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Wedding customs in southern Fujian (1)
Woof woof
Pig’s feet in front of the delicate front
The marriage customs of the people of southern Fujian are astonishingly strange. For example, in the wedding procession, the thick pig's feet among the red and blue bamboos are particularly eye-catching. The locals call them: "Pig's feet in front of the sedan chair." Whenever a family marries a daughter-in-law, among the gifts they prepare to send to the bride’s family, they must prepare pork trotters of the same size as both legs (meaning the happiness of the two parents’ families). The weight should be about 20 kilograms per foot. If the feet are too small, the woman will consider her to be stingy. The joints of the pig's feet should be tied with red silk thread, and the other end should be wrapped in red paper into a red envelope with 12 yuan inside, which means that there will be plenty of food and clothing every day for the next twelve months. Then put them into two red baskets that have been inspected for workmanship (those are gift boxes specially used for weddings, commonly known as red baskets). In addition, there is also something special about choosing a "red basket" pole. The two ends of the pole must be glued with red paper for good luck. When arriving at the bride's house, the "pig's trotters in front of the sedan chair" will be placed in the hall of the bride's house. The bride's parents will count the pig's trotters and the gifts they brought, and symbolically cut the pork into a piece weighing about 2 pounds. When you get older, you will say that your mother's family is greedy, and the remaining part will be taken back to the groom's family together with the dowry by the wedding team.
It is said that "pig's feet in front of sedan chair" was very popular in southern Fujian as early as the Tang Dynasty. During the Tang Dynasty, the indigenous people in southern Fujian often rebelled, and the imperial court often sent troops to Fujian to quell the rebellion. At that time, when the people in southern Fujian met their daughters who got married, the whole family would cry and cry, which was very miserable. The leader of the group sent someone to inquire, and it turned out that the southern Fujian area was sparsely populated, with towering old trees and jackals everywhere. Girls were often attacked by tigers on their way to get married, and some even lost their lives (another legend says that a heavenly dog ??bites the bride). That's why I cry so miserably. Some people in the army felt strange and took the matter back to the capital to report it. Cheng Yaojin, the founding father of the Tang Dynasty, came up with a strategy: Tigers hurt people because they are hungry, and it is the nature of tigers to eat meat. You can hang pork in front of the sedan chair. When a tiger appears, you will throw the pork to the tiger to fill its belly. , the bride and everyone can follow suit. Because it is easy to carry, the whole piece of meat is hung in front of the sedan chair, so it is called "pig's feet in front of the sedan chair".
Southern Fujian Wedding Customs (2)
Woofing
Bagua Rice Sieve
Rice sieve is a daily necessities for common people, but it is also a wedding custom in South Fujian It is an important item in the wedding ceremony. For example, when the bride arrives at the door of the house, a rice sieve with a gossip pattern is needed to cover the bride's head, and then the bride can be welcomed into the groom's home, which means peace and auspiciousness. It is locally called "Bagua Rice Sieve".
Speaking of "Bagua Rice Sieve", there is another origin. It is said that before the Tang Dynasty, southern Fujian was a desolate area. Local bandits often rebelled and rebelled. Coupled with the high mountains and mountains, bandits often harassed the people. At that time, it often happened that the wedding sedan was robbed or the bride was shot and injured by random arrows, and the people were often worried about this. After the Tang army came to Zhangzhou for development, the people reported the matter to the garrison for protection. Since the bandits came and went frequently, everyone had no good idea. When the matter reached the capital, Cheng Yaojin, the founding hero of the country, came up with a clever plan: He could order the sergeant to use it. A battle shield is hung in front of the sedan chair. If any random arrows are shot at the bride, the bride will use the shield to block it to ensure her safety. This move really worked. The villagers widely use the shield as a protective umbrella and amulet for the bride. With the joint development between the Tang Army and the local people, the Zhangzhou area has gradually become peaceful and prosperous, and the bandits are no longer so blatant. There are no more incidents of brides being shot by random arrows, because there is no danger and the shields are bulky. It was inconvenient to carry, so people used rice sieves used by farmers, which were similar to shields. In order to be different from ordinary rice sieves, auspicious Bagua patterns are painted on the top of the rice sieve, which acts like a shield to ward off evil and protect oneself. And it is called "Bagua Rice Sieve" and it is widely circulated. This is the origin of "Bagua Rice Sieve".
Another legend is that in ancient times, in southern Fujian, it often happened that tengu came to snatch beautiful girls. This matter was reported to the court, and Cheng Yaojin, a veteran minister of the Tang Dynasty, drew a gossip rice sieve and placed it on the bride. The sedan chair came to ward off evil spirits. According to legend, the Tengu was afraid of the Bagua Tu, so everything was fine. In any case, the "Bagua Rice Sieve" comes from a story set by Cheng Yaojin of the Tang Dynasty and is widely circulated in southern Fujian today.
"Bagua rice sieve" is a new rice sieve whose workmanship has been inspected. A Bagua pattern is painted on the back with red paint. The bamboo nails of the rice sieve should be exposed, which means that if you get rich, you should use it. When marrying the bride, the rice sieve is placed in front of the sedan or car. When the bride comes back and wants to get off the sedan, she picks up the rice sieve and covers the bride's head, saying "If you take the rice sieve high, you will have a son and a grandson who will be the number one scholar." Wait for auspicious words. At the same time, a large farmer's dustpan should be placed under the bride's feet for her to stand on, so that the bride can't reach the sky or reach the ground. This is considered precious. Then, the rice sieve must be taken to the new house and stored on top of the bed for peace and good luck.
With the passage of time, in order to make it easier to carry, urban residents now use a flower umbrella with the beginning of Bagua instead of a Bagua rice sieve during marriages. This is for good luck and can provide protection from the sun and rain. . However, in rural weddings, the custom of preparing a "Bagua rice sieve" to cover the bride and place it on the bed for good luck is still essential. It has become a unique wedding custom in southern Fujian and has become popular among rural folk. Passed down from generation to generation.
Marriage customs in southern Fujian (3)
Woof woof
Advocating red and sweetness
People in southern Fujian regard red as the most respected, most powerful and most beautiful color. Happiness is auspicious. From early years to the present, weddings and special occasions have made the whole family red. Wedding couplets should be posted in the hall, room doors, and gates. For example: "Purple swallows fly together to welcome the spring, red flowers bloom toward the sun", "Auspicious people spread auspicious words at auspicious times, and newlyweds get married in the new year." The bride should wear a red shirt, a red skirt, a red headscarf, and red shoes embroidered with mandarin ducks. After the bride enters the house, she should specially place red silk spring flowers for her mother-in-law or female elders to show her affection and respect. Red date sweet tea should be used to serve tea to her parents-in-law; a red silk wedding curtain with double happiness should be hung in the hall.
Sugar cane
In the wedding venue, two bundles of sugar cane with roots, leaves, heads and tails are placed. Each bundle has four or five sugar cane plants and is tied with red silk to reflect the marriage in pairs. In pairs, the love between husband and wife after marriage is as sweet as sugarcane.
Marriage customs in southern Fujian (4)
Woof woof
Oven teapot
When talking about the people of southern Fujian, you can never leave them without them. Kung Fu tea, and the traditional wedding ceremony in southern Fujian naturally exudes a strong aroma of tea. At the wedding venue, there was a huge oven and teapot with tea-making supplies. According to the wedding customs in southern Fujian, it is a sign of prosperity for the couple to step over the oven. The four big characters "He Jing Yizhen" on the oven are not only a tea ceremony but also a way to happiness for couples in the eyes of southern Fujian people. I would like to warn the newlyweds that they have different growth backgrounds and the gap is not small. However, in their married life, they should keep in mind mutual respect, mutual accommodation and mutual tolerance. After listening to these golden words, each couple drank a cup of Kung Fu tea, which symbolizes "sweetness and happiness". I believe they also had a deeper feeling.
Marriage Customs in Southern Fujian (5)
Tea Ceremony
In our country, tea is closely related to marriage. As early as the Ming Dynasty, there was "engagement tea" records. Fogg, who lived in the Qing Dynasty, said in Volume 8 of "Ting Yu Cong Tan": "Today's weddings use tea as currency, which is the custom of both Manchu and Han Dynasties, and it is not used by the royal family." It can be seen that tea is closely related to marriage. Relationship can be said to be a very serious "contract".
However, the most interesting tea-related wedding customs are in southern Fujian and Taiwan. In these areas, tea drinking is popular, and men and women are also accustomed to using tea ceremonies when getting engaged. This ancient custom has been preserved to this day. The marriage etiquette in Fujian and Taiwan is collectively called the "Three Teas and Heavenly Rites". The "three teas" are the "tea" when getting engaged, the "fixed tea" when getting married, and the "tea together" when the couple meets each other.
In feudal society, "the orders of parents and the words of the matchmaker" cannot be violated. The man will accompany the matchmaker or his parents to the woman's house to propose marriage or a blind date. The woman's parents are used to asking the daughter-in-law to serve tea to the guests. After the tea cups are filled, they are distributed to the male guests according to their seniority order, thus kicking off the "blind date". The man's family took the opportunity to examine the girl's appearance, words, deeds, and behavior, and the girl also secretly took a look at her future husband. When a man goes to the woman's house to "make a betrothal" (engagement), the woman to be married brings sweet tea (called "Golden Date Tea" among the people in Fujian and Taiwan) to the man's guests to taste. After drinking the sweet tea, the male guest will wrap an even number of coins in red paper as a gift in return. This gift is called a "pressed tea bottle". On the wedding day, the groom's wedding team comes to the bride's house, and the bride's family will treat her to "egg tea" (sweet tea with a shelled and boiled egg inside).
After the groom’s wedding banquet, the groom and the bride, accompanied by the matchmaker or family members, hold tea trays with candied fruits, sweet winter melon strips and other "tea accessories" to invite the guests. This etiquette is called "eating the bride's tea" ". After the guests finish the "bridal tea", they should wrap red envelopes and place them in the tea cup as a return gift. Sometimes the guests deliberately refuse to accept the "bridal tea" to show their mutual preference, and the comedy of the wedding ceremony begins during the "tea ceremony". In addition, on the second day after the wedding, the newlyweds hold "golden date tea" (two candied golden dates in each small cup), bow their heads to the elders, and then offer the tea. This is the famous "golden date tea" among the people in southern Fujian and Taiwan. "Worship tea" is also the climax of the tea ceremony in the wedding. If relatives and elders who are far away from their hometown cannot attend the wedding, the groom's family will wrap the tea leaves in red paper and send them along with the golden dates.
So, why is the tea ceremony popular among people in Fujian and Taiwan? Because in southern Fujian and Taiwan, the tea tree is a symbol of unity and perseverance until death. According to the records of Lang Ying's "Seven Revised Drafts" and Chen Yuewen's "Tianzhong Ji": "Every tea tree must be planted with seeds. If it is transplanted, it will not resurrect. Therefore, in the old days, brides must use tea to plant seeds." For the sake of etiquette, what you get is the meaning of being from the beginning to the end!" In this sense, the "tea ceremony" wedding custom in Fujian and Taiwan is worthy of being a precious folk culture.
Folk Customs and Wedding Customs in Southern Fujian
Nongmo Xuehe
As the saying goes: There are different customs in ten miles. This sentence is not false at all. The difference between my husband’s family and mine is only about ten miles, but the customs are very different. What I want to talk about today is the marriage customs, the marriage customs in southern Fujian. Of course, I can only talk about them in general, because these detailed details There may be differences in the same village or even next door neighbors.
The ancient marriage customs in southern Fujian are extremely complicated, but those mothers-in-law and daughters-in-law who are not afraid of trouble are happy to do so.
When a new daughter-in-law enters the house, she must first take a first look. After three days, nothing happens at home, and both parties are satisfied before the next step can be taken. If during these three days, something is broken in either house, or a child bumps into it, Or something else ominous happens, then no matter how satisfied you are, you can only give up. Furthermore, if the birth dates match, the age difference between the two parties is generally three, six, or nine years, which is not the case. This is a custom in many places. The next step is to choose a date to see each other. Choose a good and auspicious day. The boy's parents bring four-color candies and biscuits, prepare red envelopes or jewelry, and go to the girl's house. If they are satisfied, they will stay at the girl's house for a light meal. If the girl's family is satisfied, He would ask the girl to come out and pour a cup of tea for the guests before the meal. If the girl was not satisfied, she would not come out, so the man's family would not have to stay for dinner. After the meal, the man will leave a red envelope or jewelry saying it is a meeting gift for the girl. It is just a gift, and neither party will care about the amount. This marriage is half done.
In southern Fujian, engagement is more important than marriage. Regardless of whether you have a marriage certificate or not, as long as you are engaged, the marriage is more than half done. In rural areas, everyone will recognize you as a family man. It is the same as marrying a daughter-in-law. Speaking of this engagement is also extremely troublesome. Before the engagement, both parties have to agree on how much the betrothal gift should be, including: bride price, the girl's clothing fee, jewelry, candies, biscuits, cigarettes, food and drinks for the bride's family, etc. Of course, most of them are converted into money now. On that day, the man's family will call twenty or thirty relatives early in the morning. The woman will carry Sansheng incense candles to worship her ancestors, and then they will go to every temple for ten miles to offer incense. This busy process will start early in the morning. I was busy until past noon. The man, usually led by the groom-to-be and his parents, comes to the bride's house carrying three pieces of raw fish, four-color candies, biscuits, and fruits, along with part of the bride price (the remaining fraction of the bride price is reserved for the bride). The girl's family also invites a dozen or so relatives, first serves snacks and distributes a red envelope to each guest of the boy's family, and then picks up the things sent by the boy and goes to various places to offer incense. The woman's family waits for the guests to have snacks and then asks the girl to come out and serve tea. When the tea is served, the mother-in-law-to-be will naturally give the daughter-in-law a full set of jewelry to wear (the jewelry must be in pairs) ) The future mother-in-law naturally put the ring given to the prospective son-in-law on him, and then waited for the visiting relatives to come back and have a lively meal, and the marriage was considered settled.
Then the day was chosen to discuss marriage. In many places in southern Fujian, families with girls were worried. The dowry often caused many families to sell their daughters off. Generally speaking, the bride must pay double the amount of dowry given by the man (for example, if the man gives 50,000 yuan as dowry, the woman’s family will need at least 100,000 yuan as dowry. Of course, there are more wealthy families, and there are also dowries in the millions. (For those who have no money, it will be less, but generally it will not be less than twice the bride price)) The worst thing is to return the bride price intact and accompany them a little more, so in southern Fujian, there is a special preference for boys over girls. It's also related to this.
It is natural to prepare various essential items before marriage. The essential items I am talking about are not furniture but other things. When the wedding day is approaching, the girl's family should prepare some customary things in advance: grain seeds (meaning that the girl will have a good harvest after her marriage), red table tops (flowers and other things placed in the bride's room, meaning good luck), filial piety cloth (meaning that the girl will have a good harvest) There are white cloths tied with red strings that are enough for the girl to make a set of mourning clothes in the future, which means that the parents-in-law will live a long life. Seven buckets (including washbasins, buckets and future children's bathtubs, etc. *** seven, mean that they will be prepared and complete. ), lead (lead in Fujian has the same pronunciation as "yuan", which means that the girl will form a good relationship with others after her family passes away. The clothes the girl will wear on her wedding day must be sewn with red threads from the inside to the outside without lead) Two boxes (these boxes are for clothes and dowry. On the day of the wedding, the bridesmaids will help carry them there and put them in the hall. They have to open them in public to check the bottom of the dowry box. Naturally, money will be deposited. How much dowry does the daughter-in-law of whose family have? Everyone knows that, of course, some dowries now include bankbooks, houses, etc., which are written on red paper and brought into photo frames). Of course, there are also some scattered things. I will only talk about some common customs here. Now there are Many people may have deleted some.
It is still customary to have a pallet three days or one day before the wedding (it is divided into a three-day pallet and a one-day pallet, it depends on the wishes of both parties). The pallet is usually four-color candies, biscuits and fish. Nowadays, many people directly give the money to the woman, and the woman buys it herself, leaving some manpower. On the day, the man just picks some out of his own free will. Of course, the amount is amazing in some places along the coast. One load weighs one hundred catties, ranging from thirty-six to seventy-two. On the day of the festival, the woman will ask a dozen relatives to go to every house in the village in pairs to distribute candies and biscuits. In coastal areas, these are distributed in soup pots to each family, so dozens of tons of candies and biscuits are needed. In some villages with a large population, these are not enough, so the girl's family has to pay for them themselves. Bought. There are generally not that many here, that is, four candies and four biscuits for each household. On this day, the two sides still have to ask many relatives to help them go to temples in various places to offer incense, so let alone this troublesome and tiring process.
The happy day has finally arrived, and it goes without saying that we have a treat. On that day, the groom came to marry the beautifully dressed bride, and the bride was accompanied by her younger brother or older brother, uncles, aunts, etc. In some places along the coast, newlyweds had to wear a yellow bamboo hat. The hat was only covered with black gauze sewn along the edge. noodle.
(I forgot to mention that in many places, the bride will ask an old man to twist her face before getting married, which is called face-opening.) When arriving at the groom's house, the groom's close relatives must avoid it before entering, and the bride directly enters the new house until she has invited tea. Just came out to meet people. There is also something special about inviting tea. The tea is brought by the bride and contains lead powder. As mentioned before, it is for the purpose of forming a romantic relationship. It also contains winter melon, sugar, red dates and other things, which is called sweet. First, serve tea to the parents-in-law. As listed, the elderly who specialize in doing this are invited to come and read some nice auspicious words. When serving tea, newlyweds in many places have to kneel to their parents to thank their parents for their upbringing. After serving tea, The bride usually gives gold jewelry as a gift to her parents-in-law, but some also give them clothes. The parents-in-law also give a red envelope to their new daughter-in-law as a gift. Then the new daughter-in-law serves tea to the groom’s uncles, aunts, sisters and brothers. After each tea, they have to exchange greeting gifts. These greeting gifts are usually hand-made clothes. If the family is rich and has a big family, the bride needs to prepare a greeting gift that often costs a lot of money. There are tens of thousands of yuan, and some poor families only spend three to five hundred yuan. The tea has been invited. Is it the end of the wedding banquet here? Ha, not yet.
On the second day of the wedding, before dawn, the bride’s brother came to take the bride home. He came as early as three or four in the morning, and as late as five or six. The groom will go to the bride's house just before lunch. On this day, the bride's family invites the groom and relatives of the bride's family. This is called a return guest. According to the rules, the quarrel lasts until after dinner and after dark. The groom will take the bride home, and the bride's family must prepare two headbands. Sugar cane and two lead chickens (one male and one female) are given to the newlyweds to take home. When the bride is about to arrive, someone will first notify the groom's family. They must also avoid the bride first, and then they can come out to meet the bride after she enters the door (this is called avoiding relatives, and encounters in southern Fujian are called "blocking" and quarrels are also called "blocking". This avoidance is also to avoid quarrels in the future.) The bride has to come back three times within a month of her wedding. Of course, the remaining two times are not as complicated as the first time. They just have to wait until dark before returning to the groom's house. , and the groom’s family must avoid it every time.
At this point, the marriage is successfully completed