Gathering banquet (also called closed banquet) is a concentrated expression of the hospitality of the Dong people. There are guests in a family, so it is impossible for everyone to go to dinner, so everyone will hold a banquet. Generally, the banquet will be centered on a spacious and clean family, and each family in the family will send an adult man as a representative (if it is a female guest, it will be organized by a woman) to bring out their best dishes, wine and glutinous rice to accompany the guests. At the beginning of the banquet, the elders first raised their glasses to give a welcome speech. Generally, you should drink "transfer wine" and change to a glass of wine at the banquet. That is, everyone drinks the wine in the cup next door, one on the left and one on the right. When the wine is half full, the host, under his guidance, pours two glasses of wine and drinks them with the guests, and then drinks them with the guests in order of age or class size. You should also eat "turn" when eating vegetables. The dishes of each family are handed down one by one for everyone to taste. The banquet is over, and I am proud that I have finished all the dishes I brought. Dong people get together for banquets, ranging from a few brothers to a family or even the whole stockade. If a guest used to be a leader in this stockade and then came back here, he became a guest of the whole stockade, and the banquet was held in the whole stockade. At that time, every household in the whole stockade will send an adult to participate.
The Dragon is placed in Hunan Passage and Sanjiang and Longsheng areas in Guangxi. All large banquets like to put long seats, that is, they are arranged with wooden boards connected, with people sitting on both sides, and the dishes are arranged in strings according to people, and several bowls of public dishes and soup are set up to accompany the wine. Men drink and eat kebabs at dinner; Women eat public food and take kebabs home. This is a unique custom of the local Dong people. The guests shared the kebabs with their families, which means that all the family members ate the host's wedding banquet and meat to express their congratulations. If it is white, it means that although I didn't come to attend the mourning, I ate the string of meat that lost my loved ones, which is also a kind of nostalgia and mourning for the deceased.
When guests come to Dong people's homes, they will usually be treated with good bitter wine and sour fish, sour meat and various sauerkraut that have been marinated for many years, so there is a saying that "bitter wine and sour tea" is for guests. When Dong people entertain guests with chickens and ducks, first of all, the host should respect the heads of chickens and ducks or the webbed feet of chickens and ducks. Guests should take it with both hands or turn to the elders at the table to show mutual respect and sincerity between the host and the guest.
When visiting a Dong family and eating pickled fish, the host puts a pile of pickled fish pieces into the guest's bowl, but the guest had better not eat them all, leaving 1 and 2 pieces to show that "there is more than enough to eat". Birthdays, birthdays, weddings, funerals, and weddings all require banquets of different sizes.
Wedding Customs The wedding customs of Dong people are very simple, quaint and interesting. For thousands of years, it has been a traditional habit of the Dong people to choose a spouse with songs as a gift. Strange marriage customs make people think deeply for a long time.
Meeting ceremony: The meeting ceremony of Dong couples does not need too many or expensive items, but needs a lot of songs. The two sides should prepare a lot of emotional songs before meeting, and make friends and find objects by visiting relatives and friends and visiting villages. The songs that should be prepared are Knocking on the Door, Love Songs of Exploration, Serenade, Eighteen Songs and Sixty Songs. There are young guests in the stockade, and the descendants of the girls will invite groups of singers to sing, and the old people and children will come to listen to the songs. Dong people don't want guests to bring any gifts, only songs. People often sing: don't ask for folk songs, pour songs with ten loads of rice. Don't try to carry food, don't come into the house if you can't sing. Visitors must show their talents. When they beat the girl in the stockade, the master was very happy. They get up in the middle of the night to burn tea and have a snack, and the next day they are more hospitable. You choose the girl in the stockade. If people who come to the village can't sing, the host will give you a hard look and cook you a simple meal. Not only will you be laughed at, but the young people will also send you a song: Don't blow firewood, don't go uphill, don't cross the river without taking a bath, and the bodhisattva in the temple will go back to Antang to knock on wooden fish without talking.
In the engagement ceremony, young Dong people make friends by walking in the village, and then the two sides secretly arrange places to meet, express their feelings with songs, and choose their spouses according to the songs. Couples sing from sunrise to sunset, and from sunset to sunrise. Make a vow of eternal love, face to face and make a lifelong event. "The mountain ridge is high and has a roof, and the stream is long and active. We are as good as ever, and husband and wife love each other for a hundred years. " The girl took off her earrings, collars or bracelets and gave her beloved things to the younger generation. The young man took off a thoughtful dress on the spot and gave it to the girl. Giving gifts to each other is called: coloring.
Gift-taking: As long as the Dong people agree on a date after their voluntary engagement, the man can take a glutinous rice cake, two pig legs and a straw. The woman's family never asks the man for a gift. But the most important thing is to choose a few good singers and use many songs to cope with the "wedding" of the girl's family.
Qin Guan Li: "There are three meanings. First, it means that the girl's companions and relatives are unwilling to marry the girl. The second is to create a lively atmosphere of happy events through "close relatives". Most importantly, the girls should see the cleverness of the groom. Seeing the bridesmaids coming from afar, the girls quickly closed the pavilion door and prohibited the bridesmaids from entering the village for "cross-examination". At this time, the girls sang "Panmen" songs, such as: "Brother, is your surname Wu or Yang? How many oceans are there in the world? How many provinces are there in China? How many suns are there in Hunan cities? "The groom and bridesmaid must answer accurately ... the girl opens the door when she answers correctly, and continues to ask questions when she answers incorrectly. Open the pavilion door, close the room door, and then ask the groom to answer. For example, "What bird says it wants to plant? Which solar terms are yellow? Which solar term cows take a bath? What is the date of Chongyang? "The groom must answer:" On August 15th, millet Huang Shi, when birds are singing, in May, cows take a bath, and on the ninth day of September, Chongyang celebrates. "If you can't answer the right question, you can't enter the house regardless of whether you choose gold or silver and close the door to the bride. If the groom can quickly aim at the song of Qin Guan, it will be the biggest face for the bride, and people will praise the girl for marrying a good husband.
Dowry ceremony: Dong Jia marries his daughter, and the dowry is very simple. The woman's family does not ask the man for any dowry, nor does he marry the wardrobe, nor does the man ask the woman for any dowry. When the bride gets married, she only brings a flower basket with floral patterns. The basket contains Dong cotton and brocade embroidered by the girl, as well as clothes and fabrics knitted by her own hands. The bride's family only marries beautiful textile cars, brand-new looms, dye vats, hoes, sickles and other production tools, as well as rapeseed and grain seeds ... The bride walks to her husband's house with her partner without carrying her back. When you meet a girl who is married at the same time on the road, you will send her a strap embroidered with beautiful patterns to congratulate her on her good luck and early birth.
Accompanying guests: No matter whether you marry a daughter or a daughter-in-law, relatives, friends and neighbors in this village will come to meet guests. Happy families don't kill pigs and sheep. Relatives and friends don't send money or things, but all families come to accompany them, bringing bacon and chicken ... some bring Dong rice wine and glutinous rice, which is very rich. The host can hold a happy event without spending a lot of money, which embodies the unity, friendship and hospitality of the Dong people, as well as the style that one person has something to do and everyone helps.
Wash-face ceremony: The bride is taken into her husband's house, and the young people in the village will have a wash-face ceremony at night (the Han people call it the bridal chamber). After the bride and groom enter the bridal chamber, the descendants will come to drink bridal chamber tea. The younger generation should flatter the bride when eating tea, such as: "The first month is a couple, and the baby will be born in August ..." "The child's uncle drinks tea" and "the child's uncle smokes" and ask the bride to light a cigarette. After drinking tea, the younger generation will let the bride wash her face, and so will the younger generation. Of course, the bride will not be so honest to wash her face for the younger generation. Sometimes, she hides the blame in her hand and makes a big face for the younger generation, which makes everyone laugh. After washing the bride's face, everyone left happily.
Welcome Ceremony When people visit Dong Village, they often encounter an unusual way of welcome. The host set up roadblocks at Zhaimen, streets, alleys, under the Drum Tower, Storm Bridge or in front of their homes to block the way of the guests. Behind the barricade are boys and girls dressed in Dong costumes, led by Zhai Lao. They stand side by side in a row. If guests want to cross roadblocks and human walls, they must sing to the girls. Each of them still has a big bowl of homemade rice wine in his hand. He can't go there if he doesn't sing or drink.
Blocking roads is particularly common in Dong areas. When a young man from a stockade visits another stockade, he often meets a girl from the main stockade who ties leaves and grass on a rope to get in the way at the intersection and stockade. Sometimes obstacles such as spinning wheels, looms, bamboo baskets and chicken cages are placed. The girls in the main village lined up in the back to listen to the songs. First, they sang an obstacle song and put forward various reasons why guests could not enter the stockade. Boys will sing the song of clearing the way and overthrow the excuse of girls getting in the way. Singing and answering inside and outside the barricade, the onlookers kept singing and cheering.
The following are a set of lyrics sung by young Dong men and women.
The girls sang that we were avoiding the village, the village and the door. Don't come.
If you don't believe me, go to heaven and find the Jade Emperor to write a document. If he is willing to change this taboo, we will open the door.
Boys sing you don't avoid the village, open the village door quickly.
We have already asked the Jade Emperor, and he asked us to arrange it ourselves. He doesn't care about human affairs and can't write human words.
The girls sang "We're Hiding from the Village" again. There were kittens in the village last night.
The cat just got off the bus. Strangers are not allowed in. Go back today and come back tomorrow.
The boys sang again, "You don't want to live in Moggi village. There will be no kittens this month. " .
If you are lucky and have a kitten, you don't have to be afraid to open the village door quickly.
No matter how well the boys sing, they still can't get into the village gate, because the girls have to ask all kinds of questions with songs and answer them skillfully. Finally, they must sing songs to ask the girls to remove the roadblocks one by one, and they must drink the girls' rice wine before they can enter the village. Young men and women in the two villages often engage in such road blocking activities when they associate or marry the bride. The lyrics of roadblock songs often contain funny and love content. Through the roadblocks, the young men and women in the two stockades got to know each other from strangers to acquaintances, which laid the foundation for further exchanges. When holding a wedding, the host usually sets up roadblocks at the entrance of the house. A draft was tied to the rope in the way, and bowls of rice wine, fish, meat, glutinous rice and eggs were placed on the table under the rope. After singing the song of blocking the road, the guests walked through the barricade, and the girls hung two eggs symbolizing good luck and wishful thinking on their chests and drank festive rice wine. Then he brought the Dong nationality's unique salted fish and colorful glutinous rice, until people were speechless and didn't give up, and let the guests go to the new house to see the bride.