The next morning, Wang Yiyuan, Xiao Xiaoxiao, Xiaotian, sister and aunt each took the "Qingming Hang" prepared by Qingming, three animals, firecrackers, paper money, incense and candles and other sacrifices, and went to visit their parents' tombs on Qingming Festival.

Tomb sweeping is also called grave visiting in my hometown. In the countryside, there are usually many graves in a cemetery. Of course, the deceased inside are basically from their own villages, and more are from their own families who do not have five qualities.

This is an ancient public cemetery, and it is also a relatively concentrated cemetery of the ancestors of the Wang family. Wang Yiyuan's grandparents, father and mother, and even longer elders are all buried here.

Therefore, when burning paper at the grave, Wang Yiyuan could not only burn paper to worship his parents, grandparents, and also burn a few pieces of paper money to show respect for the adjacent graves. After all, they are all neighbors of his ancestors.

Of course, he also knew that if he could not go to burn paper to sacrifice the tombs of these ancestors of his family, he would be thrust and criticized by his relatives after he returned.

Before we could go up the mountain, we parked motorcycles in groups of three or three on the hillside on the roadside. These villagers who were obviously getting up early came to the mountain early to "visit the graves" and "plug green" for their deceased ancestors and old friends.

The customs of my hometown are that for deceased ancestors and old friends, there are two "goings to the grave" every year. One is to go to the grave on the morning of New Year's Eve or before New Year's Eve, and ask ancestors and old friends to go home to celebrate the New Year together; the other is to go to the grave before Qingming Festival or solar terms, which is called "Zhiqing", and hang a "Qingming Hang" on the grave.

It was during the Qingming Festival that paper banners of different lengths on the cemetery were hung on the branches of the grave. The Qingming hangings full of the graves stretched out like tassels on the graves, floating in the breeze, or yellow and white paper chrysanthemums flashed among the flying flowers and leaves.

In this strange feeling, Wang Yiyuan seemed to hear a voice reminding him: It’s time to visit his parents’ grave, it’s time to go to their old man’s door to worship.

There are many people visiting the grave. Wang Yiyuan knows these people, but they basically don’t speak loudly, just nodding to each other silently.

The group came to their parents' grave. This was a long conical pile of weeds, with fresh green spreading among the withered weeds. The stone tablets erected in the past few years were a bit mottled, and the engravings on the surface of the monument were no longer very bright, but it can still be clearly seen that the names of Wang Yiyuan, younger sisters and grandchildren were arranged in sequence on the monument.

Looking at the blue-gray stone tablet, Wang Yiyuan suddenly felt a sense of solemnity. The words on these monuments seemed to silently express the respect and nostalgia of their children and grandchildren.

He casually pulled open the wet dry grass on the bench, curled up, and began to clean the entrance of the grave buried by weeds. He first burned two candles and lit three pillars of incense.

My sister greeted Xiaotian, and Xiao Xiaoxiao and the others began to clean up the weeds around the cemetery, clean up the tombstones, and clean up the tombs.

According to the saying passed down by the older generation, repairing the grass and trees on the grave is related to the Feng Shui, health and luck of the family members. A clean and tidy grave is conducive to smooth and healthy life, and there will be no troubles in the side.

In rural areas, most people have to bring shovels to visit graves. In the customs of the hometown, during the Qingming Festival tomb sweeping season, no matter where the future generations are, they always go to the cemetery to worship for their ancestors to relieve their longing. In addition to being full of piety, many people often add some new soil to the graves when visiting graves. Adding new soil means repairing houses for ancestors to prevent the grave from being thin and affecting the foundation of the ancestral business.

Wang Yiyuan also thought about adding some soil to the grave.

My sister said, there are some special things to do when adding soil. Generally speaking, three strokes are enough. These three strokes must be scattered onto the parents’ graves and cannot be photographed or deducted. Both buckles and photographs are disrespectful to parents and are also unfilial.

Of course, the most important activity of visiting graves is to insert a "Qingming Hang" in front of the grave.

Hanging the "Qingming Hangzi" is a unique humanistic custom in Wang Yiyuan's hometown. The "Qingming Hangzi" evolved from the soul-suming paper banner, due to the custom of going outings and planting willows. This "Qingming Hangzi" is woven with bamboo strips, decorated with paper flowers and paper garlands, with flowers clustered with colorful ribbons floating.

Wang Yiyuan remembered that his previous practice was to simply cut a string of paper from white paper. The meaning of "Qingming Hangzi" is to say whether a grave is green on Qingming is a symbol of whether a family has successors and prosperity, and a father is kind and filial to his son.

Now people have made innovations in the "Qingming Hangzi". Just like what my sister bought now, she no longer hangs long banners, but instead puts a string of flowers of various colors, called "Qingming Hangzizi", which means that a hundred flowers bloom.

"Qingming Hangzi" is divided into two types: hanging hanging and insert hanging, which can be hung on branches or inserted on the ground. They are hung in front of the grave to attract souls, commonly known as hanging green.

The more green you hang on a tomb, the more powerful the family members of the tomb owner family are. It expresses nostalgia for the deceased and prays for the protection of the ancestors and the undead.

My sister said that now it is not as developed as before, and the economy is developed, and the "Qingming Dangzi" has also changed and improved. We cannot only hang one color like before, as it will be lonely.

She said it would be best to place some flowers or wreaths in front of our parents' graves, but because we were in a hurry, it was really too late to prepare this time.

Wang Yiyuan knelt on the ground, dipped his brush in red paint, and wrote the names of parents on the tombstone in strokes and strokes, deliberately tracing the names of their parents and deepening the colors. While chanting words, he muttered the words in his mouth. Later generations remembered their parents' names and rewarded their merits. We will always keep them in our hearts. At the same time, we also prayed in our hearts to protect our children and grandchildren's safety and happiness.

The sister placed the food and supplies for the sacrifice in a bamboo plaque. After Wang Yiyuan "hangs green", he pressed a stack of yellow paper with drops of chicken blood on the grave with turf, and then placed twelve pieces of silver paper around the grave to start a simple sacrificial ceremony.

Opening the lid of the wine bottle, Wang Yiyuan poured wine into three cups, picked up the wine bottle and sprinkled some on the ground. Then he squatted down and devoutly placed the money paper to burn for his parents in the tiled basin under the table, and lit it with a match.

Wang Yiyuan twitched the flames and said, "Dad, mom, sister, Xiaoxiao, Xiaotian, and grandchildren are here to visit you! I'll give you some money, you have to save it, don't save it, spend as much as you should, ah..."

While choking, Wang Yiyuan took the lead in kowtowing and bowing. His sister and his sister also imitated him, kowtowed to their parents' graves, and kowtowed to their parents' graves, and kowtowed in front of their graves.

Firecrackers were lit. Suddenly, in the flash of lightning, crisp sounds echoed violently in the mountains...
Chapter completed!