In the Peach Blossom Left by Confucius in Qing Dynasty, there was a group of people in front of colorful sedan chairs. Many tea gifts are owed. "These all show that the custom of taking tea as a bride price. It is still circulating among all ethnic groups in China.
As early as the Ming Dynasty, there was a record of "hiring tea". Fogg, a man of A Qing Dynasty, said in the eighth volume of Listening to the Rain: "Today, tea is used as the currency of weddings, which is also very common in Qin and Han Dynasties, and it is not necessary for the first marriage." The most interesting marriage customs related to tea are Minnan and Taiwan Province Province. The marriage etiquette in Fujian and Taiwan is always called "three tea ceremonies".
Bai men and women get engaged and get married with tea gifts. Tibetan youths in Zhongdian, Yunnan make butter tea and take it to outdoor parties during festivals and slack seasons. Ask someone to sit down when you meet a girl.
If you take a fancy to each other, you can take the opportunity of tea worship, grab each other's hats, and then leave the crowd to negotiate. If you don't agree to be a spouse, you can take your hat back.
In the marriage custom of Lahu nationality, after the marriage date is fixed by both men and women, the man should give the woman tea, salt, wine, meat, rice, firewood and other gifts.
Lacu people often say, "You can't get married without tea." Friends and relatives must be invited to tea at the wedding. When the Dong people break off their engagement, they use the gift of "returning tea".
On their wedding night, the bride and groom will have another cup of tea to show that they will be together forever. In the water towns in the south of the Yangtze River, Hangzhou, Jiaxing and Huzhou, young girls always prepare some good tea at home to entertain their favorite boys before they get married, which is also called "Maojiao son-in-law tea".
Once the relationship between men and women is confirmed, an engagement ceremony will be held. In addition to the engagement money, we should also give friends and relatives teapot and scented tea wrapped in red paper, commonly known as "engagement tea".
In some places, the bride price received by the woman from the man is also called "receiving tea". The woman should bring back a bag of tea and a bag of rice to the man's house, with "tea instead of water and rice instead of soil", indicating that the woman can bring "water and soil" when she marries the man's house in the future. When a woman gets married, salty tea is prepared by her family. Salty tea is made of tea leaves, sesame seeds, baked green beans, dried tangerine peel, dried bean curd and dried bamboo shoots. , should be magnetized to the man's relatives and neighbors, commonly known as "big sister's tea."