A funeral record

People arrived one after another, they had breakfast first when they arrived. After I had breakfast, I went to the yard of a hall where the coffin was put there.

The coffin was in the front of the yard. There was a square table before it and two rows of five incense burners neatly were put on the table. Some incenses was burning.

Many old men with white clothes went into the yard and sit down on the benchs while mourning music was playing. A lots of women with white clothes came in after them.

Three old men choosed from the group knelt down before the right center of the big table. They kowtowed three times follow the host hinted. A man holding a band of incenses passed three incenses to the first old man and he passed it to the next after worshiping. And after all of them finished worship, they went back to their seat. Then next three men did the same things until all of old men finished their worship.

All the children and cousins knelt before the table according to age then women sitting behind them. The host give a incense to descendants one by one and collected it after they worshiped with incense. The funeral music was playing all the times.

After all people, clothed in sackcloth or white clothes, finished their worship. The staff put the stuff o the table away and moved the table to the corner.

Then the staff set off the firecracker, the coffin packed up and four men carried it with two big poles. After the firecracker burned out, the coffin was been carried out of the yard and people followed the coffin one by one according blood relationship. We walked along the village road, and stoped at the edge of village where a car waiting there.