ”

Liu Wuye was also stunned, and said, "I saw the old woman of the He family who loves to hang out!" ”

Xizi was shocked and said, "This wife died last night, and she will be at the funeral today!" ”

Liu Wuye was shocked.

Kiko said again, "It's really hell today, and you're not the only one who saw it." ”

Although Liu Wuye was scared in his heart, as soon as he heard Xizi say, he also wanted to know what was going on, so he asked Xizi to tell him what happened today. Xizi snuffed out the cigarette butt and talked to Liu Wuye.

This old lady of the He family has two sons, she usually lives with her second son, the second family of He is an ordinary three-room black tile house, the two and a few years old children live in the west house, and the old woman lives in the east house by herself. The old woman got up last night to go to the toilet, because the toilets in the countryside are usually not far from the house. The sound of her getting up to go to the toilet and opening the door, He Er heard it, he knew that his old mother had the habit of going to the toilet in the middle of the night, and he didn't think much about it. As a result, after an hour, I didn't hear the sound of the old lady going back to the house, and I faintly felt that it was not right, so I got dressed and hurried out to take a look, the toilet of their house was on the east side of the house, He Er came out of the door, looked at the east side of the house, and saw a person lying on the ground by the faint moonlight, He Er was shocked, and quickly stepped forward to check, and only after a look did he know that it was his old mother lying motionless on the ground, and when she touched her nose, she had already lost her breath.

In this way, the funeral and burial were arranged the next morning. When it was time to send the dish in the afternoon, everyone in the village was there, and Kiko was also there at that time. Everyone lit the paper cow and paper money on fire, and it was almost time to burn out. At this time, I only saw the child of He Er's family standing motionless by the fire, this child is He Er's son and the only grandson of He's wife, this child is five or six years old. Everyone wondered why this kid was standing there stunned.

Kiko walked over and said, "It's all gone, what are you still standing here for!" With that, he dragged the child to his side.

At this time, I heard the child say, "Don't burn it, my grandmother is alive." ”

Hearing what the child said, everyone was startled, and hurriedly said, "What do children know, don't talk nonsense!" The child solemnly pointed to the table next to the fire and said, "I'm not lying, you see my grandmother eating dumplings there, I'm going to eat them too!" ”

At this time, the child's mother hurriedly came over, picked up the child and left, touched the child's head and said, "Don't eat that, let's go home and give you candy." The people also packed up the fire and hurried away.

After Liu Wuye listened to Xizi's words, it was already dark. After a few perfunctory words, he entered the house and turned on the light. I can't put it into words. I picked up the barrel and poured two sips, but I still felt a chill in my back.