"Paying attention to taboos in peacetime" is a major feature of boat people's life in Bengbu Huaihe River. The taboos of each group are similar and quite different. "Row a boat" (build a new boat), it is generally believed that the front wave-blocking seam cannot be connected with the rear wave-blocking seam, and two seams must be broken (avoided). Otherwise, it is considered that the front cabin will flow away and the rear cabin will be unlucky. Sell boats, not springboard, or you will sell your way to make money. Don't sell the "children's door" (in the middle of the hatch), otherwise there will be no children and no daughters. People can't sit on the "jump" head, otherwise the business will be blocked and not smooth. Women can't cross the bow and think it's bad luck (the North River Gang is not taboo), so the boats of the South River Gang all take a "side jump". When buying a pot, you can't get on the boat empty, but you should put tofu and other things in the pot. Nanhe gang can't buy pig's head, urine horse (toilet), pot, etc. directly from other people's boats, but must float on the water or row with their own paddles. Carrying an oil jug on someone else's boat means that when you cross the lake, you often encounter storms and you can't get out of the lake. "Oil" is in the "lake". Washing and covering quilts should not be done on other people's boats, and "being" homophonic "carrying" will make people unlucky when carrying them. Boat owners don't lend bread and noodles, and they don't lend others fire, for fear that their "prosperity" and "prosperous fire" will be borrowed by others. The big mast is called a general, and it can't be untied near the big mast. Some gangs think that there are "gentlemen" (that is, Bai Daxian and the fox) living in Dagan, and they also pay special tribute to "gentlemen" on the eve of New Year's Eve. Usually very cautious, children occasionally urinate by the big mast, adults must immediately burn incense and kowtow, pray for "sir" forgiveness, or the children will have a fever. If the big mast is broken, it indicates that the master of the ship will be in great trouble. If this happens, even if the husband kowtows and burns incense and wishes, he will still be worried all day long. The boatman thinks that the needle is something that pokes the eyes of the God of Wealth, and it is forbidden to move the needle on the seventh, seventeenth and twenty-seventh day of the lunar calendar every month. He also thinks that scissors are a turtle who has lost his family. You can't move scissors on the sixth, sixteenth and 26th day of the lunar calendar every month. On New Year's Eve, the ship's elders always told the younger generation to seal the scissors with red paper, and they could not be opened until after the sixteenth anniversary. Syllables such as "turning" and "sinking" are especially taboo for boat people. Therefore, the surname Chen is called "don't move", "fill rice" means "load rice", "sail" means "canopy", "turn over the cabin" means "turn over the cabin" and "turn over the mast" is the most powerful language for the boatman to swear. For the sake of luck, jiaozi is called "winding" and noodles are called "money-oriented". The ship committed a "taboo", that is, it was considered to have closed other people's financial doors and luck, and the violator had to give it a "financial door", that is, shoot guns, burn incense, or "hang red" with red rooster. Sailing on a foggy and cloudy day, when a carp jumps on the bow, the boatman thinks that it is the third prince of the Dragon King who is on board, which is an auspicious sign. Kowtow and burn incense, tie a red rope around the carp, and put it back into the water according to the rules of jumping on the port side and putting it on the starboard side, which is called "releasing". Some gangs often buy live carp from the market and release them. Some people don't eat carp or snakehead. It is said that when the female snakehead gives birth, it sinks under the roe day and night and does not swim to protect the safety of her offspring. After the little black fish is born, the old snakehead will be blind for a short period of time due to overwork and cannot find food. At this time, the little black fish are around the old black fish and beside their mouths for them to swallow. The little black fish didn't leave until the old snakehead's eyes regained sight. Therefore, boatmen call snakehead "filial fish". Not only do they not eat snakehead, but they often buy it at a high price and release it. As the symbol of each boathouse, raise the flag or fish (wood) on the boat. The flag of Beihe Gang is called "crooked hair", while that of Nanhe Gang is called "beating foreign sticks". The flag is at the bow and the octopus is at the stern. The colors and specifications of each flag are different, and the high flagpole is more than 12 meters. Other gangs must pass under the banner, otherwise it is considered disrespectful to the gang. Often a group of boats are together, flags are flying, and hunting sounds are very spectacular. The idea that men are superior to women has different influences on each gang. In the South River Gang, the Yellow River Gang, Huai Ping Zi and other gangs, girls have lived in the cabin since childhood and are generally not allowed to show their faces. Older girls specialize in sewing, tea and rice in the cabin. After marriage, they are generally not allowed to cross the mast, mainly cooking and sewing in the back cabin. Otherwise, girls are suspected of attracting bees and butterflies, while women are frivolous and contemptuous. But it is different in net gang, gun gang and cat boat. Girls wear silver collars and "nose restraints" (gold or silver) since childhood, and learn skills such as swimming, fishing, netting and hunting waterfowl with adults. After marriage, they wear a white cloth towel and a silver collar around their necks, and fish and hunt in front of men. Because of the different roles of women in labor and life, these boat people are also called "Han-supporting gangs". Women who support the Han Clan often stand on the hull board of the ship and paddle. Their body is light and powerful, and their posture is beautiful and moving. They are listed as one of the beautiful scenery of the boatman, especially for women. Each gang also has its own ship protector. The Shandong Gang and the Subei Gang take "Laoguan" as their ship protector. On the left side of the big mast Liang Shi, there is an ingot incense burner, which worships incense all year round. I hope it will guard the house and protect the ship. Nanhe Gang, Yellow River Gang, etc. respect the "Big King", and there are many Dawang temples donated by boat people in towns and villages along Huai River. These help the ships to raise the "King Flag" early and set it late on the first and fifteenth day of each month, and pray for the king's blessing when they are killed. During the Spring Festival, honoring the King is a great ceremony for these boatmen. What is the big prince? It is said that it is a small snake less than seven inches, with a square head, and often follows a mop to board the boat on foggy and cloudy days. Only a snake with such a small size that gets on board at this time is called the Great King. It is also a great event for the boatman to board the ship. After the boatman found it, he invited the big prince up with a clean plate and covered it with a lantern cover. Then, beating gongs and drums, burning incense and shooting guns, holding the big prince in hand, took a boat to inform the neighboring ships that each ship donated incense watches one after another. Finally, the boatmen followed the King Temple to "send the King" (there is no temple in the lake, and the King is sent to the water at the bow). Legend has it that when seeing off the king, he shouted, "Big King, change your robe." You can see the big prince turn black, red or suit. The boat people on the Huaihe River are divided into four types according to their costumes and accents: cat, savage, ugly and claw. As a cat boat, there are two opinions: one refers to the boat people below Hongze Lake and around Lixiahe River; A fishing boat that lives by fishing in the Huaihe River. There are two names for net gang: one refers to fishing boats, and the other refers to fishing boats and gunboats hunting waterfowl. The net gang worships God, also known as "burning paper", which is the collective action of the whole gang. Usually dozens of ships are together, covered with white cloth tents, and white cloth with more than 1 kinds of gods is hung around the tents. Generally, it is held for three days and nights, burning incense and kowtowing to the public, so please ask Duan Gong (God Han) to "open the door". Duan Gong went topless, crossed himself in red, sang while tapping sheepskin drums, performed oil pan touching copper coins, and cut his arms and chest with a knife. Therefore, as the saying goes, "Duangong lost his sheepskin drum-there is no god." The cost of "burning big paper" is shared equally among the boats, so the boatman also calls it "the cat boat has nowhere to make money, except to arrange the boats and burn big paper." It can be seen that the ceremony is grand and the money is large. Most of the net-gang boats near Bengbu Port live a life of small fishing boats with "the fish die without closing their eyes, and the net is dry without money", and they pay less attention to taboos. Usually, in the off-season of fishing in spring, I go to the east side of Changhuai River to offer a sacrifice to the gods. It is said that there is a deep-water nest where there lives an "old giant salamander" (turtle essence). If fishermen don't sacrifice it, it will make waves. In the light, you can't catch fish, and in the severe case, you will capsize and die. Fishermen go there to burn incense and kowtow at the bow, offering pig's head, pig's trotters, pig's tail (instead of the whole pig) or big carp, red rooster and five-color fruit to pray for the blessing of the old and old giant salamander. This ceremony is called "burning the Buddha". In the life of boat people, guns, incense and yellow paper are their biggest expenses, and every boat usually has a large number of such consumables. They have spent a lot of money and kowtowed a lot, but most boat people are still miserable. Generally speaking, the fertility of women on board ships is relatively strong (according to modern science, it should be related to their frequent eating of fish), with more than 5 or 1 children in their lives. However, there are not many adults, and most of them die of illness and falling into the river. In order to protect these young offspring, the ship formed a set of parenting rules. From the little boy's pigtails and fetal hair, he didn't shave it until he was 6 or 12 years old. When a child is 3 years old, he makes a wide cloth belt more than one foot long with red cloth, which is called "faucet belt". One end is tied to the cabin, and the other end is made into an image. Now the safety belt is tied to the child to prevent it from falling into the water. When you are four or five years old, give your child a red lacquer gourd with a bell. If you fall into the water, you don't have to sink to the bottom, which is easy to find and rescue. On holidays, parents often ask the boat for rice or noodles, and ask for some colorful cloth heads to make "a hundred meals" and "a hundred clothes" for their children (boatmen are happy with this kind of charity, so they usually take in new cloth heads for others to ask for). Children eat "a hundred meals" and wear "a hundred clothes", which means that they are raised by a hundred families and can live a long and healthy life. The child is a little sick, and the boatmen mostly pray for God, make wishes and "make vinegar stalls". When the child is seriously ill, the mother cries for the child's soul at night. Children born in the new year are called "children who catch up with the new year" and are considered blessed. The ship has great respect for the elderly. The younger generation is about 6 years old at home, so they usually make coffins for them. Rich people do more high-standard longevity materials such as "Four Happiness" and "Twelve Round Flowers". Paint it with raw lacquer and draw patterns such as dragons and phoenixes on it. After the old man died and entered the coffin, he paid special attention to the feng shui buried. Generally, Mr. Feng Shui was asked to look after the feng shui site and bury it nearby. Sometimes, in order to find good feng shui, sealed coffins can be put on the ship for three or four years. Unfortunately, two people died on some ships, and when they left the coffin, the coffin of the younger generation was carried forward for the burial of the elder. If an old man over 8 years old dies in the family, he will turn grief into joy and the funeral will be treated as a happy event. The custom of burial is the same as that of villages and towns along Huai River. Usually, boat people in Huaishang have no hometown. When they talk about their hometown, especially where their elders' graves are buried, they claim to be from that place.

Boat people's marriage customs In marriage, boat people in Huaishang strictly abide by feudal ethics and strictly follow the "parents' orders and matchmakers' words". Free love is regarded as "hooking first and then marrying", so both mother-in-law and mother-in-law will be looked down upon and held their heads up. When a man and a woman propose marriage, the man first entrusts a matchmaker to negotiate. The man uses a red paper passbook, and the word "Qiu" is capitalized on the folding surface, and the man birthdates is lowercase in the folding. The woman used a green paper passbook to write a word "Allow" on the outside and a woman birthdates on the inside. That is, ask the fortune teller to calculate whether the two people are well matched, which is called "matching eight characters". Usually, there are: one bed can't lie in Shuanglong; The dragon and the rabbit wait for a mistake, so they can't get married, and the marriage proposal is a failure. If the two parties are matched, that is, a double date is selected, and the matchmaker takes the man's calligraphy and several sets of clothes, puts two pots of evergreen on the table, and inserts a small red flag on the evergreen pot (meaning that the two families are dating for thousands of years). At the same time, take a rice bowl and tea to the woman's boat and exchange books, which is called "crossing the book". After "writing a book", the two sides set a wedding date and chose the so-called zodiac auspicious day. Three days before marriage, the bride should go on a diet (the bride and groom are not allowed to meet before marriage, otherwise it will be unlucky). On the wedding day, the man's boat was in Sheung Shui and the woman's boat was in the water. In the morning, the man uses a sedan-chair paddle (the sedan-chair paddle is turned over with a big table, with legs facing up on the paddle to facilitate the arrangement of flowers, and red cloth is tied on the paddle) to meet the bride, and the matchmaker is the man's full representative. The matchmaker paddles ahead, the sedan chair paddles behind, and the sedan chair contains the clothes, shoes, crowns and bride price of the couple. When the wedding rowing boat meets the woman's boat, the people who congratulate her sometimes combine the boat with the woman's boat. The matchmaker must hand out red envelopes, which is called "the ceremony of unwinding cables". Hershey's talent rowed the merged boat and let the wedding boat lean against the woman's boat. In the sound of firecrackers, the couple put on new clothes and shoes brought by their husband's family, covered their heads, and were assisted by the bride's family to get on the sedan chair, and the dowry was also moved. At the very least, the bride's family should have a ever-burning lamp, a girl, a red cloth bag (with a copper coin on the bag), a blue apron, a rice bowl, two sets of bedding, etc., and there is no limit to the rich bride's family. Therefore, the boat people have the saying that "the girl is losing money, and she can live without it". The bride sits on the sedan chair, with a sieve vertically behind her, and a mirror in the sieve, which is called "back mirror", meaning to ward off evil spirits. The bride carries a bronze mirror in her arms, with the mirror facing forward. Before leaving, the bride's family fired a pro-gun. The matchmaker's rowing boat is in the front, the sedan chair rowing boat is in the middle, and then the farewell rowing boat (it must be the woman's man's farewell). When the boat was halfway to her mother's house, the bride's brother or nephew on the farewell boat began to shout: Sister (aunt), please turn the mirror. The bride puts the mirror on her chest forward and faces inward, which means that the light shines on her husband's family first and then on her family. At this time, the farewell rowing boat turned around and went back to her mother's house, instead of going to her husband's house. The bride's sedan chair went to her husband's boat, and the husband's family fired guns and beat drums to meet her. The first thing the bride does when she gets on the boat is to pick up the hijab. There are two kinds of picking methods: one is that the male cousin picks it, uses the scale, and sings while picking it: "The small scale is round and round, and the stars are all the way to the end. Today, I hold it in my hand, and I pick the hijab with the newcomer." "When the hijab is lifted to the sky, there is a jade fairy sitting inside ..." Every time I sing, the onlookers cheered in unison, "Good!" On the other hand, the groom himself chooses a pair of chopsticks wrapped in red paper, and the invited people sing happy words, so it is kind to watch. Pick the hijab and put it directly on the couple's bed. The second thing is to worship heaven and earth. The boat people take the port side as the top and the starboard side as the bottom, with the incense table at the top. For ancestors, parents and relatives sit at the top in order. The ceremony was sung by the master of ceremonies, and the object of worship was arranged by him. The new couple stood at the bottom, first worshiping heaven and earth, commanding their ancestors, then bowing to their parents and other relatives, and finally both of them worshipped together. Everyone, including their parents, has a red paper envelope as a "meeting gift", which is handed over to the new person by the master of ceremonies after the worship. After that, the new couple sat on the new bed and drank jujube soup, which means to have a baby early. Lunch is served to relatives, and the new couple sit first with them, and then they sit on the bed, which is called "sitting in wealth". Women sit until they fall asleep at night, while men sit symbolically for a while and then leave. Celebrate the guests in the evening, but the new couple don't accompany them. Most banquets are ten dishes and ten bowls, which are called ten dishes (meaning real). The groom only started to serve the first course when the waiter shouted, "upstart stands for food." The groom immediately took off his hat and double-bowed at each table and left. After dinner, seeing the groom into the room is called "seeing him off". * * * There are four men to see him off. The first two men hold candles, and the last two men send them to each other. One of them is the lead singer of auspicious words, and each time he sings, the other delivery person says yes. The person who sent the room to sing should have a certain eloquence and act according to circumstances, otherwise the groom will not be easily sent to the new house. After the groom entered the room, the delivery man sang: "Bright candles in hand, good dowry for the couple, high cabinets, short boxes, eight-step beds, mandarin ducks in pairs, and mandarin ducks in pairs ..." Then he began to spread the bed and sang: "A handful of chestnuts and dates, and the scattered children ran all over the bed". After spreading the bed, the task of delivering the room is completed. Relatives, mostly cousins, began to make trouble in the bridal chamber and make more humorous jokes. But no matter how noisy it is, the new family should not be annoyed, otherwise it will be considered unlucky. Many people who have sex with each other regard ginkgo, jujube, safflower and cake on the couple's bed as disaster-free items and scramble to get them. Some gangs are still playing tricks on the old man. In these gangs, the old man must get away before the noisy room. Otherwise, if he is caught by the noisy room, his face will be smeared with pot dust and his new daughter-in-law will be dragged around the boat with a fiber board on his back. The new house is located in the back cabin of the ship. Newcomers need to be fully blessed (in-laws, husbands and women with children) just like people on the shore, but the way of making beds is not the same. Some look for children and men under the age of 12; Others are looking for big adobe presses on the shore for many years, hoping that future children will be as strong and long-lived as adobe; Others press the bed with big radishes, thinking that the children born in the future will be as many as radishes and as watery. When the couple goes to bed, the man's hat is pressed on the woman's hijab, and the man's shoes are put in the woman's shoes. The above is "big marriage". In addition, some of them are in the form of "small marriage" for reasons such as taboo, or the eight characters are a little out of line, or the husband's family is sick. "small marriage"