There are four major ghost festivals in China, which are the half of July, the Qingming Festival, the third day of March and the first day of October.

According to legend, every year from the first day of the seventh month, the king of Hades ordered the opening of the gates of hell, so that those who suffer and confine themselves in hell all the year round can come out of hell and get a short-term wandering to enjoy the blood and food of the world, so people call July the ghost month, this month is considered to be an auspicious month, neither marrying nor moving.

The 15th day of the seventh month of the lunar calendar every year is the annual "Ghost Festival" in China

Zhongyuan, according to legend, on this day, King Yama will open the gate of hell "Ghost Gate"

, let the imprisoned ghosts come out and roam freely, and they will not return to the underworld until the next day.

Therefore, during this time, the folk are popular to worship and summon the souls of their deceased relatives, burn the ingots of the dead money, paper clothes and candles, put river lanterns, and perform rituals to pray for the blessing of the ancestors, eliminate disasters and increase blessings, or overkill the souls of the dead, and resolve grievances.

There are a lot of taboos on the day of the Midyear Festival, and the old people in the countryside will tell their families early in the morning not to go out and run around today, and not to pick up things outside, especially money, even if it is real money, it is best not to see it.

Don't go out alone at night, and even if someone is talking together, it's best not to call them by their first name, so as not to be "good brothers" outside

Remember the name, that night is usually not to do laundry, some people say that hanging clothes outside is for "good brothers"

If you see it, it will wear away.

There are also things like not beating the dishes and chopsticks, not stealing sacrifices, and not saying that there are "ghosts"

In addition, many women in the past would have bangs, and all women would put their bangs up on this day, so as not to affect their fortune.

Compared with the Qingming Festival's return to the hometown to worship ancestors and outing, the mid-year festival in July and a half is more directly expressed, it is a simple "ghost"

The festival is even described by poets like this: the car is next to the willow tree, and the road has a whirlwind around the pond.

On this day, all ghosts are smiling, and every household is busy going to the grave.

Such a day is naturally not suitable for travel, but Lao Wan is a little more energetic than Xia Laoliu, and Cha Wenbin has to go to incense the master in the evening.

On this day, you must burn more paper money than usual, and you have to draw a circle in the place where the paper is burned, so as to prevent the passing wild ghosts from snatching it, and you must say in your mouth: "xxx, I sent you money to spend, and today my grandson and my brother and daughter have come to see you xxx"

After the burning, you must see that the fire is all extinguished before leaving, remember not to laugh and play, anyway, it is coming, it is best to stick to the rules until the end, so as not to annoy those "good friends" who celebrate the festival

Guys.

Cha Wenbin is different from ordinary people, he has to pay more attention to the things he prepares, and the yellow paper has prepared a total of thirteen knives, and each knife is divided into seven stacks.

There is also a kind of gold paper and silver paper, which is to be folded into the shape of ingots, and this thing is used by his master to take it down and beat those officials.

Now funeral parlors also have a lot of paper money, various types, all kinds of denominations, what is printed on the People's Bank of Heaven and Earth, with a face value of hundreds of millions or even tens of billions, which is very similar to the usual use of RMB.

The reason is very simple: it is also counterfeit money for the people below, and you add so many zeros for no reason to disrupt the market order and accelerate the depreciation of the dark currency.

If your ancestors really took 100 million coins to buy something below, it is estimated that they will be beaten to death again, so burn paper money to buy the most ordinary yellow straw paper.

If you want to pay more attention to it, teach you a way, take a real money, the denomination is arbitrary, press the real money on the paper, and feel that the real money is a poke, from right to left, from top to bottom, row by row, cover it until you can burn the whole piece of paper.

Cha Wenbin was also very careful on this day, because his parents were gone, and the fat man couldn't return home because of the long distance, so he simply drew a circle on the ground at the gate of Cha Wenbin's house, and read the names of his parents in his mouth, bowed three times and bowed nine times in the direction of his hometown and then burned.

This way of memorial is suitable for wanderers who go out, don't think that people are not at the grave can not be burned, as long as you are sincere, the ancestors can still feel your filial piety.

Whenever you encounter such a burning on the side of the road, don't step on those paper ashes, Cha Wenbin will say a sentence in his mouth every time he encounters this: "I'm sorry, borrow it." ”

Then you will go around the side, and you will really encounter a large row of the kind that you can't dodge, unless you are sure to jump over, or choose another way to safely.

At half past six, it was not too dark, and Cha Wenbin and his two brothers had already rushed to Hongcun with a flashlight.

It is said that the yin energy of this day is extremely strong, and the yang energy of people is the weakest day in the year, and the probability of going out to hit the evil is almost equivalent to going to the cemetery for the night on weekdays, so he does not hold it up, and rushes with a flashlight.

When I entered the village, I saw a few bear children being beaten, and it turned out that it was a group of unlucky people who were playing ghosts and lifting their feet in the open space at the entrance of the village.

It is estimated that many people have played that game, that is, a person stands on the feet of another person, and then is lifted by the person standing to walk, in fact, this game imitates the movements of the ghost's upper body.

The child didn't know, he was beaten and stiffened, and someone happened to know Cha Wenbin and said to the child: "That Taoist uncle has come out to catch ghosts, you still dare to fool around outside, be careful that the evil ghosts catch you......"

Many children now know Cha Wenbin, and in private they call him Uncle Taoist, and when they saw him really coming, all the naughty eggs ran away, which was more effective than the sticks in their parents' hands.

This made Cha Wenbin a little crying and laughing, when did he become synonymous with fear.

Originally, I wanted to go to Ma's house again to have a look, but seeing that the lights in the yard were still on, and there were a few people talking at the door, I guess there was no shortage of people at home, so I went straight to Lao Xia's house.

Lao Wan and Xia Lao Liu were still drinking, Lao Wan was a little tired after a busy day, and he drank a lot of wine tonight, and talked a lot, and when he saw him coming, he immediately shouted for Cha Wenbin to take him to see and understand.

Well, since you have to go, then go, Cha Wenbin has thought about it, there is a chestnut forest in the northwest of Hongcun and then in the big temple, and that place is a small ravine, even in the big summer, people in the ditch are shivering.

There are many wild graves in this forest, when I first came, there was a bandit in Hongcun called Li Lao Er, with a twenty-ring fast and slow machine on his waist, specializing in doing some unsightly things, he encountered the evil door in this forest and finally let Ma Sufeng save him.

Our locals also call it ** ditch, from this name you can hear, there are a lot of small forked roads in seven, seven or eight eight, and the chestnut tree has no characteristics, people walk in during the day It is easy to get themselves dizzy, not to mention a tombstone in the east and a tombstone in the west, not to mention who has nothing to run there at night.

There were a total of six people and a dog who went together, Lao Xia's father and son, plus Cha Wenbin's brothers, and Lao Wan.

Seeing Ye Qiu in a daze, it was very affectionate, and besides, this dog had been mixed up in the area of the big temple before, and it knew where there were ghosts better than people.

Walking along the road to the last house, the atmosphere is a little wrong, and there is a candle and a few fragrant candles burning there on the side of the road.

Lao Wan, maybe he has a lot of wine, but when he saw these things, he became more and more energetic, and shouted in his mouth: "Where, get it out and let me see." ”

It's also strange, Cha Wenbin specially wiped his cow tears and opened his eyes, he really didn't encounter a dirty thing along the way, and he was unusually quiet, which was left in the past to be the owner who was designated to pick up money on the side of the road, but he didn't meet any tonight.

When passing by the big temple, Cha Wenbin didn't forget to take a look at the opposite side, there was a strong lock hanging on the dark gate, and no one came to incense in the huge incense burner at the door, which was abnormal.

There were a few pieces of red cloth floating on the tall metasequoia tree on the side of the road, and judging by the color, it was a long time ago.

"Sixth uncle, why is no one here now?"

In my memory, there is a group of old ladies in Hong Village who will come here every fifteenth day of the new year to burn incense and pay tribute, no matter who was once enshrined in this temple, it is the only one and "temple" in this village

In the past, the incense was not very strong, but it has never been interrupted.

Xia Lao Liu used a lamp to shine on the huge metasequoia surrounded by three people and said: "Hey, once Aunt Liu from the entrance of the village below came here to burn incense and said that she ran into something unclean and went crazy when she went back, and she kept shouting that someone wanted to ask her for her life." Later, her son took a knife and slashed at the metasequoia three times, and it is said that what flowed out was bright red blood, and I don't know if it was true or not, anyway, you see that the knife marks are still there, just a year ago. ”

"Is Aunt Liu okay?"

"Okay, that's it, it's the evil door, her son will be fine a few days after he goes home, but she doesn't dare to burn incense here, she is the leader in the group of goddesses, and if she doesn't come, others won't dare to come."

Cha Wenbin glanced at the tree a few more times and didn't say anything more, he knew that things that lived for a long time were spiritual, and trees were no exception.

But this coincidence, Lao Wan understood it, and said to the tree: "You mean that this thing is very evil? Can you still bleed? In that case, I don't want to see any ghosts, let's go up and poke a knife, and I will believe it when I see blood. ”

After saying that, he was really about to pass, but Xia Lao Liu grabbed him and said, "This is our feng shui tree, you can't move." ”

Lao Wan thought that Xia Lao Liu was scaring him, the more he didn't believe it, maybe in front of his old comrades, Lao Wan could finally release the pressure of his daily life, or maybe he was the real Lao Wan, under the wrap of a police uniform, Lao Wan's pressure was too great, he also wanted to indulge once, and he also wanted to be as free and easy as Xia Lao Liu.

He patted the fat man and said, "Young man, lend me the dagger." ”

"Huh, how do you know?"

The fat man hurriedly covered his trouser leg, not remembering that he had ever exposed this thing.

He smiled: "Take it, don't underestimate the eyesight of an old criminal policeman." ”

Taking the fat man's dagger, Xia Lao Liu saw that he wanted to go and didn't stop him, so Lao Wan walked towards the big tree like this......