In the 1970s and 1980s, we often saw the "ghost fire" on the top of the grave in the countryside at night. Why are there so few now?

I believe many people will be afraid when they hear the word ghost fire. Ghost fires usually appear at night. When you walk through a cemetery in the dead of night, you may see a shining blue flame. Because such a blue flame can only be seen in the cemetery, it is called a ghost fire.

People who used to walk at night often saw ghost fires, especially when passing through the cemetery circle. The flashing blue flame scares the bravest people. The reason why there is a ghost fire is related to the burial of people in the past. A few years ago, after someone died in the village, they were buried directly in the coffin without cremation. Coffins are mostly made of wood and will be corroded by rain all year round. The bones in the coffin will produce phosphorus after corrosion, which will be exposed to the air in the soil and burn at a low melting point, so there will be a jack-o'-lantern.

There is a lot of phosphorus in bones, but in the past, people were buried in the form of burial. In the long-term decay and fermentation, phosphorus will gather together and then decompose into phosphine, which is easy to spontaneously ignite and will burn into a "ghost fire" after contact with oxygen.

In the daytime, the light is very strong, so people can't see it naturally, but they can see it clearly at night. However, after 1980s, China has implemented the policy of "burning" in rural areas, just like my hometown in the late 1980s. In this case, the remains will turn to ashes. There will naturally be no jack-o'-lantern at this time, so people can't see it basically.