Is it true that people cannot live at home on the seventh day? The rules for offering food on the seventh day

The first seven days after death is one of the folk funeral customs. It is a kind of memorial to the dead and also a way to express remembrance and respect for the deceased. Is it true that people cannot live at home on the seventh day? What are the rules for offering food on the seventh day?

Is it true that people cannot live in the house on the seventh day?

No one is allowed to live in the house on the seventh day, otherwise they will see unlucky things.
The first seven days is a Chinese funeral custom. It is based on the time of death of the deceased, calculated with the help of the Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches to determine the day and time. However, people usually think that the "first seven days" refers to the seventh day after a person's death. Different places have different "first seven" customs, but it is generally believed that the soul of the deceased will return home on the "first seven" day. The family should prepare a meal for the soul of the deceased before the soul comes back, and then they must avoid it.

The rules of offering food on the seventh day

1. In many folk customs, remember not to offer beef and horse meat in the food offered on the seventh day. It is said that this is because the souls of the deceased are brought back to the human world by the underworld officials such as the Ox-Head and Horse-Face on the seventh day. Therefore, beef or horse meat must not be included in the food offered. This is a taboo in burning offerings on the seventh day.
2. After preparing the food to be offered on the seventh day, family members should leave and it is best to go back to the bedroom, turn off the lights and go to sleep. This is because if the dead soul comes back and sees the living people, the dead soul will miss the human world and cannot rest, which will prevent the dead soul from reincarnation.
3. In many places, in addition to the need to offer soul-returning rice on the first seven days, there is also the custom of burning paper money and colorful decorations on the fifth or seventh day. The fifth or seventh day refers to the thirty-fifth day after a person's death, and the seventh day refers to the forty-ninth day after a person's death. On this day, the living people will go to the grave to burn paper money and colorful decorations. In some places, some clothes of deceased relatives will be burned in front of the grave, hoping that the soul will have money to spend and clothes to wear when it goes to the underworld.