Name of Ritual

Funeral Wear: 孝服，戴孝 (small fabric patch to signify relationship between the living family members and the deceased)

Description of Ritual/Practice

• Unless the deceased is 100 years old or more, descendants are required to put on dull mourning clothes or hemp funeral wear 麻衣。
• If the deceased is at least 100 years old, descendants will dress in brighter colours to mark the longevity and ‘good life’ of the deceased. The funeral is referred to as 笑丧. Descendants are also advised to avoid excessive crying so that they can focus on the good life that the deceased had.
• Descendants are not allowed to remove their funeral wear once hoi song 开丧 is conducted by the priest, and the sang pang 丧耪 has been put up.
• Descendants traditionally ease out of mourning by dressing in slightly brighter colours as the year goes by (from hemp to pink).
• The eldest son or male descendant has to carry a funeral stick 丧杖、丧棒 with different colour bands to indicate the family members who survive the deceased ( the bands are of the same colour scheme as the mourning patches).
• The patches and their differentiation serve to reinforce the hierarchy within a Chinese family.
  

Who practices it? Who conducts the ritual?

Family members

Is it still practiced now?

• In the past, family will buy hemp fabric 麻 , and fellow villagers will come together to sew the funeral suits 麻衣。Traditionally, the whole outfit includes belts and straw sandals. Mourning clothes were worn for the entire duration of funeral; only removed to be burned after burial/cremation (see above condition in 开丧 that mourning clothes are not to be removed once the notice is put up). This presents issues with personal hygiene and sanitation, thus, 麻衣 were burned after use. Mourning clothing are still available even though some funeral service providers no longer offer this in their packages. Families who wish to wear 麻衣 can rent them from funeral service providers. Some of these 麻衣 are reused or recycled although most are worn only once and burned after the funeral.
• Many opt for black or blue pants with white cotton t-shirts. A colured patch is worn instead to indicate mourning statuses. Socks are worn instead of straw sandals, with some even wearing slippers. Family members can change out of mourning clothes to return to work during the day and put on the the mourning patch again when they return to the wake. These pataches are worn on the left arm if the deceased is male, right if the deceased is female.
• Descendants put on casual wear rather than red/pink clothing at 笑丧.
• In the past, court officials had to quit their posts to return to their hometowns to observe the 1 year mourning period. Now, many remove the mourning patch after cremation but continue to wear dull colours for 49 -100 days. Some may not even continue to wear dull colours due to work requirements.