Chapter 2309 (3)
Taking advantage of the lack of people at night, they moved the ingredients for tomorrow’s noon to the south building. Leyun reinstalled the windows, closed them, and returned to the mourning hall to keep watch. Whenever the singer sang, Go kowtow when you sing.
Singers are treated very well at Lejia. There is a pack of cigarettes for each table, and there are fruits, drinks, and dried fruits. When you are not singing, you can drink tea and crack melon seeds. When you are thirsty, you can eat fruits and drinks. Everyone
. He is also very kind, neither competing nor taking credit. He sings one by one, and everyone has a share. If you want to take a break, let others sing first. The
other people who stay up late with the master are also treated well, and Le Jia has a table nearby. , filled with fruits and nuts, hot tea, cigarettes, whoever wants to eat can get it themselves, and every other hour, there will be errands carrying candy trays to deliver candies to people. Singers sang until four in the morning
, Le Yun held the big saucer containing the red envelopes and scattered the red envelopes.
The red envelopes did not matter the amount of money, they just represented the gratitude of the host family and were more symbolic. Generally, a pack of cigarettes costs five or six yuan, or ten yuan and twenty. Yuan is fine.
If you have a lot of money, you can pack more, depending on the owner's wishes. In
order not to set the example of Jiudao giving red envelopes to compare, Leyun also packed the red envelope according to the old rules. A red envelope is thirty-six yuan, which is not much money. Quite a few.
The singers themselves don’t go for the red envelopes from the host. They don’t care about the number of red envelopes, but only care about whether there are any. If there are, it means that the host is polite and respects the singer. If there are no red envelopes, it means that the host despises singing. Next time if a relative in his family passes away, they will have to kowtow before they can sing. If they don’t go, they won’t come back.
The girl from the Le family held a tray with red envelopes and went to where the singer was sitting. She kowtowed to each person. Hand over the red envelope.
The Lejia respects the singer, and the singer respects the master. The Lejia girl comes to kowtow, and they all stand up. They help the Lejia girl up first, and then take a red envelope from the tray. The singer has a red envelope, and the master who plays the music has a red envelope
. They also get a red envelope each, and the meaning is the same. If the masters don't stay up late to play music for the singers, they will not get the red envelope.
The host is kind, and the singer is very energetic. No one is cheating or playing tricks, and the singing is loud and clear. He either praises the host, praises the deceased, and wishes her early happiness, or scolds those who harmed others. No one said anything about the Le family.
If the host is not kind, the singer will also sing and curse others. Even if the host or relatives and friends are scolded, the host will have to suffer.
Such examples abound, even in Jiudao Township.
Everyone in the Le family does things according to the old rules. The girl from the Le family kowtowed so many times, and the singer felt enlightened. How could he not try his best, let alone be incompetent.
If anyone dares to scold the host with a gun and a stick, other people will not scold him to death on the spot. Behind his back, he will be included in the list of unscrupulous people. He will not travel with him in the future to avoid being stabbed in the spine and ruining the singer. reputation.
There are two leap months in 2023, that is, there are two Februarys in the lunar calendar. The beginning of April in the new calendar is the middle of leap second, which is equivalent to the middle of March in the lunar calendar.
In this season, the dawn is getting earlier and earlier, and Jiudao starts to get bright at around six o'clock.
At the break of dawn, we have to do a dojo.
The morning dojo is relatively simple. It is to move the big drum placed in the middle hall out of the house, send it to a certain place and throw it on the roadside. In rural areas, it is also called "upsetting the drum". If the drum is not turned down, it means that another person will die in the village recently, so that step is required.
The time had just arrived at five o'clock, and Le Yun brought a saucer containing things purchased according to Hongcun's rules and presented it to Grandpa Cheng Wu.
The people in charge of playing funeral drums in rural areas are experienced old people. They know the meaning of something when they see it. When the little boy came with a saucer, Cheng Wu knew that it was time to play the drums.
As soon as a singer finished his song, he beat the heavy drum repeatedly, Zhang Laosan sang the drum song backwards, repeated three times, and Liu Lu's father picked up the big drum and walked out.
The singers stopped singing. Everyone washed their faces, smoked, chatted and cracked melon seeds.
Le Yunle's father, Zhou Qiufeng, and the brothers from the Chen family followed behind the drummers and kowtowed if they needed to. The four little brothers from the Chen family, Chen Xiaozhu, Xiaohe, and the children from the Zhou family stayed away and did not follow them to the dojo.
The masters played music.
The big drum was sent to the roadside in the west, and the dojo was completed according to the steps, and then returned to the Lejia main room.
After finishing the dojo, it was already half past five. Zhou Qiufeng went to carry Leshan downstairs.
Leyun took her elders and cousins to the warehouse, took out the bags containing things, and gave each of the singers and teachers a package. The bag contained snacks, cigarettes, a red envelope, a towel, and a piece of soap.
That gift is a gift for their hard work of singing all night, and it is also a thank you gift for the singer. The host family does not need to give another thank you gift afterwards, and the teachers and masters will also have a thank you gift when they return from the funeral.
The singers and teachers had a bag of snacks before, so they got a big bag of stuff and had no place to put it.
Le Yun wrote each person's name on tape and pasted it on their belongings, and asked them to put their belongings in her bedroom on the first floor and pick them up when they left at noon.
After doing that, it was dawn.
At dawn, which is also the auspicious time for the deceased to be laid to rest, Zhou Cun and Cheng Wu, a few old partners, moved away the wreaths, opened the coffin lid, and moved the coffin to the center of the hall for the burial ceremony.
The teachers took turns playing music.
Because only the remains of Leya were left, it was originally not suitable for relatives to see it. Village chief Zhou and others knew in advance that Xiao Lele had made preparations in advance, and followed the rules to let the relatives of the Leya family see the remains of the deceased.
Everyone opened the small coffin.
Leyun made a head and face out of paper based on the black and white photos left by her aunt, and also put clothes on her aunt.
Village head Zhou Cheng Wu and others were the first to see Leya. When they saw the paper figurine in the small coffin, they exclaimed: "Leya?!"
It looks like it, so much!
Xiao Lele copied her Gu Leya's face exactly the same. It was obviously made of paper, but it was as lifelike as a real person.
If they hadn't known that Leya only had bones, they would have just assumed that Leya was sleeping in the coffin.
Le's parents, Zhou Qiufeng and Chen Kang, rushed forward, squeezed to the coffin, and looked around. They saw a real-life maiden cub lying in the small coffin, regardless of gender, howling and crying.
Chen Kang cried so hard that his heart broke, this is his nephew! He had never met his little nephew, and had no chance to call him "uncle". The uncle and nephew did not know each other before they were alive. When they met, they were separated by yin and yang, more than fifty years apart.
Her wife rushed over, and Zhou Wei also hurriedly stepped forward to help her while looking at her niece. When she saw her nephew's face that looked very similar to Xiao Lele's, she couldn't help but feel sad and burst into tears.
As soon as Chen Xin, Chen Jie and their respective wives took a look at their cousin, their parents burst into tears. They couldn't care less about their own grief and hurriedly supported their parents to prevent their elders' tears from falling into the coffin.
Ms. Li and Brother Zhou were also present and quickly pulled Yueqing Zhou Qiufeng away from the coffin. As for the consolation, it was superfluous and they did not persuade her.
Grandma Zhou, Grandma Zhou Man, Aunt Pa, Grandma Cao, Mrs. Wu, Mrs. Wu, Boss Wu also came forward to see Le Ya’s remains, and they all shed tears after seeing them.
After letting the relatives take a look, Village Chief Zhou and his old partners moved the small coffin out and put it aside first. They placed plant ash, charcoal, and coins on the bottom of the big coffin, spread it with a thin quilt, and then moved the small coffin into the big coffin. .
After that, the sun, moon, rooster, horse, etc. were pasted around the coffin. All the clothes and quilts Le Ya wore when he was young were stuffed around the small coffin. Some clothes brought by relatives and friends were also put into the coffin.
After finishing that step, give Leya a small ball of rice balls in her hand, a small tree branch in the other hand, and then stop talking.
To silence is to put half a copper coin or coin in the deceased's mouth.
Stopping the mouth is not a local custom, but a custom passed down from ancient times. In ancient times, when a person from a wealthy family died, the nine orifices were blocked, that is, the mouth, eyes, nose, ears, mouth and lower door were blocked with jade stones.
Poor people don't have that much money, so when someone dies, they put something in their mouth.
If a copper coin is stuffed into the mouth of the deceased, it is said that the descendants will be mute or people with lisp of speech, so the mouth is stopped and only half a copper coin or coin is given to the deceased.
After the silence, the coffin is sealed.
Before the coffin is sealed, relatives and friends take one last look at the deceased.
Le's father, Zhou Qiufeng, was crying around the coffin, Le Yun was crying while holding her brother, Le Shan was also in tears, and Chen Kang was also in tears. Grandma Zhou and others persuaded Chen Kang to persuade Yue Qing to persuade the little boy.
After some persuasion, Cheng Wu and others covered Leya with a quilt and then closed the lid of the small coffin.
As soon as the small coffin was closed, Dad Le burst into tears again.
Brother Zhou held Yueqing, and Grandma Zhou Man also hugged Xiao Lele and Xiao Leshan to prevent them from rushing to the coffin, and asked Cheng Wu and others to quickly seal the coffin.
Cheng Wu and others lifted the coffin lid and pushed it from the feet to the top of the head. Soon the lid and the coffin body were closed, and then they nailed the coffin sealing nails to the right-hand side of the deceased in the coffin.
Initially, the coffin was not nailed shut, and relatives and friends would hammer it three times before finally nailing it to the end.
Le's father, Zhou Qiufeng, and his two children were at the front, followed by Chen Kang's family, Zhou Tianhong, Zhou Tianlan, Chen Dalian, He's sister-in-law with their children, and then the close neighbors lined up in a long line, surrounding them in a clockwise direction. The coffin is about to be hammered with nails.
When hammering the nails to seal the coffin, first breathe into the small hammer and then hammer the nails, calling out to the deceased.
When relatives and friends had hammered in the coffin-sealing nails, Cheng Wusan hammered down the coffin-sealing nails, and then worked with his companions to move the coffin to a place against the wall.
Relatives burned paper and cried.
Before the coffin is sealed, relatives crying for the deceased is called mourning. After the coffin is sealed, relatives crying again is called mourning.
Relatives and friends weep, and teachers and masters play mourning music.
After the relatives and friends started crying, the neighbors who were friendly with the Le family helped the relatives and friends of the Le family away and asked them to wash their faces.
After the coffin was sealed, most of the villagers who had stayed up all night went home first. Some sent back the snacks they got last night, and some went back to take care of the livestock or wash them.
The singer sang all night, and Brother Zhou, Chen Dalian and others were also busy all night. They killed the pigs from the seller and processed them, and made braised pork or steamed pork, meatballs and so on.
The chickens and ducks used for breakfast were also killed, and rice was steamed at about four o'clock and stewed at five o'clock.
During the burial, Brother Zhou and others who were close friends with the Le family took the time to look at the coffin for a while. After the coffin, they all took their places and were busy preparing breakfast.
(End of chapter)