What are the six gifts for sending and hiring in Chaoshan?

In Chaoshan area, people are very particular about marriage, and local people are also very particular about being married by the media. Local people have to go through six ceremonies to get married. So what are the six rites in Chaoshan? With curiosity, let's take a look at Bian Xiao!

The marriage custom in Chaoshan has undergone several generations of evolution, but it has also been simplified and changed. Most contemporary customs have been abandoned and simplified. Traveling to get married, holding small tea parties and attending group weddings have become fashionable. Some people who love the old still keep the old marriage customs. Chaoshan marriage customs are roughly as follows:

Propose marriage

Propose, also known as propose. That is, the matchmaker proposes to the man, or the matchmaker introduces the woman to the man first, and then proposes to the woman after the man approves.

Hexagram

Traditional marriage has two links. After the two sides propose marriage, the matchmaker writes the woman's name, date of birth, place of origin and ancestors into three generations and sends them to the man. If nothing unexpected or unlucky happens in the man's house within three days, such as breaking bowls and pots, it is called "three days". With this good sign, the man agrees to exchange Geng posts. Please get married separately after changing the Geng post to make sure that both men and women are born together or contain each other. If we contain each other, the marriage will have to be ruined. Contemporary people advocate free love. Although young men and women have long got rid of the marriage custom of "parents' orders, matchmakers' words" and the old custom of exchanging Geng posts has been abandoned, many people still keep the link of "matching eight characters"

be engaged in

After choosing an auspicious day according to the eight characters, you enter the engagement stage, that is, the man prepares gifts for the woman's engagement, which is also called "fixing" ceremony, usually gold and silver jewelry such as gold earrings, gold rings and gold necklaces, as well as tokens of love such as sugar and noodles. This woman deserves a gift in return. Both men and women should distribute candy and cakes to relatives and neighbors to inform them that their marriage is fixed.

Send job information

After the engagement, you have to pay the bride price. Hire, also known as rent. In the past, the bride price of rich people was gold and silver, colored satin, pigs and sheep, wine and fruit; The poor are betel nuts and chicken wine. Chaozhou people regards olives as a symbol of good luck and is a distinctive wedding gift. Contemporary bride price includes physical objects and cash, and there must be more than four kinds of physical objects: sugar, noodles, Daji (Chaozhou orange), gold and silver jewelry, clothes and cloth, cakes and foods, etc. , but they cannot be odd numbers, but must be even numbers. Cash, also called bride price money, is divided into one, two and four, but they are all multiples. During the engagement, the woman should return the cake and food during the engagement, and give back mandarin ducks, bananas, oranges, pig hearts and so on. Yuanyang and banana are coexisting bananas, symbolizing centenary, and also meaning to make money into treasure; The orange homonym "Ji" symbolizes good luck; The pig's heart (half left in the woman's body) symbolizes concentricity. At this time, the two sides will also solemnly distribute the cakes and food in each other's gifts to relatives and friends to report good news, and relatives and friends will also return gifts to congratulate them. Giving a gift to the bride is called "sending pollen".

Choose an auspicious day

Pick another day. After the engagement ceremony, the man should choose the wedding date and tell the woman, including telling her when to cut the wedding dress, when to pull a face, when to take a shower and when to get married. Most of the time chosen by chaozhou people is in the middle of the night, and it is an ancient legacy for hipsters to keep the custom of getting married late at night. In ancient times, weddings always ended in fainting, so wedding ceremonies must be held after dusk or even late at night.

Pick up the bride (in a sedan chair) for the wedding.

The wedding ceremony is the ceremony for the groom to marry the bride at the woman's house, and it is also the most important procedure in the wedding. There are two kinds of old-fashioned weddings: one is the groom's wedding, and the other is that the man invites a "lucky dog" to meet him. In modern times, most of them are the groom himself. During the whole process before and after the wedding, both the woman and the man will hold some custom activities.