Customs When a guest arrives at the door, he or she must first drink tea, usually two courses. There is a saying: "Drinking a bowl of tea is a heartless tea." There is also the saying: "a bowl of bitter, two bowls of complementary, three bowls of wash mouth." The guest must drink the second bowl of tea as soon as he receives the host's tea. If the guest is thirsty, you can explain in advance, until you are satisfied with the drink. If the visitor is a female guest, the host also set out melon seeds, peanuts, fried beans and other snacks.
She women living in the mountains along the coast of northeastern Fujian, have the custom of wearing "three knives". The "three knives" are actually three knives, two sides of the blade, five or six inches long metal tube. Legend has it that this custom began at the end of the Ming Dynasty, when foreign invaders invaded the southeast coast of China, in order to prevent the invaders from insulting them, She women put three short swords in their hair buns, which could be used in times of crisis to resist the foreign invaders and protect themselves. The custom of the three swords shows the bold and pure character of She women.
Marriage The She people are monogamous and do not marry people with the same surname. She weddings are very interesting, the groom is welcomed by the family in-laws, the family in-laws money to the meal, the table does not show a thing, the groom must be named one by one, such as: chopsticks to sing "Chopsticks Song", to sing the "wine song", the chef should be sung and the same song, and the things should be out, after the groom is required to sing the table one by one back to the things.
In the She folk, in addition to the usual marriage of women, there are men married to women's wedding customs. There are two kinds of marriage: one is called "son-in-law" to an unmarried woman's family; the other is called "door-to-door" to a widow's family. Families with no sons tend to recruit their sons, but many families with sons also let their sons go to the family and let their daughters stay in the family to "recruit their sons" (i.e., to recruit their sons-in-law). Generally, the children of a family member take their mother's name, and there are also two sons who take their parents' names. If both husband and wife are only children, they have to "do both sides of the family", that is, the first few years of marriage on both sides of the family to take care of, living in no fixed place. After a few years, it can only be determined in the couple's maiden name in the economic conditions of the better side of the settlement.
Before marriage, there are two stages of marriage and betrothal, etiquette is quite a lot. Marriage, the male party sent by the groom's uncles, good song "Chilang", as the best man of the "catch the aunt", the cook and can talk "Chilangzi" team, led by the matchmaker to the bride's home two days before the wedding. Two days before the wedding, rushed to the woman's home, firecrackers called open the door, gifts, line "shoe ceremony" (remove straw shoes, wash feet, put on new shoes), both singers sing and feast, the bride toasted on the table, and accept the guests and elders presented red envelopes, known as "discussing a hundred silver ". The night of the song feast to all-night, the male singer if the singers can not answer the female singer's question, the face to be smeared with pots of gray, leading to laughter. The next day, in the woman's home to perform the "please Zugong" ceremony, that is, to the ancestral tablets to report the wedding, asking for blessings. Later, the bride's mother put the dowry on the bed, mothers and daughters sitting next to the bed crying hard to part, called "crying dowry. The third day is the official wedding, the bride according to the husband's home near and far to decide on the sedan chair departure time, the principle is to arrive at the groom's home before dawn. On the way, the bride shall not turn back, to ensure that after marriage to old age. To the groom's home outside the door, the bride to open the umbrella by constantly replacing the red bag laid in front, symbolizing the succession. On the way to the center hall, the husband's family and friends should scatter raw peanuts, wishing for more children. In the middle of the hall to worship the ancestors, the groom began to meet with the bride. On the third day after the wedding, the bridegroom accompanies the bride back to the bride's home to perform the rite of return. Stay two or four nights before returning to the husband's home. Until today, this ancient rule is still being practiced in Shezhen.
Taboo The first day of the first month, taboo picking dung, taboo sedan chair, blowing the trumpet; taboo as a beggar; taboo eating dog meat.
Festivals The She family attaches great importance to traditional festivals, the importance of ancestor worship, the 15th of February, July and August every year for the ancestor worship day, believe in ghosts and gods. Ancestors should be sacrificed with two cups of wine, one cup of tea, three meat and three vegetarian dishes in six bowls, plus different seasons' priceless food. In addition to wine and meat, which are essential during festivals, there are certain traditional customs for what to eat on each festival. However, no matter what the festival is, mochi must be made. In addition to killing chickens and ducks on birthdays, adults should also make mochi.
"March 3" is a traditional She festival, held every year on the third day of the third month of the lunar calendar, the main activity is to go to the field "trekking", eat rice, in order to remember their ancestors, also known as the "rice festival". It is also called "Wu Rice Festival". Wumi is a kind of plant juice that dyes glutinous rice into a dark color. Legend has it that during the Tang Dynasty, Lei Wanxing and Lan Fenggao, the She leaders, led the She people in a revolt against the ruling class of the time and were besieged by the imperial army in the mountains. The generals survived the siege by eating a kind of wild fruit called 'wu rice', and on March 3 of the next year, they broke out of the siege and won the victory. In honor of them, people celebrate March 3 as a holiday and eat "omiyage" to commemorate the occasion. During the festival, the She people from dozens of miles around with the same clan word gather at the singing ground, from morning to evening, singing to Pan Song, the content of which is to glorify Pan Gou, remembering the ancestor. The entire Sheshan Mountain is immersed in a sea of songs. In the evening, each family eats "umi rice". The first thing you need to do is to get a good look at the whole thing and then you will be able to see what is going on.
In addition, the She people also celebrate the Spring Festival. In addition to slaughtering chickens and pigs, they also make mochi to wish for good luck in the New Year and sweet days every year. On the morning of the first day of the Lunar New Year, the whole family bows to the "Pangu Ancestors" and the old people tell the story of how their ancestors started their business, after which the whole family gets together, sings songs and sends congratulatory gifts. The young men and women are walking around the countryside, singing songs to pass on their love, and talking to each other.
Clothing She clothing is reflected in the dress of women. She women's clothing, slightly different from place to place, its *** with the same characteristics is more embroidery on the top. Especially the women's tops of Fuding and Xiapu in Fujian Province have various colors of embroidered floral patterns and bird, dragon and phoenix designs on the collars, lapels, clothes buckets and even on the cuffs. In hot climates, women wear shorts regardless of the season, wrapping their legs and tying colorful ribbons around their waists. Hair is coiled and combed on the top of the head in the shape of a conch or disk, with red floss around it.
The most important attire for She women is the "phoenix dress". Red head rope tied long braid high disk on the top of the head, symbolizing the phoenix head; clothing, aprons (handkerchiefs) with red, peach, apricot yellow and gold and silver silk threads embroidered with colorful lace patterns, symbolizing the phoenix neck, waist and feathers; tied to the waist behind the fluctuating golden belt, symbolizing the phoenix tail; wear the whole body of the jingling of the silver, symbolizing the phoenix singing. Married women usually wear the "phoenix crown". It is in the refined fine bamboo tube wrapped with red cloth, hanging a 30 centimeters long, 3 centimeters wide red damask made. Crown has a round silver plate, down 3 small silver plate in the forehead, known as the "dragon bun", said the "three princes" wearing the phoenix crown. There is a legend about the phoenix: King Panhou, the founder of the She tribe, was so successful in leveling the mountains that Emperor Gaoxin married his daughter, the Third Princess, to him. At the wedding, the empress gave her daughter a phoenix crown and a jeweled phoenix dress, blessing her to be like the phoenix and bring good fortune to her life. When the Third Princess had children, she also dressed her daughter like a phoenix. When her daughter got married, the phoenix brought the phoenix clothes from the Phoenix Mountain in Guangdong Province and gave them to her as her wedding clothes. From then on, Shejia women wore the phoenix costume as a sign of good luck. In some places, the bride is directly called "Phoenix". Because the bride has the lofty status of the "Three Princesses", so in the groom's home to worship the ancestral tablets are not kneeling.
Men's attire is similar to the Han Chinese.
Daily Food Customs The daily staple food of the She people is mainly rice, in addition to rice, there are also a variety of pastries made of rice, often collectively referred to as "classics". There are three kinds of rice commonly eaten by the She people: indica, japonica and glutinous. In terms of viscosity, glutinous rice is the most viscous, Japonica rice is the second most viscous, and indica rice is basically not viscous, but indica rice produces the most rice, and indica rice is the most common rice consumed by the She family. Indica rice is also often used to make dried flour, that is, the indica rice ground into powder, plus rancid rice kneaded into a ball steamed, and then dried flour machine extruded into silk, and then steamed through can be eaten. Can also be dried and stored for a long time, dried flour flavor vegetarian and delicious, suitable for those who are afraid of greasy food. Indica rice and some fish rice ground into powder can be steamed into a variety of cakes. Rice flour into a paste, steamed into water cake. Such as adding brown sugar steamed called spoon sugar cake or red cake; add alkaline water steamed called yellow cake; only add salt called white cake, collectively referred to as water cake, after steaming can be stored, sugar cake surface plus sesame, peanuts, etc., drying hard to store, eat and then steamed soft. Yellow cake can be preserved by soaking in gray alkaline water, and mixed with other dishes plus soup when eating. Japonica rice is mainly used to make rice cakes, the production of round-grained japonica rice flour kneaded into a ball steamed, into the rice cake extruder pressurized into; can also choose a special locally produced shrubs burned into ash, water out of the alkaline water, the fish rice into the water soaked up, de-watered and poured into the retort to steam through, and then put into the mortar and pounded into a ball, rolled into a 500-1000 grams of long, flat shaped chemicals; can also be used to stir-fry the soft wine only for the travel and It is not hard when cold and can be eaten at any time. Glutinous rice is mostly used to make wine and patties. To make mochi with glutinous rice is to steam the glutinous rice first, then put it into a mortar and pound it into a ball, and roll it into a mooncake-sized cake. Dipped in brown sugar and sesame powder, eaten while hot, sweet and soft. Folk have "cold rice dumplings hot mochi" said, meaning that the mochi only hot to eat the flavor. In addition to rice, sweet potatoes are still one of the staple foods of She farmers. In addition to directly boiled sweet potatoes, most of them are first cut into silk, washed off starch, sun-dried solid in the warehouse or barrel for consumption throughout the year; there are also first cooked sweet potatoes boiled, cut into strips and sun-dried into eighty percent of the dry long-term storage. Cooked and dried sweet potatoes are mostly used as dry food and eaten directly. Some people cut raw sweet potatoes into slices, into the boiling water into eight mature, out of the air-dry or sun-dried, and then stir-fried or deep-fried with sand, often eaten on New Year's holidays, and used to entertain guests. The starch washed out of the sweet potato silk is filtered several times and dried in the sun, and a small part of it is used as dry starch for cooking, and most of it is used to make vermicelli, which is made by mixing the dry starch with water to form a paste, steaming it in a steamer basket, and then shaving it into threads after it cools and hardens, and then dried in the sun to become vermicelli. Vermicelli is an important ingredient in the preparation of snacks and dishes for She entertaining guests.
Most of the Shejia people like to eat hot dishes, and generally every family has a hot pot to cook and eat. In addition to the common vegetables, tofu is also often eaten, the most common dishes for guests in the farmhouse is the "tofu mother", that is, first wash the soybeans with water soaked up, and then use the stone mill (now some places with electric mill) grinding into pulp, and then cooked with warm fire, with auxiliary ingredients, the flavor is very delicious. There are chili peppers, radish, taro, fresh bamboo shoots and ginger made of brine pickles, including brine ginger is the most characteristic. There are more than ten kinds of bamboo shoots used for cooking, such as thunder bamboo, golden bamboo, Wu Gui bamboo, stone bamboo, peony bamboo, frog bamboo and so on. Bamboo shoots are almost a constant vegetable in the She family throughout the seasons. There is a saying that in December of a year, only in August there are no bamboo shoots, and wild rice is used as a substitute. In addition to fresh bamboo shoots, dried bamboo shoots can also be made for long-term preservation. When making dried bamboo shoots, first boil the fresh bamboo shoots, tear them into two halves and dry them in the sun or smoke them. In the Jingning area of the She family production of dry bamboo shoots, the first fresh bamboo shoots cut into slices, add salt and stir-fried, and then baked over a fire, into a bamboo tube, sealed with bamboo shells inverted, the folk say that this dry bamboo shoots for the "puff bamboo shoots". The most meat is pork, usually used to stir-fry vegetables.
Tea is essential to the daily life of the She family, and most of the tea is baked green tea produced by the family.
Festivals, rituals and food customs The She family attaches great importance to traditional festivals, in addition to wine and meat during the festivals is essential, what to eat on each festival has certain traditional habits. For example, they eat rice on March 3, and eat rice at Ching Ming Festival, and wrap rice dumplings at Dragon Boat Festival, but no matter what festivals they do, they have to make patties. In addition to killing chickens and ducks for birthdays, adults should also make mochi. There is a saying in the She family: "Adults' birthday a mortar and eggs, children's birthday a pair of eggs."
The ancestor worship is done with two cups of wine, one cup of tea, three meat, three veggies and six bowls of food, plus rice cakes of different seasons.
The She wedding is very interesting, the groom is welcomed by the in-laws, and the in-laws pay for the meal. During the meal, the table does not display a thing, must be named once the groom one by one song, such as: to chopsticks, then sing "Chopsticks Song", to wine, then sing "Wine Song", the chef also want to song and its things should be sounded out, after the groom is required to table things one by one to sing back.
There are guests to the door, are to be the first tea, generally drink two courses. There is a saying: "drink a bowl of tea is ruthless tea." There is also the saying: "a bowl of bitter, two bowls of complementary, three bowls of wash mouth." As soon as the guest receives the host's tea, he must drink the second bowl. If the guest is thirsty, you can explain in advance until you are satisfied. If the visitor is a female guest, the host will also set out snacks such as melon seeds, peanuts, fried beans and dried vegetables.
The wine of the She ethnic group is mainly white wine and home-made glutinous rice wine. There is also a kind of green curved wine in the mountainous area of Jingning. There are two kinds of white wine: open-burned and dark-burned.
Typical food She unique typical food: brine ginger; pickles, She flavor dishes, commonly used chili, ginger, radish and other pickled, known as bad chili, bad ginger, etc.; Dragon Boat Festival zongzi, folk called goujiao; Wu rice, the March 3 festival food, is the young leaves of the Wu Rice Tree (She said Wu Zhi) pounded fine, with juice soaked in glutinous rice, boiled into a dark and shiny Wu rice. It is said that if you eat the rice, you will not be afraid of ants.
Historically, the She people migrated from place to place, and their material life was especially simple. They "hutted in the valleys, put out thatched roofs, wove bamboo hedges, and cut wood for the lattice," and lived in clusters. Generally, they live in thatched houses and wooden houses. Nowadays, as the living standard of the She people changes, more and more people are building small houses. Fire cages and fire pits are indispensable to the family life of the She people. Because of the cold climate in the mountainous areas, families sit around the fire pit in the severe winter months and roast the fire to keep warm. In the mountainous areas of the She people, there is little paddy land and much dry land, so there is less rice cultivation and more mixed grains. They generally use groundnut rice mixed with rice as their staple food, and pure rice is only used when entertaining VIPs, and they like to eat shrimp, seaweed, tofu, and so on. They are especially fond of drinking "rice wine" and "wheat wine".
The traditional dress of the She people is colorful and splendid. She clothing advocates the green-blue color, and most of the clothes are made of self-woven linen. Now the clothing of She men is no different from that of Han Chinese, while some She women in eastern Fujian and southern Zhejiang, the clothing still has a distinctive national style. The collars, cuffs and right lapels are laced with flowers, and there is a custom of wearing shorts and wrapping the legs. Especially the women's hair style is different from that of the Han Chinese. Young girls like to use red floss and hair wrapped together, braided into a long braid, coiled on the head. Married women generally wear a phoenix crown, that is, with a small refined bamboo tube, red cloth outside the handkerchief, under the suspension of a foot-long, one-inch-wide red damask. Old, middle and young women of different ages, hair also ringed with black, blue or red floss. The crown is decorated with a round silver plate, three small silver plates hanging from the plate; hanging in front of the forehead, the She called it a dragon bun, indicating that it is the "Three Princesses" to wear the phoenix crown (legend has it that Emperor Gaoxin betrothed his three princesses to Panzou, who is credited with chopping off the head of the King of the Injun Rong Fans. Crown also inserted a silver hairpin, and then wear a silver collar, silver chain, silver bracelet and earrings, look extraordinarily colorful.
Before liberation, the She marriage family generally practiced monogamy, still retaining the ancient marriage customs. Generally the same family name is not married, this ethnic group within the disk, blue, Lei, Zhong four surnames in the self-marriage. Originally, the clan exogamy system was the traditional marriage custom of the She people. However, due to the ethnic suppression and discriminatory policies of successive rulers, intermarriage between She and Han was strictly forbidden, and was once an internal rule of the She people. After the liberation, with the implementation of the policy of ethnic equality and solidarity, intermarriage between the She and Han ethnic groups has been increasing. In ancient times, young She men and women had the tradition of free love, and it was the custom of the She forefathers to sing songs and get married. However, with the development of the feudal landlord economy, influenced by the Han's concept of marriage, to the dissolution. Before the liberation, the phenomenon of feudal sale and arrangement of She marriages was very serious. After the liberation, it was abolished, and now young She men and women are basically free to love each other and have their own marriages. The form of burial is earth burial, retaining the custom of re-burial of bones.
The traditional festivals of the She ethnic group include the Dragon Festival in the fourth month of the lunar calendar, the seventh day of the seventh month of the lunar calendar, the Autumn Festival, the Mid-Autumn Festival, the Chung Yeung Festival, the Spring Festival, etc. In addition, the 15th day of the second month of the lunar calendar is celebrated every year. In addition, the 15th of February, the 15th of July and the 15th of August of the lunar calendar are the ancestor worship days of the She people every year.