The custom of hanging green

Every year in Tomb-Sweeping Day, people get together to pay homage to the graves of their ancestors, mourn their ancestors, comfort their ancestors and care for future generations.

Repairing the tomb, or sweeping the grave, means that before hanging paper, people first check whether the grave has been punched by pikas and collapsed. After adding soil to the grave and weeding, they offered sacrifices such as knives and candy, and burned money to melt paper. Hakkas hang paper carefully. They first dug a piece of green turf with a hoe and put a stack of yellow paper dripping with chicken blood on the grave with turf. Then, put twelve pieces of silver paper around the grave. In addition to the purpose of hanging tomb paper, there is also a symbol of blood sacrifice.

Finally, the people cut white paper into paper strings and hung them in front of graves to evoke spirits, commonly known as hanging green.

When hanging paper, you should first remove the weeds growing on the ancestral graves, and press the tomb paper on the graves with pebbles or bricks, indicating that the graves have heirs, otherwise it will be easily mistaken for the solitary graves without owners and destroyed. When "hanging green", some worshippers will offer sacrifices at the same time, burn some paper money, or hold a simple sacrifice ceremony to express their memory of the deceased and pray for the blessing of their ancestors.

The more complicated the procedure, the more rules worshippers follow, such as time. They often choose the morning, and it is generally not suitable for "hanging green" at dusk. In their view, Tomb-Sweeping Day is the meeting point where yin declines and yang rises. If it is "hanging green" at night, it will bring back ominous.

According to different regions, "hanging green" activities are slightly different.

The simplest thing is to hang a string of paper cut with white Qingming paper on the graves of ancestors.

There are also some clans and local admirers who distinguish between male tombs and female tombs when hanging green. They hung white "hanging green" on the male tomb, while the female tomb tied red lanterns at the top of the white paper string as a distinction and ornament.

Tomb paper can be divided into white, red and yellow antique paper and five-color paper (red, yellow, blue, white and black), and multi-color paper is used to cover tiles or express future generations' memorial.

However, with the improvement of people's living standards and the deepening of their understanding of nature, the activity of "hanging green" has lost many rules and superstitions, and most people just regard it as memories and thoughts of their ancestors.

faithful record

The ancient city of Longli was formed in the early Ming Dynasty, which was the product of the central government's strengthening its rule over remote areas and the infiltration of Central Plains culture into minority cultures since the Ming Dynasty.

From the end of March, the preparations for "hanging up" began. Renowned representatives (leaders) of various ancestral halls have begun to plan and arrange Qingming "hanging Qing" affairs with their clansmen. The list of people in charge of various affairs has been posted, such as purchasing, reception, chef, kitchen helper, etc. At the same time, relatives of the same family who are far away from home have been informed to participate in the "hanging up" activity on time.

At noon on April 9, on the oil road nearly 4 kilometers from Longli Village to Wangjiabang Village, shuttle buses, agricultural vehicles, motorcycles and pedestrians formed a huge and endless "hanging up" team. The leading team is carrying a big red account and holding a big sign of "Yang family hangs clear and worships ancestors in a civilized way", and every car behind it is written with the words "Yang family's eight-ladle ancestor worship team" and "Yang family's eight-ladle ancestor worship team".

There are at least 3000 people in this team.

In the past, women didn't have to go, they just needed to pay some money. In my hometown, if my parents-in-law are still alive, on the day of "Tomb-Sweeping Day", my married daughter and son-in-law will be taken back to their parents' home for the New Year by the old man! But the custom in my hometown: under normal circumstances, it is inconvenient and unnecessary for married women to go back to their parents' homes to participate in the "hanging" of the whole clan. But if the object of sacrifice is her grandparents or parents, her parents will kindly invite her to participate, so it is inconvenient and unnecessary to refuse!

The way of hanging is still to follow the old habits handed down by ancestors, remove weeds from the grave and its surroundings, insert a branch on the grave, and hang a note cut with white paper and paper money on the branch, put meat, wine and rice harrow in front of the grave, insert incense, and finally shoot and burn paper money. In other words, the paper money hanging on the grave branch is used by the dead and burned by hell.

I had a little accident when I was in the Pine Pavilion. Because there are too many graves, they have not been hung together for many years. We can't remember which big houses belong to us. Uncle Qiao Bao said there were eleven, and Uncle Shui Bao said there were thirteen. Finally, I was afraid that anyone who missed it would make me unhappy, so everyone hung up. It didn't end until almost five o'clock. It is said that before the dinner, people will bow down to Shintoism under the auspices of the oldest person. However, they were tired and hungry, and began to eat before everyone washed. The food is very rich and delicious. This is completely cooked by my uncle. A * * opened three tables, others can't sit down. Children have to eat standing up. The dinner table is very lively, and they haven't got together for a long time. Finally, everyone reached an understanding: no matter who arranges it in the future, everyone should try their best to arrange it and try to go back to their hometown, because it is not only a good opportunity to worship their ancestors, but also a good opportunity for everyone to reunite and blend.

Hang willow green.

"I won't plant flowers with my heart, but I don't care." Willow has a strong vitality. In the Compendium of Materia Medica written by Li Shizhen in the Ming Dynasty, "Willow leaves have the effect of clearing away heat and toxic materials and facilitating urination". Modern pharmaceutical analysis shows that willow contains tannic acid, salicylic acid, iodine and other effective components, which can play a role in convergence, sterilization and pain relief. Traditional Chinese medicine has been using fresh weeping willows (hipsters commonly known as silk willows) to treat measles common in children in spring. In fact, it is scientific for Tomb-Sweeping Day to put willows on the door, which can "ward off evil spirits and get rid of diseases" (when the wind is cold, it will plague evil spirits).

In the Book of Songs, there is a record of "I have been there, Liu Yiyi". The ancients have always attached importance to emotion, and often like to fold willows to bid farewell to relatives and friends, or before and after the flowers of men, women and children, to show their reluctance.

The ancient book Jia Qinglu said: "During the Qingming Festival, willows are sold all over the street, and people buy willows to plug in the door." There are some agricultural proverbs in Chaoshan, such as "inserting willows to hang green, rejuvenating thousands of trees, benefiting farmers in the sun" and "inserting willows in front of the eaves, farmers looking at crops".

There is an old saying in Chaoshan, "If you don't insert willows in Qingming, beauty will be the first."

Folk: "Now it's clear, I heard that wicker was sold along the street, and I met my sisters, and a branch was inserted obliquely in Lv Yun."

Legend has it that the folk custom of inserting willows originated in the Tang Dynasty, and the wind of inserting willows in the Song Dynasty was extremely strong. In the Qing Dynasty, there were many interesting customs, such as folding willow, selling willow, wearing willow and giving people away.