Rituals for the Dead
 

After reading the Local Ghost Story Thread, I've noticed that there were a few members that talked about rituals done after somebody has died. I know the Chinese has a shit load of them and they differ from region to region.

What are some rituals your family does or that you know of after someone has passed on?


I know that if somebody in your immediate family dies, you're not allowed to go or have any weddings or visit anybody for 100 days because it's the "mourning" period. My Indian friend whose Grandfather just passed on a month ago told me they can't even celebrate any holidays for the remainder of the year.

Earlier in the year I went back to Hong Kong for my Uncle's funeral (my first official Chinese funeral), the night before he was buried the whole family had to spend 24 hours with the corpse at the funeral home talking to him and doing all these cool rituals. The immediate family were dressed in white and they give you these hat things to wear. Family and friends come in and they bow 3x to a picture of the dead and then turn and bow to the immediate family. My Aunt made me be part of the immediate family ritual just so I can experience the whole thing. At the end of the night we burned paper houses and stuff for my Uncle and we had to scream his name outloud and tell him to take them.

Oh and when they were closing the casket, children, pregnant people and people that were born in certain years had to look away because you'd get bad luck or something.

bad luck.... right...

taiwanese has some similarities with your rituals. alot of bowing etc. we also spent alot of time with a monk dancing around etc.

certain relatives had to "feed" food to the corpse. (not actually putting food in the mouth, but right up to it).

there was a bunch more, but it also depends if you're the eldest BOY or not in the family etc. in my case, it was kinda a grandparent who passed away. and my brother, as the eldest grand son, had a bunch of responsibilities and stuff.

on a car related note: im not sure if this is chinese or taiwanese tradition, but when you drive the coffin to the grave area, people in the car had to "narrate" the drive, like: "we are crossing the bridge now~~~, we are turning into the city~~~" etc etc, to guide the ghost or something?

I remember when I was a little boy in Taiwan, my parents would burn these special yellow paper that represented bills for the member of the family who passed away to use in his/her afterlife.

my sister was in macau for my grandma's funeral and she said she had to pick up coins that was put on her
also the other stuff that girl mention

i remember i was one of the guys that had to carry the coffin in vancouver for one of the deaths in the family. gloves and tie that i was wearing that day had to be burned along with the folded up "money" for her

Whenever we move to a new house, my dad would have to cover my grandpa's spiritual resting spot (not sure of the name, but you would see that wooden template-thing at a lot of chinese houses and restaurants) with a red cloth and then before we move all the furniture and stuff into the house, the template would have to go into the house first, covered up. As my dad carries the template into the house he speaks out loud the location of the house and how it looks like. Then he would set into a special place in the house.
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I find traditional tombs in Taiwan to be pretty scary..a picture of the dead engraved. I'm sure it's almost identical in China too.

I'd like to hear more from other cultures...I've heard in Mongolia some tribes would bring the dead to the mountain top and let the vultures devour them and if they weren't devoured...it's considered bad luck.

We gather everyone in the family and friends and people that knew the person for the funeral then everyone goes over to a family members house and gets drunk and talks about good times. Because we are white people.


When my good friend killed himself a couple years ago, we had a bush party with all the old friends and we all poured out a little liquor for a dead homie. Because we all wanted to be black when we were younger.

Not a ritual in my culture but I suggest you guys look up Tibetan sky burials. Not sure if it's for those who have weak stomachs but it is definitely an intriguing ritual. There is much literature on the matter available if any of you are interested! :)

sweet :thumbsup:


only been to traditional chinese funeral and it went sumthing like GIRL describe that i was in charge of buying our family's share of the paper offering (family frd's funeral)

I brought him a paper bently, few ferrari and range rover, ciggarrette, macbook, ipad, iphone 4(paper version came out before the real ones :rofl:) stereo system. The guys must be having a blast right now in heaven or where ever he is

on a side note, funeral service in Taiwan makes tons of money simply because there are so many rituals to follow. It's a tradition and good to see most of the people still carry that tradition.

what about cats, you ever seen cats gather outside the garage of the house where the corpse lie (there were like 6-8 cats when my great grandma passed away)

Bonus question:
What if a cat jumps over the corpse.... What will the corpse become?...

according to the elders they became zombies


http://www.kungfufilms.nl/images/vampire_f.JPG

I like the traditional torajan funeral

Link

I've been unfortunate enough to attend a good friend's dad's funeral and his funeral.
Both times were not full blown chinese style funerals but there was a few chinese things we did. My parents told me to give them money in an odd number amount in a whilte envelope.
After the funeral, a family member gives you a white envelope with money and a piece of candy. I can't remember if we were allowed to eat the candy.

Yeah you're supposed to eat the candy and I think spend that money the same day or smth.