Who must participate in the seventh day? Rules and taboos

We all know that people cannot be resurrected after death, but in Buddhism, people have souls after death, and the souls can enter the six realms of reincarnation and be reborn as humans. The first seven days is a folk funeral custom. Who must participate in the first seven days? What are the rules and taboos for holding a seventh-day memorial ceremony?

Who must attend the first seven days

If a relative has passed away in the family, all family members should be at home for the first seven days.
Seven days make up a seven, and seven sevens make up forty-nine days. The children go to the cemetery to pay tribute and hold memorial ceremonies every seventh anniversary of their death. The whole family must participate in the first seven days, the third seven days, the fifth seven days, and the seventh seven days. The seventh day after death is the most important, and even grandchildren who live far away from home will come back to hold a "farewell seventh" memorial ceremony.

Rules and taboos for making seven

1) "The first seven" is generally called "the first seven" or the first seven, which usually starts on the sixth day. According to "Hangzhou Customs and Traditions", the seven must be done on the sixth day, so it is called "knocking on the sixth head". It must be done by monks from the land temple, and the first seven must be knocked. The content includes performing fifteen confessions, hanging merit paintings, and posting notices, but there is no Yimakou ritual, and it ends with just watching the lanterns.
2) The 27th day is on the fourteenth day after death. The custom in Hangzhou is that the 27th day is not far from the evil period, so a ritual altar for the evil seventh day or a ritual to send off the seven days should be performed. Relatively speaking, the practice of the 27th day is relatively simple.
3) On the 37th day, a monk will recite the Rebirth Sutra, and at night, Yāma-kūṭa will be performed. Yāma-kūṭa is the transliteration of Sanskrit, which is the name of the hungry ghost king in hell in Buddhism. It is said that his belly is as big as a mountain and his throat is as thin as a needle, and all food and drink will turn into ash when it reaches his mouth. Some also say that Yāma-kūti craves for food, so he spits out flames from his mouth, hence the name "Yāma-kūti".
4) During the 47-day mourning period, most relatives and friends will pay for monks to chant sutras, and family members will also prepare wine and food, offer soup and rice, and burn paper for the memorial service. According to local customs, Taoist priests should be invited to perform the 57th day of the twelfth lunar month. A large ritual requires nine priests, and a small one requires three. The most dignified fifth seventh ceremony is when Taoist priests parade through the streets riding in sedan chairs covered with red umbrellas and holding ruyi in their hands, and walking to temples.
5) Whenever the 57th day after the death of a deceased person comes, even poor families will find ways to burn some paper. People call this kind of seventh day burning "burning the seventh day".
6) On the sixth or seventh day, the son-in-law should be the first to eat meat. If there are many sons-in-law, they can be exempted from the task. If there are no sons-in-law, younger relatives will take their place.
7) The seventh day is also known as "Duan Qi" and "Feng Qi" in Sichuan Province. On this day, only the Yāma-kūṭhāna ritual is performed. After the 49th day of mourning is over, the Sichuan people’s custom is for monks and Taoists to build an altar and offer prayers to indicate the end of the 49th day of mourning. In particularly poor families, the seventh day memorial ceremony is just a period of crying and offering sacrifices. Rich families not only invite monks and Taoists to chant sutras to comfort the dead, but also build paper pavilions and houses, fill them with tin foil ingots, and make mountains of gold and silver. The mountains are also decorated with plants, birds, animals, and other things.