(1) Giving birth to the ritual
a gives birth to
A woman who is called "happy" after pregnancy, so she is not allowed to do heavy work at home, and she gradually buys the food and articles needed before and after childbirth. The bride's family should send a "warm nest" (or a cool car) and baby clothes, brown sugar, lard, toilet paper Chinese-style chest covering, diapers, etc., which is called "giving birth". There must be a red sweater in the baby's clothes (no seams), and there must be a red seal on the edge of the toilet paper to show that I wish a boy. The area around Libao was born, and her mother's family wanted to send gray plaques.
B. Delivery
Pregnant women have abdominal pain in the delivery period. At this time, pots and barrels should be prepared for delivery. The fetus will be born, so it sits in the bucket, which is called "going to the bucket". In the past, we used to invite more stable women (commonly known as "midwives") to deliver babies. If a baby boy is born, the stable woman says "Congratulations on raising a fat boy"; If you have a daughter, comfort your family with "Mother and daughter are safe". If the first child gives birth to a girl, say "flowers first, then fruits". Families with successive daughters often drown their babies. When Nanxiang was killed, midwives often threw bowls at the door in order to give birth quickly. Placenta used to be stored in a small pot, put in gravel ash, covered and buried under the bed, which is called "Tibetan clothes", so the place of birth is called "Yipeidi". When the fetus is born, it is called "stepping" when it comes to unexpected guests. It is said that children's habits are similar to those of stepping when they grow up. The stable woman is often passed down from generation to generation, and has practical experience, which is helpful to the smooth delivery of the parturient. However, this old method of delivery lacks scientific disinfection and nursing knowledge, which often leads to excessive bleeding of the parturient or infection with tetanus toxoid, causing diseases such as "postpartum convulsion". Therefore, after the implementation of new delivery, pregnant women often go to the hospital to give birth, and the old customs are abolished.
C. Good news
After the baby is born, there is a good news. In Qutang and Hai 'an, male students distribute red eggs and glutinous rice porridge (glutinous rice porridge) to their relatives and friends, while female students give dates. Recipients must return gifts (fresh eggs and indica rice) on the spot, and some even include happy money. The boys in Hedong area report good news, and the number of red eggs sent should be single; Giving birth to a daughter without giving good news is called "making a fortune in silence."
D. washing three
The wind of washing children in the Three Dynasties is very ancient, and it has been recorded in the Tang Dynasty. On the third day after the baby is born, it is called "the third stage of washing" to bathe, dress, open milk, take a baby's name and entertain relatives and friends. Generally, the stable woman washes her children and wears a sweater after washing. The main family and relatives and friends reward the stable woman for "washing money". Before the baby starts to milk, feed the baby with licorice and rhubarb baking juice, which is commonly known as "urging the stomach". When opening milk, you should grind the ink, beg for the breast milk of the opposite sex baby, put red-hot copper coins into the ink and milk for heating, and feed them first. I wish them a good wife, wealth and culture when they grow up. Wash three dynasties banquet, maternal family must be present. Nanxiang is a male, hanging a long strip decorated with red cloth at the door of the house during the third washing.
e. confinement
after giving birth, the lying-in woman should be put on the bed to make the blood stasis descend smoothly, which is called confinement (modern science proves that this is unscientific). As time goes by, the lying-in woman can move freely in the room for a while, basically without leaving the bed, and the diet is sent by her family. In order to keep warm and prevent the infection of head wind, the parturient should tie a towel or stick a "head wind plaster" until the full moon. During confinement, the parturient should drink Ai Tang (Chen Ai is the best) and add brown sugar to dispel cold and remove stasis, taking it three times a day at the beginning, and then decreasing gradually. Of course, those who pay attention to it take the traditional Chinese medicine "biochemical soup". It is said that pregnant women should eat less salty food in the next month, and eat more nutritional products such as crisp cakes, sugar-soaked oil buns and white soup trotters, which can make pregnant women have enough milk and prevent coughing in the future.
f .. full moon
When a child is born for one month, it is called "full moon". Shave the fetal hair on the full moon. The shaved fetal hair is wrapped with red and green silk threads into a ball and hung on a cradle or a hook. It is said that it can make the baby brave and ward off evil spirits. On that day, grandma took her daughter, son-in-law and baby home to celebrate. When she went, she put some pot ash on the baby's forehead and called it "kitchen dog" to wish him strong. When you come back, put on powder and call it "pink dog", wishing it white and tender. When the baby comes home with his parents, he will lie in the cradle given by his grandmother's house, with all the pillows and quilts, and bring back a "horse" (Xiao Mu bedpan) for defecation.
g. Catch the Week
The valley where babies turn one year old is called "age", and relatives and friends will come to celebrate. Grandparents and uncles should make silver products such as collars, neck locks, bracelets and anklets, baby clothes, shoes and hats, and buy firecrackers, fish, steamed noodles and other items, and other relatives and friends should give gifts as appropriate. On this day, children were held by adults to hold a "grasp the week" ceremony, and articles such as daily necessities, Four Treasures of the Study and toys were displayed on the table in front of God, so as to predict the future.
H. Naming and recognizing the adopted mother
Anyone who is born to a child who is not easy to get a child and loves the child very much will often be named by his family or recognized as a adopted mother or a "adopted mother". Send a name to the temple, worship the old monk as a teacher, give the child a monk's name, and give the child a robe, shoes and hats. The family calls the baby "Monk Little". Anyone who sends a name to a child and plans to get married when he grows up needs to go back to the original temple and ask the monks to cast a spell to redeem him. There are also people who put their names on the ancient trees of Buddhist temples, also for the sake of children's longevity. To recognize a dry mother is generally to choose a child who has many children but the zodiac does not conflict with each other, so that children can worship her as a adoptive mother. When recognizing the foster mother, the children's family should prepare something for filial piety, and the foster mother will also give them new shoes and hats in return. When the villagers lead their children to recognize their foster mother, the foster mother will be wrapped in a skirt, which has shown that she will fit in with her own children.
(2) Marriage
A. Visiting relatives
Men should be married when they are older, and women should be married when they are older. It is the central idea of visiting relatives (asking names) in the old society to pay attention to "matching families" in marriage. Mostly:
Visit "Jidi" to find out whether the other family has body odor. The two sides visited very strictly, and besides the outdoor, they also visited relatives, which was also a simple concept of prenatal and postnatal care at that time.
visit the "family" for the second time, distinguish between the local agriculture, industry and commerce, and ask the families to match, or "climb up the family". Especially avoid marrying those so-called "low-income" families with low social occupation.
During the three visits to "generations", it is necessary to rank the generations according to the class, and the word "character" should not be confused (most families have ancestral halls, and each generation of people has a unified name, such as "moral articles are rich and prosperous", and the generations are ranked according to the word order).
During the four visits to "family", the woman should know the man's fields, houses, furniture, grain, trees, livestock and tenancy relationship in detail. It is also necessary to visit the number of brothers and sisters of the man. This is because "small families move to poverty and everyone is poor" is directly related to the actual situation of the family economy. However, the man's requirements for the woman's economic conditions are slightly lower, and he thinks that "buying pigs without buying pens" does not matter.
five interviews with "objects" are the most important and the most difficult. Due to the arranged marriage of parents in feudal times, men and women often could not meet, and the matchmaker played tricks on them, which often caused lifelong pain.
There is also a condition when visiting relatives, that is, both parties should be of the right age, the zodiac should match, and many common sayings should be handed down. Such as: "female freshman, there is no place to fold the grain hoard", "male junior, Jinshan depends on Yinshan"; "A female junior must beg for food" and so on, which are nonsense without any scientific basis.
B. betrothal
After the mutual visit is approved, if both parties intend to get married, the woman will write the year, month, day and time of birth of the girl on the grass paper, outsourcing the red paper, and the matchmaker will send it to the man, which is called a "Geng Tie". Geng Tie is also called Caozhi Tie. The man offered it under the furnace of the god cabinet, and observed the bad luck. No utensils or other ominous signs could happen within three days, otherwise it would be returned to the woman. If there is nothing to do for three days, the man will pay the fortune teller the "eight characters" to calculate whether the eight characters made by Gan Kun match each other. There are also a few people who "love to be relatives" and don't engage in the practice of asking God for advice. When the marriage is approved, the man asks the matchmaker to send obligations, money and jewelry to the woman's house as a bride price (bride price) on an auspicious day, which becomes a "pledge" or a "lottery". Haian Town must send longan and tea when posting. After the woman in Qutang area was hired, she gave candy to her relatives and neighbors to show that she had been hired. After the engagement, the unmarried son-in-law will send a "door-to-door gift" to the woman's home on holidays. The ceremony of "setting ceremony" was grand and had certain specifications. Generally, pigs, carp, cakes and dumplings are sent for reunion (homophonic "high school reunion"). The man and the woman also invited relatives and friends to announce their engagement.
C. Preparation before marriage
Before the man marries, he must first agree on the wedding date with the woman, and write the official wedding date on a red post, which is sent to the woman by the matchmaker, commonly known as "calling". In addition, the man wants to send a "calling gift", that is, he wants to discuss the conditions such as gift money, clothing, jewelry and compensation through the matchmaker, on the pretext that his daughter is young and the dowry has not yet been handled; If the negotiation is successful, the man will send out a red invitation card (commonly known as "day") to confirm the "auspicious day" for marriage. Three days before the wedding, the man gave the woman an "opening ceremony", including "all the clothes on the head" (rouge, pollen, red rope and golden flower), wedding dress (rented rockhopper, imperial gown, colored dress, embroidered skirt and hijab), parents' mat (this is a sign that the daughter keeps going home) and firecrackers and high-rise for the female family (commonly known as The woman must give her son-in-law six kinds of clothes, shoes and hats, belts (pale tassels) and rich bags (embroidered bags), and deliver them together with his dowry, which is a "good" gift.
Before a woman gets married, her first relatives should invite her to play for a few days to show her farewell, which is called "hanging marriage", and the gift given is called "flower instrument" or "adding makeup". The day before a woman's marriage, a "wine for a woman" was held at home, and parents taught her the bride's rules. People who abused her should pay homage to heaven and earth and their ancestors.
the day before the wedding, the man goes to the woman's house to receive the dowry. Dowry is divided into hard bedding (wood) and soft bedding (new bedding should be sewn by those who are blessed and have a long life). Among them, the woodwork should have three circles (toilet, footbath and soup bucket) (which is not only necessary for women's life, but also means "three yuan and". The toilet is also called "sub-bucket" because people sit on the bucket like riding a horse. The toilet is filled with red chopsticks (homophonic "Kuaizi"), fried rice and toilet paper (sealed with red paper as a clip), and red dates, peanuts, longan and chestnuts are placed on it (homophonic "early birth", which is divided into morning and evening for children to eat). On that day, the man must invite people who have many children and grandchildren to accompany him, warm his sedan chair, spread his room and eat warm wine.
D. Wedding
On the wedding day, the man will send a sedan chair to the woman's house before dawn, with a famous lantern leading and a drummer, and the groom will take the official sedan chair with the matchmaker in front; If the conditions are poor, Hebei will use a boat, and Henan will use a bamboo sedan chair (or unicycle) carried by two people. Rich or poor, the bride will never walk.
when the sedan chair doesn't arrive at the woman's house, the matchmaker first tells the woman to pick it up and set off firecrackers. When the door of the woman's house is closed, the man must give the woman a "seal to open the door" (this money is reserved for the brothers in her family). Then open the door for tea, and check whether the gifts meet the requirements (among them, there must be "evergreen", which is planted in the courtyard by both men and women). After tea, the man fired a gun and played music, which was the first time to "urge makeup". After dinner, the parents ordered their daughter to get on the sedan chair again and again.
If it is a "one-day round", a dowry will be given after asking for tea and before meals (Hebei will use a boat, Henan will use a car or rely on manpower to pick and carry it), and the "toilet" will be moved by Xi Niang, and a reward will be given. Otherwise, the groom needs to do it himself.
When you open the door and get off the sedan chair, make-up is introduced. The blessed person combs the bride's hair and dresses her, and the parents order her daughter to get on the sedan chair. When the bride leaves the house, she asks her father and brother for old shoes to show that she doesn't touch her family's land and wealth. When you get on the sedan chair, you should carry the "Three Words True Classics" (instead of the old imperial calendar sealed with red paper) to ward off evil spirits. When getting on the sedan chair, the mother of the bride should burst into tears to show her love for her daughter. There will be firecrackers and fires when crossing the bridge along the road. In some places, it is called "seeing the bride off" by the bride's brother holding a lamp. After the bride's merchant ship in Hebei, her brother brushed the three corners of the ship with a pan-washing broom, leaving one corner untouched, indicating that the female family shared the wealth of the male family; When sailing, the boat circled in the middle of the river three times to show the bride's reluctance to her family. The sedan chair went to the men's house, set off firecrackers and played drums and music together. When the bride enters the door, she steps on firewood (homophonic "wealth") and crosses the flourishing fire basin (indicating prosperous days).
Spring Festival
The first day of the first lunar month, formerly known as New Year's Day (divided into different dynasties), is commonly known as New Year's Day. In the old custom, old people stay in bed in the early hours of the morning to listen to the sounds of animals in nature, so as to predict their luck for one year. Families are scrambling to burn incense and fire guns to catch up with heaven and earth, especially those who burn "head incense" early in the morning, mostly to pray for more men at home or prosperity. Hedong people get up late, and every household gets up late in the morning. In the morning, housewives enter the kitchen, fry eggs, warm fruit tea and hot white soup pork with "old fire", and give them to the elderly at home to sit on the shop and eat, while others eat jujube tea, Yuanbao tea and glutinous rice cakes after getting up. After breakfast, in the natural residential area, young and middle-aged families go door-to-door to pay New Year greetings in droves, and the host treats them with cigarettes, tea, peanuts and candy. Town shops send each other new year's red cards and throw them through the crack of the door. At noon, burn incense to worship God (also known as "ascending" to thank God). Don't sweep the floor, splash water, move the scales or scissors before lunch. There is still the custom of eating old rice on the first day of the lunar new year. People in Hebei eat old New Year's Eve rice and leftovers at noon (called "raw rice") and noodles (called longevity noodles) at night; People in Henan and Hedong eat old rice at night and sticky rice at noon. According to the custom, dinner should be advanced, and you should go to bed without lighting, thinking that this can reduce mosquitoes in summer. Since the second day of the second day, families have visited relatives and friends one after another and paid New Year greetings to each other. On the second day of the lunar new year, those who can't avoid etiquette pay New Year greetings to landlords and bosses, sons-in-law bring their wives and children to their parents-in-law, and sons and nephews in Hedong area pay New Year greetings to uncles and uncles. Friends and relatives invite each other for spring wine, which is called "please spring" and usually ends on the fifteenth day of the first month. Rural areas in Hedong area call spring wine "dragon lantern", which lasts until February and a half. On the second day of the second lunar month, farmers went to the land temple (shrine) to offer incense to the land father-in-law and the land empress, praying for a good weather and no insect disaster in the field for a year. So the store worships the Xuantan Bodhisattva (that is, Lord Zhao Gongming, the God of Wealth) every day, and holds drinks to entertain employees.
The fifth day of the first month is "God of Wealth Day", also known as "Five-way Day", and stores are open. Shopkeepers attach great importance to "respecting the god of wealth", and since the fourth night of the fourth day, statues of the god of wealth have been posted at the gate of each store. Shopkeepers bathed and changed clothes, some stayed up all night, and prepared three sacrificial ceremonies (pig head, rooster and flower fish, commonly known as "six eyes"). In the middle of the night, they got up to burn incense and "pick up the god of wealth" with firecrackers.
if a woman buys the first business in the new year, it is called "full (mother) business" and the price is favorable. Poor folk artists dressed in costumes, dressed as the God of Wealth and drummed gongs, and went to the front of the shop number to make money and seek rewards, which was called "jumping the God of Wealth". In the evening, the shopkeeper invited the workers to eat "God of Wealth Wine".
Haian custom takes the first day to the fifth day as the "five-day year", and people all wear new clothes, hats and shoes. Because "cotton" and "mildew" are homophonic, cotton shoes are forbidden in some areas, and red lanterns are hung high in front of the eaves of families in Hebei, which are called "sky lanterns" from the first night to the 18th day of the first month.
Lantern Festival
The 15th day of the first month is the Lantern Festival, also known as Lantern Festival and Shangyuan Festival. "Thirteen lights are on, eighteen lights are off", which is the Lantern Festival, and the fifteenth day of the first month is its climax. During this period, farmers hung red lanterns with paper on bamboo poles (covered with rain hats) and lit them every night to pray for a good harvest. Those who ask God to make a wish because of eye diseases are from the first day to the 3th. In the Lantern Festival, in addition to lighting and watching lights, glutinous rice dumplings should be eaten in the morning and oil should be eaten at night.