be engaged in
Both men and women are arranged by the matchmaker, and after a little clue, they will "close Xiao". In the old days, it was thought that the zodiac animals could not be combined, such as dragons, tigers, snakes and mice fighting, chickens, dogs, sheep and mice being incompatible, tigers and sheep "falling into the tiger's mouth" and sheep and mice "resting", so intermarriage was prohibited. There are also taboos about the age difference between men and women and the animal sign. The age difference between men and women is six years old called "Big Six Red" and three years old called "Little Six Red". "Little Six Red" is acceptable, and "Big Six Red" is forbidden to get married. There is a saying in Shaoxing: "Men belong to sheep, women belong to sheep, and keep their houses empty", thinking that men belong to revolution. Women are sheep, so that most men don't marry sheep women. Those who belong to sheep women either marry "hard" men or are forced to "fill the house". This custom shows that old-fashioned marriage should not only be suitable for families, but also abide by the words of parents' matchmakers and must be recognized by superstition.
In the past, people of the same ethnic group were not allowed to get married, and same-sex people were not allowed to get married. Although Jin and Liu are different surnames, it is said that Jin comes from Liu, so Jin and Liu are not allowed to marry. Xinchang Yuan and Lu are feuds, and intermarriage is regarded as a violation of ancestral teachings.
If men and women are close and willing to get married, they should post to each other. The date of engagement is chosen by the woman and the date of marriage is chosen by the man. After the woman chooses an auspicious day, the man sends the "invitation" to her home together with the "invitation". The woman's family sent a "quasi-fake post" and brought it to the man's house that day. After the book has the words "all blessings" or "zhengsu", it was signed as "my foolish brother ×× Zhuang Jing bowed sincerely in the wedding year". In addition to the words "Quanfu" or "Zhengsu", a piece of paper with the words "Respect for Taiwan Province" is attached. Permission to post is the same as asking to post, except that the label is rewritten as "Respect Taiwan Province's orders"
When a man posts, he must post lychees, longan, walnuts, red dates, lotus seeds, pine nuts, ancient philosophers' cakes, hazelnuts, tung nuts and green beans. The woman's family usually receives the most gifts. After the woman's family issued a "commitment post", she chose the date, and the man paid the price (that is, gave the bride price) and got married after the ceremony.
There are "the first set", "the second set" and "the third set" for men's service. The first bride price is the price of the girl's body, which means paying for the upbringing of the family. Generally, it is based on the age of women: before Qing Daoguang, "the poorer the wind, the more money the husband's family hired, according to the age of women's teeth"; After Qing Tongzhi, "the number of women is thin, and the number of money is doubled"; Around 8 years of the Republic of China (19 19), Shaoxing "women spend six yuan a year, at least four yuan"; 1949, "The betrothal gift paid for engagement is one stone or half stone rice to make rural women one year old". Fan Yin's Yue Yan says, "When you get married, you should prepare money, silk flowers, red stickers, bracelets, sticky fruits, fruits, chickens, geese, fish, boat pavilions, fruit pavilions, tea tables, carved wine and worship Cambodia." The bride's family received a bride price and gave back dragon cakes, phoenix cakes, robes, Four Treasures of the Study, tin hip flask and other things. During the ceremony, the male family must have carved wine and the female family must have tea, so there is a saying of "male wine and female tea". This etiquette is "three teas and six rituals". When poor peasant women in mountainous areas such as Xinchang and Shengxian get engaged, the man usually prepares a basket of foreign goods, two pots of old wine and a small amount of dowry, which is sent to the woman's home by the matchmaker.
After the man sent the first bride price, he immediately asked the woman for a "G". Ask the woman's birthday clearly, then send the birthdays of both men and women to the date shop, and ask the astrologer to arrange the "eight characters" and choose the auspicious days of "sleeping" and "marriage". Please send two red stickers and a pair of suitcases to the woman's house when you get married. Red stickers are also called worship stickers or begging stickers, but asking for stickers with the words "Zunya". The suitcase contains "tea material" such as Xianglian and sugar. The woman's home went back to tea material as usual, and sent the worship stickers and permission stickers to the man's home.
After that, the man's family sent two sets of bride price to the woman's family as a dowry. Etiquette is roughly the same as when delivering the first course. The posts are red and green, written on the bed and on the wedding day respectively. The format is usually "I sincerely hope that the bed (or wedding) will be happy". At the same time, the man will give a pair of "satin heads" (silk materials) and "clothes folds" (ready-made clothes) as bride price.
Several men send the first set and the second set at the same time, which is commonly known as "the follower".
On the eve of the wedding, the man must send three sets of bride price to the woman's wedding banquet. If the woman's family is alive, the man's family must send filial piety money and gifts. When Hua Jiao gets married, the man must also give "money for opening the door" and "money for getting on the sedan chair". Poor families have several ways to save money:
Labor is used to replace employment. It was agreed by the matchmaker that the man would stay at the woman's house for several years without pay. At the expiration of the period, the man's family does not need to organize a bride price, but only needs to pay the expenses needed for marriage.
Adjusting parents means changing marriage. Both parties betrothed their daughters to each other as daughters-in-law to save bride price and wedding expenses.
Old relatives get married. In the past, this custom was very common, mainly for the marriage of close relatives. In addition to enhancing friendship, you can also spend less on bride price, but the marriage of close relatives often delays future generations.
After the founding of People's Republic of China (PRC), the marriage system was abolished. Although many young men and women can fall in love freely and get married independently, most of them still rely on introductions. In the 1980s, youth organizations, trade unions, women's federations, neighborhood offices and neighborhood committees organized marriage agencies to act as "matchmakers" for young men and women. When the love is mature, go to the local government to register and get a marriage certificate. In the old society, the bad habit of getting married basically didn't exist, but once you get married, the style of banquet is very hot, and the habit of wasting money has never stopped.
marry
In the old society, the brown shed where the couple slept was temporarily set up with wooden sticks. Before the wedding, the man must choose an auspicious day to "settle down", that is, make a brown shed tenon with a wooden stick on the auspicious day. According to custom, the couple's bed cannot be empty. From the day of bed installation to the day of marriage, the groom or his wife must sleep in the couple's bed. Lang must be accompanied by a boy or a man of both husband and wife.
Before a woman gets married, her family sends a dowry to her husband's family. In the dowry, the comb table is called a square piece, the footbath is called a round piece, and there are also bronzes such as fire, tin utensils such as tin pots, porcelain such as colorful bottles, jewelry and suitcases. Except for a few bride price gifts, such as jewelry, which are sent to the man's home with the sedan chair on the wedding day, most of the bride price gifts are sent to the man's home by the wedding attendants (commonly known as "Hanglang") on the "Sleeping Bridge" or by boat. Most of them are relatives, friends and helpers of both men and women. The amount depends on the dowry, but it must be in pairs.
Before marriage, the couple must hold a bathing ceremony. The ceremony was presided over by two couples, many children and many daughters. With a sieve in one hand. Put red fruits and duck eggs on it, then connect it to the big footbath. Another person pours hot water into the footbath from a sieve, then soaks the hot water in the footbath with a towel and wrings it out for the newcomer to try. Repeat this three times and the ceremony will be completed.
Meanwhile, the man must shave his head. Light a candle before drinking tea. The barber must congratulate him when he enters the door, recite auspicious words such as "seven children's reunion" or "all the best", pull out seven long hairs or 10, tie them into a flower knot, and prepare to send them to the woman's house. The woman must "open her face" and hire an old man to unscrew the hair from her face with gauze and cotton thread. When you open your face, you must also pull out 7 or 10 long hair and mix it with your fiance's long hair. Tied into a bun, called "hairline", is a symbol of married couples and the most precious token for women.
On the day before marriage, both men and women should offer sacrifices to God (commonly known as Zhu Xifu) and ancestors (commonly known as inviting adults to have soup and rice). The ritual of offering sacrifices to the gods is similar to praying for blessings, except that the bride and groom worship. The ceremony of ancestor worship is as usual. But in the final analysis, worshippers should be newcomers.
When a common woman marries, she must use colorful jade. Most people who don't take sedan chairs are concubines or remarried wives. On the top of Hua Jiao, there is a tin ornament of "Five Mountains in the Sky", decorated with colorful lights and beautifully inlaid. Most sedan cars are rented from car shops, and they must be rented in advance on the wedding day.
Before getting married and sitting in a sedan chair, the man should invite two couples and elders with children and grandchildren to be "lucky stars" and "Lu Xing", shine candles into the sedan chair, and then smoke the sedan chair with an iron filled with sandalwood, commonly known as "searching the sedan chair", so as to expel the monsters in the sedan chair.
When a man sends a sedan chair, the groom wears auspicious clothes and makes three big bows to the sedan chair at the door to show his respect, which is called "sending a sedan chair". In front of the sedan chair are gongs, shovels and drummers, followed by lanterns, umbrellas, firewood tied with red ropes (commonly known as chamber firewood) and band accompaniment. After the woman's family receives firewood, she returns it to the man's family with charcoal tied with red rope, which is the so-called "firewood groom charcoal bride", which means that people and money are empty. There are bridges named after, Daqing, Bao #, Chang 'an, Wan 'an and Fulu in Shaoxing city. The sedan chair was carried from the man's house, and it took at least two or so to be carried to the woman's house and dustpan. As a common custom, sedan chairs and sedan chairs are not allowed to meet head-to-head, so two rows of lang in front of the wedding procession, holding shoulder lamps, should not only lead the way, but also try to avoid other sedan chairs. Sedan chairs are not allowed to stop over, but they must play music when going forward, gong when turning and spear when crossing the bridge, which is also a grand display of exorcism. As we all know, marriage is a "small joint exam", and even officials have to make way.
The sedan chair is coming, and it is the custom for women to "cry sedan chair". In addition to saying goodbye, there is also an intention to avoid the dumb child born to the bride.
Before the man's wedding team comes to the door, the woman's family must ask two "downstream" women to put the bride's clothes into the box, which is called "stacking boxes" Send a married old lady to comb grandma's hair and get her ears pierced. , must be accompanied by auspicious words. The bride's brother must prepare the luggage for the bride. This is called "bedding".
Before the bride gets on the sedan chair, the woman's house should also search the sedan chair. The ceremony was the same as that of the male family, except that the two stars "Fu and Lu" were replaced by women. When the bride gets on the sedan chair, she can't take scissors with her, so as not to offend the sedan chair and cause unexpected disasters.
Before the woman's sedan chair was issued, the man's husband knocked loudly on the gong from time to time to urge the bride to get on the sedan chair. Before getting on the sedan chair, the bride entered the sedan chair according to the custom, bowed down to her ancestors, bid farewell to her parents and relatives, put on "foot silk", put on tea, all-red women's clothes and a crown, and her brothers carried the sedan chair and walked out the door holding the sedan chair. The sedan chair must be circled three times. At this time, his mother must sit on the toilet in the room and improvise a few songs according to the "crying wedding tune", mostly words of exhortation and congratulations. Looking at Niang's bend, my brother pushed the sedan chair bar forward to show off. The bride can't touch the ground after wearing new shoes and tying her anklets, so as not to take away her family's wealth. The custom of crying marriage in Shengxian County of Xinchang is that the bride's mother goes upstairs crying. Xinchang, the bride has the custom of wearing a bronze mirror to ward off evil spirits before getting on the sedan chair. In Zhuji, when a girl gets married, she must lock her plain clothes in two boxes. In the mountainous area of Shengxian County, the bride wears plainclothes on a sedan chair and holds a wedding at her husband's house.
The sedan chair is carried to the man's house along the original road, and the bride's brother and sedan chair should follow. The man makes the bed, folds the "pavement" according to the rules, puts on makeup for the elderly, and gives the bride jewelry and other things to the man. Usually there are four brothers to see the bride off in person, but the nephew can make up the number. The men go out and wait for them. They must play with their spears.
The wedding was held to the sound of drums. The old mother-in-law hired by the man presented three cups of tea to the bride in the sedan chair. At this time, "Li Sheng" (commonly known as the master of ceremonies) shouted: "Everybody sends greetings to each other!" "Play the music!" "Please upstart into the DPRK!" Four men with "trouser leg lights" and "descendants lights" went into the back room to invite the groom. The groom walked into the hall from the right wearing an "open robe", a "buckled belt" around his waist and a pair of pink boots. Make three big bows facing south and north, and walk into the inner room from the left after Li Sheng praised "inviting the upstart to return to jade".
Then, meet the bride and get married. Li Sheng in turn praised "Li!" "Play the music!" "Please upstart into the DPRK!" "Please ask the new jade person to fade!" (3 times each) The bride and groom were each pressed by two "downstream" wives and stood in front of the "Fu Lushou" star in the hall. In the sound of firecrackers, the bride and groom worship heaven and earth first, then "Samsung" inward, and finally pay homage. The wedding host is a ceremonial student, and the deputy ceremonial student reads a congratulatory message (candle poem). Civilians also welcome the chef's right to give gifts to the living.
After that, the bride and groom stood in front of the "Samsung" and held the "Zhang Jinfu" ceremony. At that time, the old man was invited to dress up as an "Antarctic fairy" and was greeted by Lang, who was walking. They got a "blessing stick" filled with sugar cane tied with red rope and patted the bride on the head five times. Every time is accompanied by wishes such as "hold your breath" and "five children take the exam". After that, he was wired out of the hall.
When the landlords shouted "Invite the new rich and new jade people to be happy with one heart" and "Gong and cannon to send them to the bridal chamber", drums and firecrackers rang in unison, causing "red" sounds everywhere. On the way to the new house, the couple must lay a rice bag and a small wine glass. When the couple walks past it, they must pick it up from the people on the new head, put it on the ground in front of them and let them go, and so on until the wedding. This trick is called: carrying on the family line ("clan" and "cup", "generation" and "bag" are homophonic).
When entering the bridal chamber, "Fu Lang" and "Uncle" must help the bride and groom grab a new bed. It is said that those who occupy more seats will have power at home in the future. In addition, the groom must try to put the skirt on the bride's skirt to show that he has more power than his wife. After sitting down, the two "downstream" wives gave the groom and the bride seven small dumplings each, commonly known as "feeding the children and grandchildren together" and "raising seven children together". Xinchang, Shengxian and Zhuji areas allow newcomers to eat sugar bibimbap and reunion fruit. After that, the downstream lady gave the bride and groom a sip of wine. After the exchange, they took another sip. After the two small cups are mixed, they are divided into two parts for the bride and groom to sip, which is called "heart-to-heart wine" (also known as "drinking a glass of wine"). After drinking, the groom lifted the bride's veil and corolla with a pair of sugar cane of the same length, tied it with a red rope and threw it over the bed. "Send the old man to marry" immediately put down the account door to prevent "hot face grabbing hot face". At this point, the west Guo withdrawal, how can we compete.
On the wedding day, both men and women will hold a wedding banquet to entertain guests. Before the man sends a sedan chair to get married, he will make "sedan chair wine" and "warm house wine". Wedding day is commonly known as "good day", and "positive wine" must be held. At noon, a "women's wine" was held in the place of Women's Day, and the relatives and friends of the woman were invited to attend the wedding reception. In the evening, the man gave a banquet, and the father-in-law (that is, the father-in-law) and uncle took the first place as usual. The bride and groom were asked to toast the distinguished guests one by one. Xinchang has the habit of "full banquet", that is, the man temporarily sets up a stage in the class and sets up a seat for the bride. After the second course was served, the bride began to "take off one coat for another", that is, take off one coat and put on another. When the ninth course is served, the bride and groom, accompanied by the best man and the bride, will sprinkle it one by one from the first table in the east to the last table in the west before entering the room. After the banquet, build a new house according to custom.
Weddings in Shaoxing are usually held on winter nights (mostly at midnight), and the procedures are carried out in order, often until midnight, so there is a saying that "my uncle is afraid of the sun". On that day, the woman's brother didn't live in the man's house.
The next morning, the old man came to the door to "send the children". That is, a wooden "villain" wearing red and green trousers is sent to the bridal chamber, put on the bed, light incense sticks and play music to pray, which is called sending a child.
Breakfast is the first time for newcomers to eat, commonly known as the first gathering of rice. The bride must sit first and the groom second.
After the first party, the newlyweds, according to the custom, went to the nearby temples, the Party House Shanggu Temple (Land Temple) and the ancestral temple to pay homage and pray for the blessing of the gods and ancestors. After returning home, I went to the main hall to "worship the three dynasties", that is, to worship my ancestors and elders, and to be visited by the younger generation.
On the third day after their marriage, the couple went to the woman's home to "return home" and visit their elders. The etiquette commonly known as "Three Dynasties" is the same as that of men. The couple must return to their husband's house on the same day and must not spend the night at their mother's house. In the evening, the bride must say good night to her elders and go to her mother-in-law's room to sit for the night. The bride can only go back to her room to rest after her mother-in-law lets her go.
In the "Three Dynasties", the bride had to visit her husband's family and her mother's family. At this time, you can call your family (commonly known as opening a golden mouth) and do housework. When you go to the kitchen, you must first add firewood to burn the fire, so that it can be full of fire; When cutting and sewing, pants and socks should be made first. The homonym of "pants", "socks" and "hair" is for good luck. There is a saying that "if you want to be rich, make pants first;" If you want to send it, make socks first.
The concept and customs of marriage in Shaoxing have also changed. During the period of the Republic of China, the enlightened gentry in cities advocated simplified etiquette and civilized marriage, but the civilians in cities and rural areas remained the same. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, marriage customs tend to be civilized and simple. The wedding time is mostly on Labor Day, National Day, New Year's Day or Spring Festival, and there are also group weddings or tourist weddings.