Marriage custom of Lahu nationality

Lahu people generally intermarry with other ethnic groups in their marriage customs. The marriage system is monogamous. Polygamy is prohibited by traditional customs and is also criticized by everyone. Young men and women are socially free, and arranged marriages are rare. The marriage customs of Lahu people are similar everywhere.

Lahu nationality is one of the ancient nationalities in China, with a population of 41.147,600 (the fourth census 1.990). The word "Lahu" is a vocabulary in our national language. "Lahu" means tiger, and "Lahu" means barbecue. Therefore, the Lahu people were called "tiger hunters" in history.

Lahu nationality originated from Guganqing Qiang nationality and lived a nomadic life in the early days. Later, it gradually moved south and finally settled in the Lancang River Basin. This ethnic group is mainly distributed in Pu 'er and Lincang areas on both sides of Lancang River. 78% of them are located in the west of Lancang River, starting from Lincang and Gengma in the north and reaching Menglian in Lancang in the south.

Marriage procedure of Lahu nationality

Lahu people have experienced consanguineous group marriage, intra-ethnic pairing marriage, marriage conversion system, monogamy and so on. , and long-term implementation of pairing marriage within the family. Therefore, the internal consanguinity group is a mixture of paternal and maternal, which leads to the long-term coexistence of the two-line extended family system. In modern times, the Lahu nationality mainly practiced the patriarchal clan system of monogamy.

The marriage of Lahu youth generally goes through several processes, such as string marriage, engagement and marriage. String marriage is actually the process of young men and women falling in love, but it has obvious seasonality. According to the traditional custom, string marriage can only be carried out on the annual "Torch Festival" (that is, June 24th of the lunar calendar) until the following year's spring ploughing and busy farming. Usually, especially during the busy farming season, many villages in Lahu ethnic areas prohibit young men and women from falling in love together, otherwise it will not only be condemned by people, but also be regarded as immoral behavior.

be engaged in

Engagement is based on string marriage. Young men and women tell their families about their love affair. Both parents asked the media to propose marriage when they knew that their children had already decided on the right person. If parents agree to propose, they will drink the wine brought by the matchmaker. If they refuse to drink, or even overturn it, they will refuse or be dissatisfied with their children's marriage. After the proposal is successful, an engagement ceremony can be held, mostly at the man's house or at the woman's house. At that time, the matchmaker will bring rice wine, chicken, meat, salt and tea to the woman's house, prepare meals and entertain her parents and relatives, and then the two sides will discuss the dowry and wedding date while eating. After the engagement, young men and women must go to work at each other's parents' home for a period of time. If they find that the other party is incompetent or has a bad personality, they can dissolve the engagement accordingly.

marry

Weddings are usually held from the twelfth lunar month to the Spring Festival. If you live from a woman, you will get married at her home, and the wedding will be held at her home. If you live in your husband's house, he will marry you. When the man gets married, the groom goes to the woman's house with a dowry. When he arrived at the woman's house, he first gave his father-in-law a bucket of water to show his respect. In the afternoon, a grand wedding reception will be held. At the wedding reception, the bride and groom must sit on stools. The groom should take the initiative to help the bride, and the bride will return the food to the groom to show mutual respect and love. After dinner, the bride's parents held a binding ceremony for the newlyweds. After the binding ceremony, the bride's relatives and friends accompanied the couple back to the groom's house. A series of ceremonies similar to those held at the bride's house were also held at the groom's house, and then the wedding ended. The Lahu people's tradition of freedom of marriage and the concept of being ashamed of divorce will be criticized because they like the new and hate the old. If one party files for divorce, it must pay the other party a certain amount of money. Men who file for divorce pay more money than women who file for divorce. After divorce, both parties can remarry. Lahu people also implement the house transfer system, that is, a wife can transfer her house after her husband dies, but only to her brother, not to her brother. Widows will not be discriminated against when they remarry.

On the wedding day, both men and women will kill a pig at home. The man sent the pig's head to the woman's house first. After the pig's head is split in half, half of it stays at the woman's house and the other half is brought back by the man. Then, the woman did the same, sending the pig head killed by her family to the man's house, cutting it in half, leaving half at the man's house and bringing the other half back by her. After that, both men and women put their two halves of the pig's head together to show their kinship, marriage and harmony.

On this day, the bride and groom will go down the mountain together to pick water and chop firewood, and then give the newly picked water and firewood to the woman's house, and at the same time send meals to her parents-in-law. Then, the bride and groom go back to the man's house to offer water and rice, and then kowtow and sacrifice meat in the village temple. Then, the elders in the village presided over the ceremony of offering sacrifices to the village gods. After the ceremony, the bride and groom went to the homes of both men and women to worship their ancestors, parents and relatives. After these ceremonies, the bride and groom will eat chicken porridge with the guests, and then enter the climax of the wedding-a large duet.

At night, there will be a new house. At that time, guests, especially young people, will be crowded with new houses and have a good time. The traditional process of disturbing a new house is: the bride brings a basin of hot water and kindly asks her husband to wash his feet. When the husband put his feet in the basin, his wife washed his feet. At this time, the troublemaker deliberately touched the ashes of the fire pit on the groom's feet and asked the bride to wash it again, or sprinkled the ashes of the fire pit in hot water and asked the bride to wash the groom's feet again and put on a pair of new shoes brought by her parents. It is said that this is done to test whether the bride is gentle, amiable and clever. In addition, the bride and groom can also perform programs and ask the newlyweds for cigarettes, candy, wine and so on.

On the night of the wedding, people play lusheng, sing and dance to celebrate the marriage of Lahu children, and usually the entertainment doesn't end until midnight.

After the wedding, accompanied by relatives and friends, the groom accompanied the bride to the woman's house with daily necessities and production tools such as hoes and blankets, as well as a rooster and a hen. The door-to-door time is usually three years, during which the bride comes to the woman's house. The door-to-door time is usually three years, during which the groom can go home to visit his parents and help with his work. After the expiration of the door-to-door period, the husband can take his wife and children back to his home to live, or he can build his own new house and set up a new door. If you inherit the property of the woman's family during the visit, you must stay in the woman's family forever.

Characteristics of marriage customs of Lahu nationality

Find a partner for the holiday party.

Young men and women of Lahu nationality are looking for partners, mainly in places where festivals are held. The general conditions for them to choose objects are: men should be able to plow, rake, chop wood and shovel hemp yarn to hunt, be honest and diligent, and their appearance is secondary; A woman should be able to pick twine, weave and sew clothes. She should be diligent and kind, and whether she is beautiful or not is secondary. If a young man likes a girl, he should weave an anklet and a collar with rattan and give it to her. If a girl feels like it, she will send a belt made of five-color thread to a boy to show her love. The two sides have been in contact for a while, and after thinking that they are satisfied, the man told his parents and let the media match the bridge. It is customary to say goodbye three times; Bring a pack of tea, a pack of cigarettes and a bottle of soju for the first time; The second time, bring two tea cans, two handfuls of cigarettes and twenty bowls of wine; For the third time, bring a piece of homespun, two states of millet (about 6 kilograms per state) and a foot of green cloth, and you can choose the wedding date.

Marriage is not a treat, divorce is a treat.

Lahu people have a custom: there is no need to prepare a banquet for marriage. On the wedding day, a respected old man usually wishes the newlyweds first, and then the girls and boys dress up beautifully to accompany the bride and groom, singing and dancing around the bonfire. Lahu people believe that the fireplace symbolizes that both husband and wife have a fiery heart, and people sing and dance around it, which is a blessing for the newlyweds to love each other for life. Lahu people used to entertain guests on their wedding day, such as their own dry cigarettes, roasted tea, pine nuts and chestnuts, and never advocated ostentation and extravagance. But the divorce of Lahu nationality is very different. According to their custom, the party who files for divorce should prepare a sumptuous banquet to treat guests, and guests don't need to give gifts. This custom with the nature of "punishment" aims to warn young people to think carefully when choosing a partner. Once they get married, they must love each other for life. At the same time, "leaving the wedding banquet" also means warning both parties not to hate each other in the future.

Marriage custom culture of Lahu nationality

Lahu people generally intermarry with other ethnic groups. The marriage system is monogamous. Polygamy is prohibited by traditional customs and is also criticized by everyone. Young men and women are socially free, and arranged marriages are rare. The marriage customs of Lahu people are similar everywhere. There are two main ways for young men and women to fall in love: some women take the initiative and some men take the initiative. Marriage proposal and engagement usually take place after the autumn harvest. If the woman takes the initiative, she will invite the girls from her village to sing beautiful love songs in another village, and the boys from her village will come out to welcome her. After young men and women find their beloved lover, the man invites people to go to the woman's house as matchmakers and get married on her auspicious day.

On their wedding night, the newlyweds did not spend the night at home, but stayed in the mountains and were picked up by relatives and friends the next day. On the wedding day, there is generally no banquet. Usually, the elders in the village bless the newlyweds first, and then young men and women dressed in costumes accompany the bride and groom, dancing around the blazing fire all night, wishing the newlyweds a lifetime of love. In such areas, men usually have to join Zan for three years, but they also have to pay the price of their lives. In many places, men are active in dating. If a young man falls in love with a girl, he will run to a quiet place with her head and the girl will follow him. If mother doesn't like it, she will ask young people for headscarves to show her refusal. If mother is in a cave, they will sit down and express their feelings and give each other gifts. Then the man's client invited relatives and friends to give a certain bride price to his family.

The wedding was held in a man's house. After the ceremony, the groom needs to bring production tools to the woman's house, usually for three years, but some only help for three days. Because it is difficult for the couple to get along for a long time, please ask the elders in the village to testify, light candles and pray to the god of heaven and earth. Men and women each hold one end of a silk thread, and after the wizard prays, the silk thread is burned. This is called divorce. Lahu divorce, according to its custom, the divorced party needs to hold a sumptuous banquet to treat the guests, and the guests don't have to give gifts. Its purpose is to warn young people to be cautious and not rash in choosing a spouse. At the same time, "leaving the wedding banquet" also means that the divorced parties should not hate each other in the future. Due to various historical and social reasons, there are many double suicide incidents among Lahu young men and women.

The Lahu people in Xishuangbanna strictly practice monogamy and keep the habit of living from their wives. The way of marriage and love varies from branch to branch. The headscarf grabbing is a form in which young men of Lahu nationality in the west (Huang Hu) take the initiative to woo young women. Young men and women in the western Lahu nationality generally start social activities at the age of fifteen or sixteen and choose suitable people. Young men and women contact each other in production activities to enhance understanding; In public entertainment activities, they have intimate relationships, express their love, and then turn to a separate tryst to decide their love relationship.

In the villages where Lahu people live in the west, there are generally stockaded temples and livestock farms. In the evening, young men and women often play cucurbit flute and string (tune) in the vicinity of Zhai Temple and Zhaichang for duet activities, testing each other's minds with songs and looking for their favorite partners. Once you find someone who is interested in each other, everyone will stop singing, support the couple to talk about songs, make up words for them, and secretly start a competition. Sometimes people sing for them, making them more affectionate and eventually becoming lovers.

Every year, when the Spring Festival and Torch Festival come, Laxi will sing. Especially during the Spring Festival, men, women and children in the village gather to sing, and some people jump for more than ten days. Young men and women use the opportunity of singing to talk about love. Young men are often sandwiched between girls, shaking hands and dancing with girls, teasing in a low voice and expressing their feelings with their fingers. Once a young man has a crush on a girl, he has been shaking hands with her, dancing with her and making love hints many times. At the end of the dance, the gang will grab the girl's headscarf, leave the village and lead the girl to see him alone. If a girl is interested in the other half, she will follow her and find a quiet place to pour out her heart. If you have no intention of gangs, you can go back and get the headscarf, or you can ignore it. Afterwards, you can find someone to send some gifts to the headscarf gang and get the headscarf back. When the partner receives the gift, he should also return the headscarf to the girl with the gift.

Young men and women should give each other tokens of love after confirming their love relationship through public love talks and trysts. The man's parents should let the matchmaker bring gifts such as rice wine, tea, tobacco and alcohol to the woman's house in time to propose marriage. It usually takes three visits to get an answer. Seeing the matchmaker's repeated entreaties, the woman's parents accepted the bride price and agreed to the marriage, and held the wedding on another day.

Lahuxi has both the ancient custom of living from a wife and the habit of living from a husband. Therefore, when the wedding date is agreed, it is necessary to decide whether to spend it from the wife or from the husband. If you live in your wife's house, you will hold a wedding in your wife's house. The wedding reception is mainly organized by the woman. A married man holds a wedding in his husband's house, and the wedding reception is mainly arranged by the man. On the wedding day, both men and women will kill pigs and hold banquets for relatives and friends. The two sides gave each other half a pig's head, and the pig's heads of the two families overlapped with each other, indicating that "the flesh and blood are close, and the wedding is reunited."

After the wedding reception, the newlyweds, accompanied by their male partners and girlfriends, bring clear spring water with bamboo tubes and provide symbolic meals and food for their parents. Then he took a tube of clear water to the man's parents and offered a symbolic toast to a cup of rice and vegetables. After drinking water and dinner, the wizard took the bride and groom to Zhaimiao to worship God, and then entered the new house to show their marriage. If the family with special financial difficulties is unable to hold a wedding banquet, both men and women can meet to leave the village, stay in the mountains for a few nights together, and then go home to show that they are married. In this regard, the villagers also expressed their recognition and did not discriminate.

After liberation, all people went through the marriage formalities in accordance with the provisions of the Marriage Law, and the cumbersome etiquette in the past was greatly simplified.