In recent years, funeral customs in rural areas of mainland China have attracted much attention. Among them, the traditional custom of eight people carrying a large coffin for burial has always been a controversial topic. Although this traditional custom reflects the customs and culture of rural areas to a certain extent, the problems of resource waste and environmental pollution cannot be ignored. In order to improve this situation, the relevant departments have been actively promoting the reform of rural funeral customs, hoping to promote new funeral methods such as ecological burial and green burial, strengthen publicity and education, and further guide the funeral customs in rural areas to the direction of civilization and environmental protection.
1. Problems in traditional funeral customs
In rural areas, there has always been a saying that "pay attention to two marriages and three burials in a lifetime", which shows that funerals occupy an important position in rural social life. The traditional custom of eight people carrying a large coffin for burial is a more common form of funeral in rural areas. In this traditional custom, it is often necessary to mobilize a lot of manpower and material resources, not only to invite many people to come to the funeral to help the funeral, but also to carry out large-scale funeral banquets and other activities, the whole funeral procedure is very complicated, and the cost is also very huge. At the same time, the traditional burial method has also brought a certain impact on the local ecological environment, for a long time, some rural areas have the problem of "no burial", land resources are overexploited, and even cause problems such as land loss.
2. How to reform rural funeral customs
In view of the problems existing in traditional funeral customs, the relevant departments have put forward some constructive reform measures, hoping to gradually promote the reform of rural funeral customs through the joint efforts of many parties. First of all, it is necessary to strengthen the publicity and implementation of relevant policies, guide rural areas to gradually change the concept of funeral consumption, and advocate simple and environmentally friendly funeral forms. Secondly, through incentive policies, rural areas can be encouraged to carry out the exploration and practice of various new funeral methods such as ecological burial, ash scattering, and tree burial, so as to provide reference experience and practices for the funeral reform in rural areas.
At the same time, it is also necessary to strengthen social propaganda and education, popularize funeral knowledge to the rural masses through various media means, introduce the advantages and significance of new funeral methods, guide people to treat funeral sites and funerals rationally, and gradually accept and support the development of funeral reform work psychologically.
3. Enlightenment for reforming rural funeral customs
From the perspective of social psychology, reforming rural funeral customs and promoting new funeral methods can also promote the improvement of social mental health. Traditional funeral customs often make people feel fear and unease about death, especially some elderly people and children, who often fall into an emotional trough and even have mental health problems in the face of the death of their loved ones. The promotion of new funeral methods such as ecological burial and ashes scattering can make people face death more calmly, feel the connection between life and nature, and help improve the overall mental health level of society.
In addition, the reform of rural funeral customs should also give full consideration to how to protect and inherit traditional culture while promoting reform. After all, the funeral culture of the mainland is also very colorful, and the protection and inheritance of traditional funeral ceremonies should be strengthened through various ways and means, so that more people can understand and recognize the value of traditional culture and draw spiritual strength from it.
At the same time, reforming rural funeral customs can also become a part of rural community construction and inject new vitality into the development of the community. We can take advantage of the opportunity of funeral reform to establish a multi-functional community funeral service center to provide a full range of funeral services including psychological comfort, funeral etiquette, post-mortem treatment, etc., and at the same time, we can also carry out various cultural activities and theme education to promote exchanges and cohesion among community residents, and inject new impetus into the spiritual civilization construction and rural revitalization of the community.
Epilogue:
The reform of funeral customs in rural areas is not only a single reform of social customs, but a comprehensive work involving multiple fields and levels. Only through the joint efforts of the government, all sectors of society and the peasant masses can we smoothly promote the reform of funeral customs and achieve the multiple goals of resource conservation, environmental protection and social mental health. In the future work, the relevant departments also need to further conduct in-depth research, fully listen to the opinions of all parties, scientifically formulate reform plans, and carry out targeted work to ensure that the funeral reform work can achieve tangible results and provide a strong guarantee for the sustainable development of rural society.