Introducing useful goods to bring with you when visiting a grave

The must-have items for visiting a grave are beads, flowers, and water. You need incense sticks and candles, and depending on the region, you may bring customary foods such as dumplings, green soybeans, and vegetables to the grave. These are standard items for visiting graves, and are mainly needed to "visit" and "join hands with your ancestors." If you just want to visit, there is no problem if you bring these items with you.

However, that is only the case when focusing on "worship". In recent years, I don't go to the grave as often as I used to. There are many homes that need to be cleaned a little when visiting.

The rules have changed from the past, and many graves say, "Please bring back the flowers and food you offered when you visited." This is because crows, stray cats, and raccoon dogs ruin the offerings of the grave. The same applies to incense sticks and candles, and there is a rule that not only "Please do not pollute the surroundings with ash or candles as much as possible" but also "Please erase incense sticks and candles if you use them for fire prevention" There is also a grave. It is convenient to bring useful goods for "cleaning" and "withdrawal" instead of just bringing in goods for joining hands.

Here are four selections of "convenient goods you want to have" when you visit the grave.

Let's think about useful goods based on "If you want to clean while visiting the grave"

Today, we rarely visit graves as often as we used to. Once upon a time, graves were an integral part of the local community. Temples and graves are important places, and I used to go to the milestones of my life and clean them frequently as a place for my ancestors to sleep.

It's not that modern people don't care about graves. In the olden days, it was not uncommon for people to be born and raised in the area, get married in the area and end their lives, so it was easy to manage the grave. It is not uncommon in modern times to live away from the land where the tomb was born. Not only people who live in distant municipalities, but also people who move abroad. It's harder to manage graves than it was when you were born in one area and lived there.

People in the old days were able to manage their graves diligently not only because they valued their faith and ancestors, but also because they were "close". It is difficult for modern people to live in the area where the grave is located, so even those who are religious and cherish their ancestors cannot return to cleaning the grave frequently. This is unavoidable considering the lifestyle.

Because it is difficult to visit the grave, many people clean the grave together with the worship when visiting the grave on the Obon festival or the equinoctial week. At such times, it would be convenient to have a small cleaning item or a bag to collect trash. Even for those who live near the grave, it is not uncommon for the gravestones to be muddy when the shiny grave is visited due to the bad weather that has continued in recent years. In such a case, it is convenient to have goods that can be cleaned.

When visiting a grave, it is important to bring not only the worship tools but also goods that can be easily cleaned and tidied up. Specifically, we recommend that you bring five items, "gunte", "newspaper", "toothbrush", "pet bottle", and "garbage bag" as convenient goods.

① Must-have item for cleaning and injury prevention ・ Work gloves

Have you ever experienced weeds growing when you visited the grave? In addition, empty glass bottles may have fallen, depending on where they came from or where they flew. After the typhoon, the cup used for the grave may break and glass fragments may be scattered around.

Work gloves are what you want to use when cleaning up such garbage. You can prevent your hands from being injured by pieces of glass or grass, and you can also prevent your hands from getting dirty. It seems that visiting the grave and the work gloves are not so related, but because the work gloves themselves are versatile, they are perfectly useful in the graves.

② Wrap it up and polish it ・ Newsprint

Newsprint can also be used to wrap offerings. In addition, the grave is very useful when wrapping garbage and polishing gravestones. Especially for the fresh flowers displayed in the grave, even if you take them home, if you take them as they are, the water will slowly fall from the stems and stain the front door of the house. I'm also worried about the smell. In such a case, wrap it in newspaper.

Newsprint is also a strong ally when polishing tombstones. Wouldn't it be shiny to polish the glass windows of your house with newspaper when cleaning? If you wipe the tombstone with newspaper, it will become shiny.

③ This is for cleaning small gaps! ·toothbrush

Newsprint is useful for polishing tombstones, but it is difficult to polish gaps and carved parts of tombstones with newspaper alone. A toothbrush is useful in such cases.

Toothbrushes are designed so that the tips of the hair fit into the gaps between the teeth, but toothbrushes are a great item not only for cleaning teeth, but also for cleaning your home and graves on a daily basis. Cleaning the window sash with a toothbrush is a story of general cleaning.

④ Also useful when you want to flush water in the gap ・ PET bottle

If you can afford it, it's a good idea to bring an empty plastic bottle with you. This is useful when you want to pour water into a gap where it is difficult to pour water with a cassotte or tub, or when you want to pour water pinpointly from the top or side of a grave.

Even children who are too heavy to carry in a tub or bucket can carry a PET bottle. It is also useful when cleaning the grave with your child.

⑤ Can also be used for storage! ·Trash bags

It is used to put fresh flowers, offerings, and garbage around the grave. Some graves do not have a garbage dump, so you may be asked to take it home. Even if the area of ​​the garbage dump is limited to some extent, or if you want to collect the garbage before throwing it away, it is a good idea to put it in a garbage bag. If you put together the toothbrushes and work gloves you used, you will have much less luggage on your way home.

It can also be used as a storage if you have to take garbage or used work gloves home. I would like to have a few as a spare instead of one.

Finally

Convenient goods for visiting a grave can be seen based on "What if the grave is dirty when you visit?" It is convenient to have work gloves, and even more convenient to have newspapers, toothbrushes, and PET bottles to polish the grave. Of course, having a trash bag will make it even more convenient.

Of course, you can bring them all, but if you have a lot of belongings and it is difficult, you do not have to forcibly bring them all. In that case, please make a selection as appropriate.