The origin of ghost marriage

Ghost marriage should be a folk custom unique to China. This custom has a long history. If you want to trace its origin, you must go back to before the Han Dynasty. In ancient times, weddings were a lifelong event, but some people who died early could not have families, so people came up with this method.

Ghost marriage is to find a spouse for the deceased. Some boys and girls die for some reason before they can get married after getting engaged. The old people believe that if they do not marry them, their ghosts will cause trouble and make their homes uneasy. Therefore, a ghost marriage ceremony must be held for them, and finally they must be buried together to become husband and wife, and buried together to avoid lonely graves appearing in the tombs of both the male and female families.

On May 22, 2011, the mother of the late South Korean actress Chung Do-bin held a female wedding ceremony for her and Moon Jae-sung.

After a man and a woman are engaged, if the man dies before marriage, the woman also has to get married. During the ceremony, the deceased husband and sisters will hold the "god tablet" and hold the wedding with the bride. From then on, the bride worked hard to stay in the vacant room all her life, saying that she would visit the house and observe filial piety when she was unmarried. Some women are unwilling to come to their homes to be widowed and marry another man, but people think it is a second marriage and a "broken woman."

During the wedding, she would sacrifice to the dead for her so-called "ex-husband". Out of the feeling of loving and missing their children, the old people believe that they had not been able to choose a spouse for them during their lifetime, and they would marry them after their death and fulfill their responsibilities as parents. In fact, this is what people rely on emotionally. In the old days, people were generally superstitious about the so-called "feng shui" of cemeteries, thinking that the appearance of an isolated tomb would affect the prosperity of future generations of the family house. At that time, some "feng shui masters"(formerly known as "Kamyu") tried their best to encourage such ghost marriages in order to make more money. Ghost marriages mostly occur among aristocrats or rich families, and poor families rarely engage in such activities.

A Taiwanese forest ranger couple holds a ghost wedding

Ghost marriages existed before the Han Dynasty. Since ghost marriages consume society's manpower and material resources and are meaningless, they have been banned. "Zhou Li" says: "It is forbidden to move burials and marry those who die." However, this trend has never been eradicated, and some are even directly manifested in the rulers. For example, Cao Cao's favorite son Cao Chong died at the age of thirteen, so Cao Cao hired the deceased Miss Zhen as Cao Chong's wife and buried them together.

In the Song Dynasty, ghost marriages were the most popular. According to Kang Yuzhi's "Yesterday Dream Record", when an unmarried man or woman died, the parents would ask a "ghost matchmaker" to tell the marriage, and then carry out divination. After receiving permission from the divination, each would make a ghost's ghost's ghost clothes and hold a joint wedding ceremony. The man and woman would be buried together.

"The History of the Yuan Dynasty·Biography of Lienu" records: "If a child dies without a wife, he may ask for the bones of the deceased daughter to be buried together." "History of the Ming Dynasty·Biography of Lienv" also records: Yang Kou died and his fiancee died; Liu Bochun died, and his hired daughter did the same. Later, they were buried together with the coffin.

In the Qing Dynasty, this custom of burying women in Minghe was still very popular with the strengthening of the concept of chastity. It was not until the late Qing Dynasty that feudal ethics gradually disappeared under the impact of Western spiritual civilization.

The wedding ceremony of

dead person mixes red and white etiquette, and the forms vary greatly depending on the opinions of the parties concerned. Generally speaking, the ghost marriage requires introduction by a matchmaker, and both parties pass through the door and obtain a dragon and phoenix invitation after marriage. The man's decision also has to be carried out. Half of it is made of real silk, gold and silver, and half of it is made of paper paste. Finally, it is burned at the door of the woman's house or on her grave.

There were still remnants of the ghost marriage custom in the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China. There were also some families who held "happy events" in which the dead were married, which was called "making bones and corpses". The two families of men and women were relatives, which was called "bones and corpses". In the early years, this kind of "wedding" ceremony was mostly held at night. Sometimes, while people were sleeping peacefully, they were suddenly awakened by the drum music in the streets. It turned out to be a "bone corpse". Carrying a paper sedan chair, it was played by single drums, odd numbers, and single suona.

Some did not use this form, but still used eight-carrying sedan chairs and were all deacons with golden lanterns. It turned out that they only had a photo of marrying one woman. After the 1930s, there was also a ceremony modeled on the "civilized marriage", with a Western band leading the way, and four people behind them carrying a shadow booth for the funeral, with a photo of the "bride" hanging inside.

This is the past and present life of the ghost marriage custom. Through understanding traditional customs, you will gradually feel the unique thoughts of the ancients. This is also the ancients 'reverence for nature and the unknown.