The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1917-02-16
-. A Chinese Funeral -.

The letter printed below is a part
of letter written by Rev. Lacey
Moffett, a missionary in China, to his
father, Rev. A. S. Moffett, of Pensa-
cola. The letter follows:
1t seems to me 1 wrote you not long
ago making a funeral occasion the
burden of my letter, when one of our
East country Christians had passed
away, but l cannot resist writing you
of another. This time It was in the
West. The first Christian funeral in
that whole section, and among a peo-
pie where funerals and weddings are
the chief social events, it was a very
important affair. The preacher in
charge at Ho-kaung, where it oc-
Cured, is an ex-Taoist priest, and
had conducted many heather funerals
in that section. We have always
taken the stand that any Chinese Gus
tom in use on any occasion need not
be changed If the people wish to use
it, unless it is either essentially
wrong or idolatrous in its import. So
Liu Hoong-siu, the preacher, care
fully planned to conform to local GUS
toms as far as possible and yet be
Christian. Having confidence in his
judgment gave him free hand and
did not reach the home until just in
time for the inevitable feast an hour
before the funeral. The meal, &C
cording to custom, contained no meat
but was largely composed of bean
curd and vegetables cooked in differ
ent forms-eatable but scarcely to be
called good. When I reached the
house l was announced at the door by
biare of horns, but instead of the
music keeping up until after prostra-
ton before the coffin, as in the heath
en- funerals, it stopped immediately
after entered the front door and
had been greeted by the host, who
was son Of the deceased. was taken
back to the table to eat. The meal
over, we conducted the funeral serv-
ice, in an open courtyard just in front
| of the main room of the house in
which the coffin was placed. At the
close the funeral procession was ar
ranged in very careful order. The
three sons of the deceased walked in
front of the coffin, dressed in white
with sackcloth caps. In a heather
| funeral they carry short bamboo
sticks wrapped in white paper, but
as these have some idolatrous mean
| ing-just what nobody seemed able ia
tell me-they substituted wreaths, OF
rather hoops, wrapped with white pa
per, with some arbor vitae leaves and
paper flowers bound to them. Ac.
cording to Chinese custom the hus'
band does not follow his wife's body
to the grave, so the old gentleman
who is past eighty years old remain
ed at the home. The coffin was borne
on the shoulders of twelve men
hired for the purpose. Just behinC
it followed wheelbarrows carrying The
women of the family, also dressed il
white and sackcloth. Last came tn,
friends and acquaintance. These II
heather funerals carry stick of in
cense each, which are lighted ant
placed at the grave. The Christian
substituted a branch of shrub witt
flowers, which were afterward laid OF
the coffin. We left the house with &;
great firing of fre-crackers and bias
of trumphets-wholly out of keeping
with our ideas of such occasions bu
not with theirs. The authorities O
the chief temple of the village sen
word that II the coffin was carries
. past the temple door, everybody il
4 the procession would have to max