Shanghai is prosperous

Chapter 392
Early the next morning, Wang Yiyuan, Xiao Xiaoxiao, Xiaotian, sister and aunt each brought various sacrifices such as "Qingming Diaozi", three animals, firecrackers, paper money, joss sticks, etc. prepared for the Qingming Festival, and went to visit their parents' graves on the Qingming Festival. .

Tomb-sweeping is also called grave-sweeping in my hometown.In rural areas, there are usually many graves in a cemetery. Of course, the dead in it are basically from their own village, and most of them are from the same family.

This is an ancient public cemetery, and it is also a relatively concentrated cemetery for the ancestors of the Wang family.Wang Yiyuan's grandparents, father, mother, and even older elders are all buried here.

Therefore, when going to the grave to burn paper, Wang Yiyuan could not only burn paper to worship his parents, grandparents, but also to burn a few pieces of paper money in the adjacent graves to show respect, after all, they are neighbors of his ancestors.

Of course, he also knew that if he didn't go to the tombs of his ancestors to burn paper for sacrifice, his relatives would poke his back and criticize him when he returned.

Before going up the mountain, motorcycles were parked in twos and threes on the side of the mountain road and on the hillside.These villagers, who got up early, came to the mountain early to "go to the grave" and "plant greens" for the deceased ancestors.

The custom in my hometown is to visit the graves of deceased ancestors twice a year.One is to go to the cemetery on the morning of New Year’s Eve or before New Year’s Eve, and invite ancestors and old people to go home for a new year together; the other is to go to the grave before the Ching Ming Festival or before the solar term, which is called "chaqing", and "Qingming Diaozi" is hung on the cemetery.

During the Ching Ming Festival, paper streamers of different lengths on the cemetery are hung on the branches of the graves.Qingming Diaozi all over the graves stretch out like tassels and tassels on the graves, fluttering in the breeze, or yellow and white paper chrysanthemums flicker among the flying flowers and leaves.

In this strange feeling, Wang Yiyuan seemed to hear a voice reminding him: it's time to visit his parents' graves, and it's time to go to the door of their old man's house to pay their respects.

There are many people going to the grave.Wang Yiyuan knew these people, but basically they didn't speak loudly, they just nodded silently to each other.

A group of people came to the grave of their parents.This is a long cone-shaped pile of barren grass, and the green weeds are already overflowing among the withered and yellow weeds.The stone tablet erected a few years ago was somewhat mottled, and the color of the inscription on the surface of the tablet is not very bright, but it can still be clearly seen that the names of Wang Yiyuan, younger brothers, sisters and grandchildren are arranged in sequence on the surface of the tablet.

Looking at the blue-gray stone tablet, Wang Yiyuan suddenly felt a sense of solemnity.The inscriptions on these steles seem to silently express the respect and remembrance of the children and grandchildren.

He brushed away some damp withered grass on the altar, curled up, and began to clean the grave hole buried by weeds. First, he lit two candles and three sticks of incense sticks.

My sister greeted Xiaotian, Xiao Xiaoxiao and the others began to clean up the weeds around the cemetery, clear the tombstones, and clean up the grave.

According to the saying handed down by the older generation, trimming the grass and trees on the grave is related to the family members' Feng Shui, health and luck.A clean and tidy tomb is conducive to smooth and healthy life, and there will be no trivial matters.

In rural areas, most people go to the grave with a shovel.The custom in my hometown is the season of tomb-sweeping in the Qingming Festival. No matter where the descendants are, they will always go to the cemetery to worship for the ancestors to relieve their missing.In addition to being full of piety, many people often add some new soil to the grave when they go to the grave.Adding new soil means to repair the house for the ancestors, in case the soil on the grave is thin and affects the foundation of the ancestors.

Wang Yiyuan also thought about adding some soil to the grave.

My sister said, there is a lot to pay attention to when cultivating soil.Generally speaking, three times will do.The soil from these three strokes must be scattered on the grave of the parents, and cannot be photographed or deducted.Buckling and clapping are both disrespectful to parents and unfilial.

Of course, the most important activity of going to the grave is to insert the "Qingming Diaozi" in front of the grave.

Hanging "Qingming Diaozi" is a unique humanistic custom in Wang Yiyuan's hometown. "Qingming Diaozi" evolved from the soul-calling paper banners, due to the custom of planting willows during outings.This kind of "Qingming Diaozi" is woven with bamboo strips, decorated with paper flowers and paper garlands, with clusters of flowers and ribbons fluttering.

Wang Yiyuan remembers the previous practice, which was to simply cut out strings of white paper. The meaning expressed by "Qingming Diaozi" is that whether a grave is hung green or not is a sign of whether a family has successors, prosperity, and filial father and son.

Now people have innovated on the "Qingming Diaozi", just like the one my sister bought back now. Instead of hanging the long paper strips, they are replaced with string flowers of various colors, which is called "Qingming Diaozi". "Qingming Hanging Flowers" means that a hundred flowers bloom together.

"Qingming Diaozi" is divided into two types: hanging and inserting, which can be hung on branches or inserted on the ground.They are hung in front of the grave like this to call back souls, commonly known as hanging green.

The more "hanging greens" on a grave, the more prosperous the family of the owner of the tomb is.Express the memory of the deceased and pray for the blessing of the deceased.

My sister said that the economy is not as developed as before, and "Qingming Diaozi" has also changed and improved accordingly.You can't hang only one color like before, or you will be alone.

She said that it would be better to put some flowers or wreaths on the parents' graves, just because we are really short on time, and this time it is really too late to prepare.

Wang Yiyuan knelt on the ground, dipped a brush into the red paint, and stroke by stroke the names of his parents on the tombstone, deliberately drawing red and deepening the color.While chanting words, I muttered in my mouth, and future generations will remember the names of their parents, and we should repay the merits of our parents. We will definitely keep it in our hearts.At the same time, I also pray to my parents to keep their children and grandchildren safe and happy.

The elder sister placed the food and supplies for the sacrifice in a bamboo plaque.After Wang Yiyuan "hanged green", he brought a stack of yellow paper dripping with chicken blood, pressed it on the grave with turf, and then placed twelve pieces of silver paper around the grave, and began to hold a simple sacrificial ceremony.

Opening the lid of the wine bottle, Wang Yiyuan filled the three cups with wine, picked up the bottle and spilled some on the ground.Then he squatted down, devoutly put the money paper to be burned for his parents in the earthen basin under the table, and lit it with a match.

Wang Yiyuan flicked the flame, and muttered in his mouth: "Father, mother, sister, me, Xiaoxiao, Xiaotian, and grandchildren are here to visit your grave! I will send you some money. You should save it well. Don't save it, just spend what you need, ah..."

While talking with sobs, Wang Yiyuan took the lead in kowtowing, and his sisters also followed his example, kowtowing to the graves of their parents, and kneeling in front of their parents' graves.

Firecrackers are lit.All of a sudden, there was a clear and crisp sound, which reverberated violently in the mountains...

(End of this chapter)