{"id":5282,"date":"2013-03-04T13:22:28","date_gmt":"2013-03-04T20:22:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=5282"},"modified":"2013-03-04T13:22:28","modified_gmt":"2013-03-04T20:22:28","slug":"ghost-brides-keep-the-family-together","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=5282","title":{"rendered":"‘Ghost Brides’ Keep the Family Together"},"content":{"rendered":"

If family and ancestors really, really matter, you can dig up a corpse and manufacture<\/em> an ancestor.<\/a><\/p>\n

Ritual ghost marriages, which may date back to the 17th century BC, are increasingly rare in contemporary China \u2013 Mao Zedong tried to eliminate them when he assumed power in 1949 \u2013 but they are still practised in rural parts of Shaanxi, Shanxi, Henan, Hebei and Guangdong provinces. Families often employ a matchmaker to help find a suitable spouse for their deceased loved ones.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Read the rest.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If family and ancestors really, really matter, you can dig up a corpse and manufacture an ancestor. Ritual ghost marriages, which may date back to the 17th century BC, are increasingly rare in contemporary China \u2013 Mao Zedong tried to eliminate them when he assumed power in 1949 \u2013 but they are still practised in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[204,203],"class_list":["post-5282","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-ancestors","tag-china"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-1nc","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1233,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1233","url_meta":{"origin":5282,"position":0},"title":"After 2,000 Years, Hermann is Followed by Ghosts","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"October 22, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"This autumn is the 2,000th anniversary of the battle when German tribes decisively defeated 20,000 Roman soldiers in the Teutoburg Forest.But the anniversary--particularly the memory of the leader of the German commander, Hermann (Arminius)--is a complicated thing in Germany. The events surrounding Hermann, though, are a weird mix of the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Germany\"","block_context":{"text":"Germany","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=germany"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8134,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=8134","url_meta":{"origin":5282,"position":1},"title":"Can You Help Your Ancestors Instead of Rejecting Them?","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"July 22, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"A few weeks ago I was asked to write a cover blurb for a Llewellyn book, something that does not happen very often. It was a pretty good book. Some people might have found the title obscure, but that was not my decision. But one thing stopped me in my\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"ancestors\"","block_context":{"text":"ancestors","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=ancestors"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":605,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=605","url_meta":{"origin":5282,"position":2},"title":"Ancestral facesCompared to their 14th-16th\u2026","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"January 30, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Ancestral facesCompared to their 14th-16th century ancestors, today's English have slightly different faces, reports the BBC, in one of those short pieces that raises more questions than it answers.Modern people possess less prominent features but higher foreheads than our medieval ancestors.Is it because back then they were rolling out of\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12034,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=12034","url_meta":{"origin":5282,"position":3},"title":"Your Ancestors May Not Be What You Think They Were","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"February 1, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"A lot of us contemporary Pagans have a problem with our ancestors. We feel like there is a huge chasm of separation between them and us. I mean, look at Stan (as I think he was known) Clifton here. He was one of my great-great-grandfathers Born in North Carolina, he\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"ancestors\"","block_context":{"text":"ancestors","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=ancestors"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Bartholomew-Stanhope-Clifton-1828-1884-R-707x1024.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Bartholomew-Stanhope-Clifton-1828-1884-R-707x1024.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Bartholomew-Stanhope-Clifton-1828-1884-R-707x1024.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":8481,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=8481","url_meta":{"origin":5282,"position":4},"title":"Pagan Basics: How You Talk to Your Food, How You are Buried, and Other Linkage","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"February 26, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"\u2022 The slow abandonment of Pagan religion might be reflected in burials from early medieval France. \"Within some of the tombs, the archaeologists discovered objects that suggest the persistence of pagan rites, even though Christianity was becoming more prevalent.\" None of the articles that I have read give dates for\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"ancestors\"","block_context":{"text":"ancestors","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=ancestors"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/necropolis-france.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":6168,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=6168","url_meta":{"origin":5282,"position":5},"title":"Gamers and Ghost-hunters","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"December 18, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"What gaming I do has been on computers rather than consoles, so this is a development I missed\u2014using the new Xbox for ghost-hunting. Ever since the release of the Kinect motion sensor controllers in 2010, gamers have been posting videos of \"Kinect Ghosts\" detected by their Xbox 360. 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