Why do people have to do the first seven things after death?
Why do people do seven things after death? Most people have this custom. So, do you know what happens when someone dies? What are the folk funeral customs? Many people don't know much about these things. Let’s look at why people do seven after death.
Do you know why people do it seven times after death?
The old funeral custom of the Han people is called "making seven". That is, after a person dies (or after a funeral), a memorial tablet is set up seven days a week for the owner of the tree to cry and worship every day, to offer sacrifices in the morning and evening, to offer sacrifices to the Buddha once every seven days, and to set up fasting and memorial ceremonies until the 7th and 49th day of the seventh lunar month. Do you know why people do it seven times after death? Let’s learn about supernatural Feng Shui together!
Those who have passed away and those who have been born (people who have done great good in this life will be reborn after death), there is no shadow in birth and death, no need to be seven! But most people have deep karmic habits. If he falls into evil ways, the three evil realms, or can be reincarnated as a human in the next life, he will still be an ordinary person, not a rich person, but an ordinary person, and he will have yin. Generally, Yin lasts for 49 days, which is seven weeks. Yin has a change of life and death every seven days, which means that every seven days he has great pain!
The "Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva's Original Vow Sutra" says that chanting sutras, reciting Buddha's name, or practicing repentance for him at this time and returning to him can alleviate his pain.
So doing seven comes from "Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva's Original Vow Sutra". You will know after reading this sutra. So people decide not to commit suicide. Suicide is really painful. Why? Anyone who commits suicide will be shot in the body. He committed suicide every seven days.
He didn't do it once, but not anymore. This must be repeated every seven days. Very painful! For example, hang yourself every seven days. If he takes poison and dies, he will take it every seven days. Therefore, at this time, his relatives and relatives will bless him, so that he can reduce this pain or avoid this pain.
Without his family to help him, he would have decided this was inevitable. This is what Buddha told us. Seven sevens, if you understand Buddhism, you should do all seven sevens. You can't say you picked a few, but you can't do the rest. Why? He had the pain of change within seven days. We know this truth in the scriptures. Therefore, chanting Buddhist sutras and echoing the deceased is the greatest benefit.
Do seven, the scriptures say it very clearly. There are seven points of merit, and those of us who do seven will get six points, while the dead will only get one point. So when doing seven, it is best to invite seven mages. He can only get one point for the merits of seven mages. 7. Doing Buddhist deeds should really have great benefits. Practitioners who practice sincerely will reap great benefits.
If he chants sutras and repent according to the rules, but is not sincere in his heart, then the benefits he will gain will be minimal. Why are you not sincere? Chanting sutras and repenting at the same time will lead to delusions and absent-mindedness, and will not gain much benefit. If the deceased has a bad temper and is not sincere in chanting Buddha's name, it will cause trouble for him.
Just like ghosts, there are some powerful people. If you offend them, they will cause trouble for you and they will take revenge on you. Even if it’s gentle, don’t look for it.
So, everything has a cause and effect! Karma is anything but happy. This is true. It is often said in Buddhism that "all dharmas are empty, and cause and effect are not empty." Why is cause and effect not empty? Cause and effect "transform non-empty". The cause changes the effect, and the effect becomes the cause. Let's plant a fruit tree, this is the most obvious to everyone. If you plant a peach tree, the peach kernels are the seeds, because!
If you plant it, it will grow into a tree; if you plant it, it will become a fruit. The fruit is a peach, and there is a peach core in the peach, which means that it is "not empty"; "the cycle is not empty", and the cause and effect is circular, that is, it is not empty; "the continuation is not empty". So it has three phenomena: transformation, continuation, and circulation, which are the cause and effect of all laws in the world.
Folk funeral customs
1. Death
Birth, old age, illness and death are natural laws. Everyone is bound to die, but families are very particular about the death of their elders. When an elderly person dies, it is important to have children present and watch the elderly person die. This is called dying for the elderly.
If an old man dies of an acute or chronic illness and his children are not present, people will talk about it. First, they say that old people are not blessed, and none of them will even die.
Then, seal it with red paper and green thread, and bury it together in the soil during the funeral of the deceased.
4. Setting fire
Fire is a traditional superstitious custom in funeral customs. In the old society, after the deceased was buried and the new grave was piled, the sons of the deceased would go to the grave that night with paper money and straw to light a fire. This was called planting fire. Fire has two meanings, one is to keep the dead warm, and the other is to cook for the dead. It takes three days to plant a fire like this. The second day is later than the first day, and the third day is later than the second day. On the third day, after burning the paper money and straw, you should put a pack of matches and pray in front of the deceased's grave: "Dear XXX, from now on, I won't cook for you. You can burn it and eat it yourself." , even if the ritual of lighting fires for the dead has ended, this custom is purely superstitious, but it is still the case today due to the customs left by our predecessors. Nowadays, lounges have been built everywhere, and this trend has disappeared since then.
5. Deliver meals.
The custom of giving food to the dead is purely feudal superstition. This custom was very popular in the past. What is food delivery? According to feudal superstition, when a person dies to the end of his life, Hades orders the ghost "judge" to cross out his name in his book of life and death with a red pen. Then the judge orders the ghost to be a monster and quickly catch the dead person. His soul caught the judgment of the underworld. During the seven days before the trial (the first seven days), his soul was not taken directly to the underworld, but was imprisoned in his hometown temple, which is commonly known as this temple.
Sending food has two meanings: one is to burn more paper money, and when burning it, you have to offer meditation to the ghosts and angels in the family temple: similar to "Please send someone to lower the price of XXX's relatives. We bow to you and we give you money." From a modern point of view, this is to bribe the ghost to alleviate the crime of the deceased; the second is to send food to the deceased to prevent them from starving on the road.
In 1952, the custom of giving rice to the dead broke the feudal superstition. After the temple was demolished, it was restrained for a time because all the Buddhas in the small temple were destroyed and there was no place to give ghost rice to the dead. . However, people's feudal superstition cannot be eradicated in a short time. If there is no Bodhisattva, the meal will be delivered to the door of the original small temple. After the Cultural Revolution, this custom of giving food to ghosts disappeared. By the end of the 1970s, there was a trend of building temples and giving rice to ghosts. Some gods, witches and monks took the opportunity to engage in activities. They secretly promoted the feudal theocratic rights that had been overthrown in the past, and each organized superstitious people to perform Buddhist rituals to make money and promote theocratic rights.
According to the old theocratic system, the so-called family temples and their respective jurisdictions were defined. Therefore, the old custom of sending rice to ghosts has been restored. Giving ghost food to the dead is actually a resurgence of the old theocracy. In the old society, our people were deeply oppressed by the "four powers", namely political power, subordinate power, husband's power, and divine power.
Currently, theocracy is experiencing a renaissance around the world. On the one hand, some people engage in various superstitious activities under the guise of religious beliefs and make money from them. On the other hand, many cadres and Communist Party members have forgotten their own beliefs, convictions and purposes, and are also keen on superstition. Their growth, the opportunities brought by reform and opening up, and their wealth are all attributed to God and the blessing of Bodhisattvas. So now everyone believes in the divine right based on superstition and old customs. This is also a crisis of faith. Judging from the current custom of sending rice to ghosts, it is worth reflecting on, especially for some leading cadres.
6. Complaints (consumption)
The complaint here is not a lawsuit complaint, but a folk funeral custom in which the deceased’s daughter or daughter-in-law returns to her parents’ or parents-in-law’s house to tell her family that her parents-in-law or husband has passed away. . Folks call it a complaint, just like sending an obituary to the deceased. The purpose is to let the family know that someone has died, so the insider must rush to the deceased's house on the same day to mourn the deceased. The daughter-in-law does not go home to complain, and the parents-in-law cannot come to express condolences. Not only are the parents-in-law not allowed to come to the house, they will also say that they are disobedient and unfilial. To this day, complaining is still popular in rural areas, and it is also very particular. Those who complain must wear heavy filial piety, and when they go home to complain, they must kneel down and tell their parents. This is the resentment of the people.
7. Have a late night meal.
The "rolling bed banquet" is a folk funeral custom, that is, on the night of the death of the deceased, the villagers are invited to dinner before the funeral. It is commonly known as bed-making rice among the people. In some places, they eat bed noodles instead of bed-making rice.
What is a roll-on-bed meal? According to folk custom, after the deceased is buried, the bedding that the deceased slept on during his lifetime is swept away and burned at a fork in the road not far from the village, which is commonly known as a rolling bed.
In the old society, rolling on the bed meant letting the deceased take things to the underworld and let the deceased continue to use them in the underworld. In fact, this is a superstitious statement. In fact, the real meaning of rolling beds is hygiene. Generally, the deceased were sick, and some even suffered from infectious diseases. After the deceased's death, his belongings were likely contaminated with germs and filth. In order to prevent infection, after the funeral, it is very hygienic to sweep the things on the deceased's bed out of the door and burn them on the fire. On the day of the bed rolling, the family of the deceased must ask someone to help with the burial, so prepare a bed rolling dinner for others to eat.
Back in the day, rolling-in-bed dinners were relatively simple. There are usually only two or three tables, including family members and relatives. But it is very different now, because the whole process of the funeral ceremony of the family of the deceased must be scheduled on this night, and the invited helpers must also be present. In addition, there are so many people in the village now that a small village needs at least eight or nine tables. In a large village, including the relatives who come to visit that night, sixteen or seventeen tables are usually enough. In addition, the specifications of the trundle dinner party have also changed significantly. In the past, trundle dinners usually consisted of two meat dishes, two vegetarian dishes and a tofu dish. Nowadays, the roll-on-bed dinner prepared for the mourner is stir-fried in a cold pot, and the specifications are slightly lower than the dinner table on the funeral day. Moreover, funerals are becoming more and more extravagant and wasteful, and the custom of eating out of bed has virtually increased the financial burden on the families of the deceased. But due to the influence of old customs, people can only do it as a last resort.
Conclusion: Through the above introduction, do you know why people do the first seven things after death? Among the people, there are usually many customs after death. In general, we need to be careful not to violate these folk taboos. I read the above introduction in the editor, I hope it can help everyone!