There is a folk song from Panshiling that goes like this:
On Qingming Festival, I don’t have to worry about sweeping tombs and paying homage.
During the Qingming Festival, descendants of all ages worship the monkey.
At the end of Qingming Festival, lonely ghosts have no home to return to.
The so-called Qingming Head, Qingming Middle and Qingming End are calculated according to the days of the lunar calendar.
The solar calendar days of Qingming Festival are fixed on April 4th and April 5th, but the lunar calendar days vary from year to year.
If it falls on the first and second day of each month in the lunar calendar, it is the standard first day of Qingming; if it falls on the 28th or 30th day of each month in the lunar calendar, it is the proper end of Qingming.
As for the Qingming Festival, the days in the middle of each month of the lunar calendar can be regarded as the Qingming Festival.
Generally, during the Qingming Festival, people pay homage and sweep the tombs normally, and there is no big deal; when sweeping the tombs during the Qingming Festival, as many men as possible are required to attend. The so-called monkeys are actually the ancestors who were buried on the mountain. There are many male members in the family and the family is prosperous. It is not a big problem to visit the graves in a lively manner.
As for the end of Qingming Festival, that’s weird. According to Panshiling folklore, at the end of the Qingming Festival, all kinds of lonely ghosts that have no one to sacrifice will wander around.
On such days, when sweeping tombs, from home to worshiping on the mountain, a knife of yellow paper must be burned at every intersection.
The intention is to buy a safe journey and avoid entanglement with dirty things.
The ancestors of Panshiling have been passing down this folk song orally, and Jiang Yue's father's generation has always abided by this set of rules. Every time I go back to my hometown to visit the tomb, there is always a sense of ritual. Especially when it comes to the end of the Qingming Festival, it is even more particular, and there is no ambiguity at all.
Even though Sangou is young, he usually takes things inherited from the older generation seriously.
Seeing Jiang Yue in a daze, Sangou couldn't help but remind him: "Third brother? Today is the 29th day of the second lunar month, the end of the Qingming Festival. Could it be that those dirty things got into the house?"
After saying this, the two brothers standing outside the yard suddenly felt a little chilly.
Fortunately, a phone call brought them back to the normal world.
On the other end of the phone was my sister-in-law's anxious voice.
Apparently my sister-in-law had just discovered that San Gou was missing. She was relieved when she learned that San Gou, the little bastard, had returned to Panshiling safely. Then she specifically reminded Qingmingwei of various ancestral precepts. After repeated explanations, her sister-in-law again faced San Gou. The dog cursed for a while before hanging up the phone.
"Okay, Sangou! What time did you get up? Are you home after dozens of miles of mountain road? Tu Xingsun or Lei Zhenzi?"
"Hey, I didn't sleep much last night. Second brother, how about we burn some paper." As the name suggests, Sangou didn't sleep much all night, but he was still as energetic as a dog.
Jiang Yue did not intend to go against the teachings of his ancestors. At his age, he was known to be rebellious. When he was independent, the fact that he could go back to Panshiling from the city to pay homage to the ancestors showed that he valued these traditions.
Watching the yellow paper beside the road burn to ashes, Jiang Yue's doubts did not diminish.
Although there is constant drizzle, the activity of going up the mountain to pay homage to ancestors and sweep their tombs cannot be discounted.
Jiang Yue carried a hoe on his shoulder, and the sacrifice was carried in a bamboo basket, which was very rare in the city, and carried behind him. Sangou had a hatchet hanging on his waist, and in his hand was a snakeskin bag of yellow paper, paper ingots, paper silver coins and other items.
The two brothers crossed an intersection and burned a knife of yellow paper. After walking for about an hour, they came to a mountain col. Looking from a distance, there was a pavilion at the end of the road at the foot of the mountain. From a distance, the pavilion looked like a red bird spreading its wings, with a unique shape.
"Second brother, do you want to rest at Jiuli Pavilion?"
"Only the dead rest in Jiuli Pavilion. Do you want to rest?"
"No rest."
Whenever an elderly person passes away in Panshiling, he will be buried in the Dajin Mountain area.
Jiuli Pavilion is at the foot of Dajin Mountain.
Generally, there are taboos during funerals, and coffins are not allowed to fall to the ground along the way.
But the customs of Panshiling are a bit different. The coffin bearers coming out of Panshiling, even if they are as strong as an ox, must take a rest when they arrive at Jiuli Pavilion.
If you try to be brave and go straight up the mountain, something will probably happen halfway along the way. Either a coffin bearer stretched his hips and fell, or the coffin flipped over.
Conventionally speaking, it is nearly ten miles from Panshiling to Jiuliting, and most of them are Yangchang Mountain Road, which is extremely difficult to walk. When the coffin bearers reached this point, their physical strength had reached the limit. Without taking a breath, their physical strength was not enough to support the climb up the mountain.
A more bizarre statement is that Jiuli Pavilion is the place where Yin and Yang meet. Going up to Dajin Mountain, the yin energy is too strong. If you don't take a good breath of yang energy at Jiuli Pavilion, you will easily get into trouble if you go up the mountain hastily.
There is also the most evil saying that after death, the soul remains for a while. If you don't wait at Jiuli Pavilion, the body will be buried and the soul will have no refuge, which will easily lead to evil spirits and evil spirits. You have to wait until all the corpses have returned to the earth and their acupuncture points, and there is no restlessness in the world, then you can truly feel at peace.
There are many local rumors about Jiuli Pavilion.
According to legend, hundreds of years ago, a Yin-Yang sorcerer searched for a dragon's acupoints. He spotted the Feng Shui treasure land of Dajin Mountain and said that this place had the power of a crouching dragon. Judging from the situation of the dragon search, it was actually a living dragon.
The surrounding situation is good, and the five tricks of dragon, cave, sand, water and direction are all comprehensive.
The only flaw is that there is not a mountain to protect it in the south, which prevents the grand gathering of five stars.
Later, Master Yin Yang calculated and found a way to make up for it. A pavilion was built to the south of Dajin Mountain to imitate the shape of a red bird.
As the saying goes, a thousand feet is a potential and a hundred feet is a form.
The pavilion is used to replace the mountain, but it is a small form that complements the overall situation, which has some flaws. But finally a five-star gathering was formed, which was an auspicious sign of peace in the world.
Jiang Yue and San Gou had obviously heard of various rumors.
The two brothers burned another knife of paper at Jiuli Pavilion and found their way up the mountain.
The road up the mountain is difficult to walk only a few times a year. It is sparsely populated and can easily breed vegetation. Without a hatchet to clear the way, it's really not easy to go up the mountain.
Coupled with the continuous Qingming rain, the earth and rocks were loose, making it difficult to walk.
It took the two brothers a full forty minutes to arrive at the ancestral grave of Lao Jiang's family. Several generations of ancestors, right down to their grandfather, were buried in the surrounding area.
Jiang Yue was a strong man and was responsible for weeding and cleaning, repairing the tomb, and finally planting new soil.
The three dogs placed the sacrifices, lit incense and burned paper.
After walking through seven or eight ancestral tombs, the two brothers were very tired, but it was smooth sailing.
"Brother, do you think it's strange? In previous years, it was hard for the paper to burn even if it rained. Today, it's raining like oil. It's easy to burn the yellow paper."
The three dogs cannot be idle, and they tend to become nagging when they are idle.
After Sangou did this, Jiang Yue found that the paper burned surprisingly smoothly today.
Maybe the paper material this year is different, and what flammable ingredients are added?
There are many weird things, and this one is not missing.
It wasn't until the paper money was reduced to ashes and there was no longer any risk of recurrence that the two brothers packed up and prepared to go down the mountain.
Anyone who is used to walking on mountain roads knows that the way down the mountain is more difficult than the way up.
From a metaphysical point of view, the momentum of going up the mountain is upward, and the energy is full, and evil spirits are difficult to attack. When going down the mountain, the body is tired, the momentum is downward, and evil spirits are more likely to be attacked.
As I was walking, three dogs behind me suddenly said something.
"Second brother, did you hear anything?"
Jiang Yue listened and saw nothing but the rustling of raindrops, so he shook his head.
"No! Second brother, listen carefully. There is a child crying."
Deep in the mountains and forests, in the gloomy cemetery, during the Qingming Festival, the three dogs actually said they heard a child crying!
Even though Jiang Yue was quite bold, he suddenly broke into a cold sweat after hearing this.
