Custom of Offering Sacrifices to Ancestors on ...

122.Custom of Offering Sacrifices to Ancestors on Double-Ninth Festival by Huang Clan in Xiasha

Nominating Unit: City of Shenzhen

In the Southern Song Dynasty, Huang Motang, the 14th generation of Huang Clan who lived in Jiangxia, Hubei Province in Central China, migrated to Xiasha, Guangdong Province in South China. They built a village there and became the 1st generation of Huang Clan in Xiasha. The custom of offering sacrifices to ancestors on the Double Ninth Festival then began.

At first, they just offered incenses to and kowtowed before the memorial tablet of the ancestor every morning and evening. In 1248, Huang Motang passed away and was buried in the Lianhua Mountain. Later generations began to offer sacrifices to him before his tomb every year in Spring and Autumn. The Huang Clan in Xiasha entered an important growing phase during the 9th generation — the generation of Huang Siming. After Huang Siming passed away, later generations built up a “Huang Siming Temple” to commemorate him in the last years of the Ming Dynasty. Every spring and autumn, they would hold sacrifice rituals before their ancestor’s tomb or in the temple. These sacrifice rituals have acquired complete, strict and fixed patterns, and have passed down from generation to generation until today.

The spring sacrifice ritual of Huang Clan in Xiasha is only held in the temple before the Tombsweeping Day and the autumn sacrifice ritual is held both before Huang Motang’s tomb in Lianhua Mountain and in Huang Siming’s temple on the 15th day and the 16th day of the ninth month of the lunar calendar respectively, just after the Double-Ninth Festival. The eldest grandson serves as the master of the ritual.

According to Huang Clan’s Pedigree, a complete sacrifice ritual should be carried out in the following pattern: “play the theme songs, the official take his place, assistants take their places, kneel down, kowtow for three times, stand up; kneel down again, kowtow for three times again, stand up; kneel down again, kowtow for another three times, stand up; kneel down before the incense burner table, offer incense three times; prepare a glass of wine, pour the wine onto the ground; kowtow before the tomb; kneel down before the tomb, fill the glass with wine; read out the funeral oration; put the wine glass before the tomb, prepare food, offer food to the tomb; prepare grain, offer it to the tomb; prepare false paper money for sacrifice, offer money, and burn it; kowtow, stand up; kneel down, kowtow for three times, stand up; kneel down again, kowtow for another three times, stand up. Ritual completed, set off firecrackers.”(https://www.daowen.com)

When the ritual is held in the temple, there should be gifts offering for three times after all the kneeling-down and kowtow; when the ritual is completed, there would be dragon dance and lion dance outside the temple.

A special stage of the sacrifice custom of Huang Clan in Xiasha is that all the men of this family should eat together, while the food is put in one large bowl. It is said that this custom was originated from the story which said in the last years of Southern the Song Dynasty, villagers put food in a large bowl and gave to the refugees. The dish consists of fifteen kinds of food, including carrot, straw mushroom, dry tofu, dried mushroom, fried tofu, squid, celery, edible fungus, dry pork skin, dried yellow eel belly pork, oyster, fresh yellow eel, duck, with garlic, ginger, green onion, fermented red bean curd as the condiments. Cooking methods such as boiling, frying, deep frying, stir frying and cooking are adopted. These fifteen kinds of food are cooked separately into fifteen dishes varies in styles and tastes. Then, carrot will be put at the bottom of the bowl as the first dish, and the rest fourteen dishes will put one after another into the bowl. With the firecrackers set off, thousands of people start to eat together. Before liberation, there would be performances when all the people began to eat, usually, Cantonese opera.

Usually, the preparatory work of the sacrifice ritual is done by the head of the clan. The Huang Clan in Xiasha consists of six families, each having a master. When the ritual is coming, the head of the clan would convene a meeting of these six masters to discuss the preparatory work of the sacrifice ritual. Then the “Huang’s Clansmen Association” is established and is responsible for the preparatory work and the expenditure of the ritual.

The custom of offering sacrifices to ancestors of Huang Clan in Xiasha has a long history and a complete, strict and fixed pattern, which possesses high academic value for studying the forming, developing and evolving of ancient Chinese sacrificing custom.

At present, the Huang Clan’s custom of offering sacrifices to the ancestors has drawn attention and protection from the local government. However, with the social development advancing, the protection and passing down of the sacrifice ritual still face large crisis, urgently calling for protective and supportive measures.