She looked tired and apologetic and finally told the reason why she asked for help from the program team, as well as the strange things that happened not long ago.
“I don’t know if there are any funeral traditions and taboos in your hometown. We do have them here. After the old man dies, someone has to be found to handle the funeral. In addition to the traditional customs of ‘sealing the coffin’ and ‘wrapping clothes’, the most important ceremony here is the ‘soul-calling banner’.”
In Miss Xu’s hometown, whether the funeral team was glorious or not was an important symbol of whether a person would be happy in the underground after his old age.
The bigger and more complete the funeral procession was, the more filial the family was, and the more blessed the deceased would be in the underworld.
For this reason, after her father passed away, Miss Xu went to the local funeral procession to arrange for her father’s funeral.
Six people were carrying the coffin at the funeral.
Four masters played suona, and several people carried the “fangxiang” – large paper objects, “mingqi” – burial supplies, and some tribute food in front of the coffin.
More than 20 people were invited.
Even though it was a grand ceremony, there was still one thing that troubled Miss Xu.
In their local area, in the funeral procession, the eldest son needs to hold the portrait of the deceased and walk in front, and the eldest grandson needs to carry the “soul-calling banner” and walk beside him.
It was said that a soul-calling banner can guide the soul of the deceased who was about to enter the underworld to arrive at the gate of hell smoothly and will not be dragged into the mud by the evil spirits on the road to the underworld and lose his mind.
This tradition has been passed down in the local area for thousands of years.
Every time an old person dies in the county town, relatives can be seen wearing mourning clothes, crying and scattering money, while holding the portrait and carrying banners to ‘mourn’.
The soul-calling banner gave Miss Xu a headache because she was the only descendant of Father Xu.
In their small place, the concept of valuing sons and believing that only with sons can one have roots was still deeply rooted.
Originally, holding the portrait and carrying the soul-calling banner were supposed to be done by the eldest son and grandson.
If one or both sides were female, even if the funeral of the deceased was grand, there would still be some stubborn old people who would point fingers behind the back and say that the deceased was ‘unlucky’.
As for Miss Xu, as a daughter, she can hold her father’s portrait.
But she has no children, not even a grandchild to carry the soul-calling banner for her father.
When the funeral was still being planned, she heard some neighbors whispering, saying that ‘Old Man Xu lived a long life, but in the end, he didn’t even have a son or grandson to see him off to the grave’.
They said that Old Man Xu was pitiful.
However, Miss Xu knew that there was no need to take these old people’s words to heart, as they were just the old-fashioned and conservative talk of the old times.
But she still felt very uncomfortable when she heard her father being evaluated as “unlucky” and “rootless.”
In addition, her father had a stubborn temper when he was young, and because of her daughter, he had a very bad relationship with his relatives at home;
Miss Xu knew that among the relatives who came to attend the funeral this time, there would be some unpleasant gossip.
After thinking about it, she decided to find a young man with good character in the local area to be the “soul-calling person” for her father.
Hearing this, Host Liu, who had never heard of this custom, asked:
“What is a soul-sending person?”
Miss Xu said: “It’s equivalent to finding a fake grandchild to act as a male descendant of the deceased, and to carry a banner to lead the way for the deceased in the funeral team.”
“It’s also a funeral custom here. If the elderly have no male descendants, the family can pay to find someone to ‘send the soul’.”
According to her, not just anyone can be a ‘soul-sending person’, let alone carry a banner directly after being found.
First, the ‘soul-sending person’ must be a boy, so that his pure yang energy will not conflict with the corpse in the coffin.
Secondly, his birthdate and eight characters must match the eight characters of the deceased, and the eight characters cannot conflict.
Finally, after selecting the ‘soul-sending person’, he must open up the connection with the deceased with the help of the master who performs the ritual, so that when the deceased go to the underworld, he can see the banner head leading the way.
After such a selection and ritual, the “soul-calling person” would be equivalent to the actual godson or godgrandson of the deceased.
In the future, the deceased will bless him in the underworld. If he burns paper for the deceased on holidays, it can be regarded as filial piety to the deceased.
To prevent her father’s relatives from gossiping, Miss Xu paid the master who helped with the funeral to spread the news that she was looking for a “soul-calling person”.
Soon many people came to her door.
In the end, Miss Xu chose the son of a familiar friend as the “soul-calling person” to carry the banner for her father’s funeral.
Miss Xu said: “In fact, this family is not familiar with me, but their elders are good friends with my father. Both of them served in the army and were comrades-in-arms.”
“But the old man of that family had a hidden illness when he was in the army and died very early. After that, except for the festivals when our two families exchanged gifts, we rarely interacted.”
Therefore, when she saw that the son of this family was willing to carry the banner for her father, Miss Xu was very happy.
This boy had just graduated from college two months ago, and it was said that he went home to prepare for the local civil service examination.
His parents heard that Father Xu had passed away and was looking for a ‘soul-calling person’. Thinking that the two families had had some interactions before, they asked their son to come.
Although they were acquaintances, Miss Xu insisted on giving the boy 25,000 yuan according to the rules, as a reward for him to send Father Xu on his last journey.
Until the master helped to perform rituals and arrange specific matters of the funeral, everything went very smoothly.
On the day of the burial, the team responsible for the funeral played music, and six strong men carefully carried the coffin and walked to the cemetery.
Miss Xu, who was holding her father’s portrait at the front of the team, burst into tears. Listening to the cries of relatives and friends behind her, she felt particularly desolate and felt that she had lost her last relative.
As a result, at a corner, a scream came from the funeral team.
Miss Xu, who was wearing mourning, heard the noise and turned back holding the portrait, and was also startled!
One of the masters carrying the coffin somehow tripped on the ground, stumbled, and lost his grip, and the front corner of the coffin fell to the ground.
This was a big taboo at a funeral!
As the saying goes, “The coffin should not touch the ground.” Once the coffin touches the ground during the funeral, it means that the deceased in the coffin does not want to be buried.
Either there was dissatisfaction or resentment in the heart, anyway, it was not a good thing.
The master in charge of the ritual also changed his face and scolded the coffin-carrying master for being careless.
The team stopped for a while and nothing happened, so it started again.
This time, there was no more accident until the coffin was buried.
But because of the coffin falling to the ground just now, everyone felt a little uncomfortable. At this time, the master in charge of the ritual pulled Miss Xu aside.
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