My hometown is Hakka, in Fujian, Fujian. In the mountainous area, I don't have any supernatural powers, but my hometown has an ancient custom, and some of the strange phenomena in it are what I have seen with my own eyes.
Let me just talk about one of these customs: on the night of the 15th day of the eighth lunar month, many unmarried girls, with the help of some kind of sacrificial ceremony, can emerge from their shells and go to the underworld to visit their deceased relatives. In my hometown, this is called "Pu Garden".
The process is roughly as follows:
The first is to worship the gods, that is, to set up incense tables and gods in the yard, burn incense and light candles, and girls who want to go to the underworld must take a bath first. Then he began to throw his head on the table, his forehead facing the table. Basically, several girls pounce together, but there is no physical contact. There are relatives of these girls watching over them, usually their mothers. There were also some neighbors who stayed, but they were very quiet, no one made a sound, and the whole atmosphere seemed sacred and serious.
The strange thing started, a certain girl's body reacted abnormally, her whole body began to tremble, and the trembling arc became more and more severe. According to what I saw in the past few years, girls whose bodies start to tremble generally will appear a little frightened, and they will say: "It's dark, I can't see the way." At this time, the elders who are standing by will comfort and say: "Don't I’m afraid, just sit on the side of the road and wait, there will be light in front of you soon.” Some elders will also comfort and say: “You wait first, your companion will come soon.” They say this because” "Floating Garden" is usually performed by several girls, but for some reason, some girls can go down to the underworld very quickly, while others are slower. There are also some girls who can't get down, and if they can't get down, their bodies will not respond with trembling.
The girls whose souls entered the underworld began to cry, their bodies were shaking all the time, and they kept talking, describing the scenes around them. It was still very dark and blurry, and the road seemed to be very steep, so I couldn't see anything. Some who dare not go any longer will sit on the road in the underworld and wait for a companion who "flutters into the garden" so that they can walk together. If they wait, they will also say: "So-and-so is here, I will go with her."
Not long after, they said that there seemed to be light ahead, and the road became clearer, and it was easier to go. The elders next to them will also encourage them to keep going. They also mutter to themselves, saying that the scenery around them is beautiful, there are many flowers and so on.
Soon, they said they saw a mother-in-law, who was watching them, at the gate of a large garden. The elders next to her would ask the mother-in-law what she looked like, what she was wearing, etc., and what they described was astonishingly the same. At this time, the elders will guide the girl down to the underworld, and give the mother-in-law the gift she brought with her.
These girls whose souls have gone to the underworld keep trembling all the time, and they will say what they encounter in the underworld. Some girls cry all the time, and some are bolder and stop crying after a temporary panic just after they descend into the underworld.
Then, they would say that the mother-in-law took them into the garden, which was full of flowers, but the flowers had their own pots. These flowers represent the people who live in the world. Everyone who lives in the world has a pot of flowers to represent himself in the underworld, but the dead people do not.
At this time, the elders will guide and say: "You ask the mother-in-law to take you to see the flower of so-and-so." According to their description, the mother-in-law will enthusiastically take them to find the flower pot of so-and-so. After finding someone's flower, they will describe the scene of the potted flower. Some flowers grow very lush and the leaves are very green; while some flowers grow sparsely and the leaves are also withered and yellow…
You may not believe it, the flower grows luxuriantly, the person who lives in the world in reality is in good health, the soul ferry ghost mother Ali , the family and career are good, basically no diseases or disasters; and the flower grows If the leaves are sparse and the leaves are yellow, the person in reality is really ill and has bad luck in life. Never had a single deviation.
At this time, the elders will tell those girls to give more gifts to the mother-in-law, say more good things, etc., and beg the mother-in-law to take good care of those flowers that are not growing well, so that there will be fewer people living in this world Disease, less catastrophe. And so on, those girls whose souls entered the underworld did so one by one.
Then, according to the instructions of the elders, under the leadership of the mother-in-law, they can see their relatives who have passed away, and they can know how these relatives are living in the underworld, what they lack, whether the house is broken, whether they have money, etc. thing. If the deceased relatives have something to say to the relatives in Yangjian, they can also be passed on through these girls. Once, the deceased mother of my neighbor told me that a pair of shoes she had worn when she was still alive was still left under a certain cabinet. She liked it very much and asked him to burn it to her. My neighbor has always said that there shouldn't be any. When she died, she burned all her things to her. Later, I searched again, and found the pair of shoes under the cabinet of the room where she lived when she was alive. Because the cabinet was relatively large and heavy, it was never removed at that time… There are many similar examples.
When people in the world know what their relatives in the underworld lack, they will buy it and burn it to their relatives in the underworld. For example, if the house is broken, buy a house and burn it for them, and if you have no money to spend, burn paper money to them.
The whole process of these girls whose souls entered the underworld only took more than ten minutes, and their bodies were always trembling, and some of them would sweat profusely. The things that the elders have explained are almost done. Before the stick of incense is burned, the relatives who are guarding them will pat their shoulders with their hands and summon them to come back from the underworld. We must not wait until the incense is extinguished. The saying there is that once the incense is extinguished, their souls will not come back, and even if they come back, they will be less souls.
When someone patted these girls on the shoulder, it was strange that these girls whose souls were still in the underworld stopped trembling immediately, slowly regained their composure, and woke up after a while, as if they were in a dream, but They all looked very tired, as if they were exhausted, with tears in the corners of their eyes.
Afterwards, when others asked them about the scene in the underworld, it was strange that they had no memory of that time.
What I said is what I saw with my own eyes. In those years in my hometown, I went to the scene of "Pu Hua Hua Yuan" every year. Those girls whose souls go to the underworld are definitely not acting or pretending. All the processes are very real, and I can still vividly remember them.