The customs and habits of Chaoshan people

Chaoshan people are very particular about wedding customs. In the past, they were more concerned about "the media is recruiting". Although the customs vary from place to place, the more consistent expressions and ceremonies are: marriage proposal, engagement, employment, inviting guests and welcoming relatives, commonly known as "six gifts". It is also summarized as "four rituals": writing, inviting, sending, hiring and marrying.

Ask the media to propose and get engaged.

Proposal, marriage and engagement are the "Wen Ding" in the "Four Rites". First of all, after the matchmaker goes to the man's and the woman's home to propose marriage, he will go to the woman's home to ask her name, date of birth, place of origin and three generations of ancestors, and write a marriage letter to the man. If nothing unlucky happens in the man's family within three days (commonly known as "three-day shun"), it is convenient for the man to hand over the marriage certificate to the woman, and both parties can predict the marriage (also known as time). Engagement, also known as engagement, engagement and food, refers to the man preparing gifts and getting engaged at the woman's house. Gifts are usually a pair of gold earrings or a gold ring, as well as cakes, candy, sugar and noodles, and the woman must return them. When engaged, the man will go to the woman's house to "eat", usually eating sweet eggs or sweet noodles (if there are four sweet eggs, only two can be eaten; If there are two, you can only eat one, and the other should be split in two with chopsticks. Both men and women should send cakes and sweet noodle soup (mainly noodles and sugar now) to relatives, friends and neighbors and report that they have decided to get married.

Choose your own luck and arrange your dowry.

"Engagement", also known as "sending engagement", is a relatively grand etiquette, and there are strict regulations on the types of marriage documents and engagement gifts. Before the Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China, the rich gave gold, silver and colored satin, as well as pigs, sheep and wine. In addition to chicken wine, poor households also send betel nuts; In most places, pork is also sent, commonly known as "washing excrement and washing meat" to express the gratitude of the woman's parents. In the 1960s and 1970s, besides gold and silver, they also sent radios (televisions), bicycles, sewing machines and watches. At present, most of them are paid employment. After receiving the betrothal gift from the man, the woman was re-employed and returned some gifts, mainly including: mandarin duck and banana (double-won banana, indicating the close relationship between husband and wife), pig liver and pig heart (indicating caring for each other) and one male and one hen (symbolizing the harmony between mandarin duck and hen). When the woman is re-employed, she should also consider the elderly in the man's class. If her mother (grandmother) is in class, she should be given a "mother cake"; Grandfather is in the hall, so he should give the "husband a cake". Before sending pig hearts to male families, female families must cut a piece, cook it with sugar and onions, and eat it with women; After receiving the pig heart and liver from the woman, the man's family should also cook it with sugar and onions and eat it with family and relatives, which means "men and women are United."

Invitation dates are also called Selection Date, Sending Date and Raising Date. After the date, the man chooses the auspicious day of the wedding, including cutting the wedding dress, "holding the face" and taking a bath, determining the time and hour of the wedding, and informing the woman. Handkerchiefs twist brown sugar. The bride should twist her handkerchief wrapped in brown sugar in her hand when she leaves home. When she arrives at her husband's house, before building the well, she should pour brown sugar into the well to express the bride's desire to "combine inside and outside" and "cherish the door". Flower head ",fan (homophonic" send the child ") and so on. In the old society, wealthy families married women, in addition to dowry and the above-mentioned special items, they also married fields and even longevity boards (coffins); Now he marries an electric appliance, a motorcycle or a car.

The ceremony to marry the bride was grand.

The last ceremony is the "wedding", that is, the man goes to the woman's house to marry the bride. There are two forms of wedding reception: first, the groom comes to pick up the bride; One is to send a "lucky man" to pick up the bride, the groom is waiting for his relatives at his door, and the bride is accompanied by a bridesmaid. There are many procedures and grand ceremonies to welcome the bride. The bride and her husband should "eat five bowls of bread" at home and give their brothers and sisters a "penny rice" and a "sister table" before going out. Before the bride gets on the sedan chair, the family should carry a basin of clear water and sprinkle it gently on the sedan chair, while others carry a small bucket of clear water and spray the sedan chair and the sedan chair with safflower (pomegranate flower) dipped in clear water. Although bicycles, motorcycles and cars are used when getting married now, some people still keep this custom. Sedan chairs are generally "colored green" "Colorful green" is mainly the branches of colorful banyan trees (known as "mature trees" by hipsters) and green bamboo branches to show the blessings of "successful husbands and virtuous wives". On the wedding day, all the doors of the man's house should be affixed with wedding couplets, and a red note with the words "Kirin is here" should be affixed in the middle of the lintel. When the bride arrives at the man's door, the groom will "kick the sedan chair door" and "stick his wishful thinking" and the bride will "cross the line of fire". When the bride and groom enter the bridal chamber, they should have a "marriage". When the door is closed, the "green mother" should "do four sentences well". After the bride and groom eat two doughnuts each, they exchange round lights and then eat two more, which is commonly known as changing cups and lights. At this point, "green mother" has to "do four sentences well". "Doing four sentences well" should run through the whole process of marriage. From the time the bride goes out to get on the sedan chair to enter the bridal chamber, "Green Mom" should "do four sentences well". When "making trouble in the bridal chamber", "green mother" should sing together on behalf of the bride and guests. If some naughty people make interesting poems, "Green Mother" should immediately "make four sentences" to help the bride solve the embarrassing situation. On the wedding day, a wedding reception will be held to entertain relatives and friends who come to celebrate.

In addition to the above ceremonies, on the third day of their wedding, the bride will also hold ceremonies such as "opening wells", "mashing rice heads" and "stirring rice". At the end of twelve days or four months, a ceremony of "mothering"-"going home" should be held. First, two "back measures", the bride returns while cooking, and "three back measures" can spend the night at her parents' house.

Chaoshan customs I know.

Anyone who knows a little about Chaoshan will know that Chaoshan people, especially hipsters in rural areas, often offer sacrifices to gods. On average, I think the frequency is not less than 4 times/month. I have to ask my grandmother. Anyway, the first and fifteenth days of every month are indispensable. Therefore, such a custom can easily be equated with superstition by outsiders. But worship here is more like a cultural activity. People call the day when they need to worship God a festival, which is also a festival. One of the compulsory courses for beginners' wives is to know how to pay tribute to temples during festivals. Growing up, I was used to being ordered to kneel before the tablets of ancestors or gods. Adults have taught me some common sayings. The most common saying is to bless me to study and grow up, so that I dare not embarrass my ancestors and gods. Therefore, the requirements are reasonable on the whole. When I was very young, I occasionally greedily wanted to get a hundred points in the exam. Later, I learned that wishing on a meteor is almost like this. Once the meteor passes, it's hard to meet the same meteor next time. Worship is relatively fixed, so such a wish is more like a promise, which arises between each other.

Besides worshipping God, other customs in Chaoshan are also related to these traditional festivals. For example, in the Mid-Autumn Festival, enjoying the moon and eating moon cakes here are not the highlights, but Yue Bai (the moon) and the earthen kiln are indispensable. I prefer moon worshippers, because this is because of the goddess. Worship objects are more environmentally friendly, such as fruits, cakes, sweet tea and exercise books. Haha, when I was a child, I should have kept some brand-new books to worship Yue Bai people. I believe everyone in Chaoshan has such childhood memories. Burning a tile kiln is to build a tower with bricks in the open space. Children build a small tower and adults build a tall tower. The tower was filled with combustible materials such as wood and was ignited. It is like a fire tower, people around it will throw some salt at it, not only to burn the beautiful blue flame with sodium, but to say that it can drive away the ants at home or have a bumper harvest next year, hehe seems to be such a strange idea. According to legend, the custom of burning tile kiln was at the end of Yuan Dynasty. In order to jointly resist foreign invasion, local residents brought books and cakes (a kind of cakes) to their parents' homes during the Mid-Autumn Festival to convey the message of the uprising, and then lit the earthen kiln at night as a signal of the uprising to wipe out the invaders in one fell swoop. In fact, I haven't seen a kiln for a long time. It's all childhood memories-_!

Of course, the adult ceremony is indispensable to childhood memories, which is called "leaving the garden" locally. "Our motherland is a garden, and the flowers in the garden are the brightest ..." When the flowers in our motherland grow up rapidly, they will walk out of the garden, something like this. Haha, it's misinterpreted. In fact, when the children in Chaoshan were born, they grew up under the protection of two gods. /kloc-When they are 0/5 years old, they should choose a date to thank the two old people for their care over the years. When they grow up, they can save snacks and spare more time to take care of other children. On the day of "leaving the garden", the protagonist will stay at home in new clothes, worship flowers, entertain relatives and friends, and bite chickens.

In fact, there are some customs with their own local characteristics in rural areas all over the country, and they are slowly losing them. . .