Cultural customs in southeastern Hubei

The formation of ethnic mixed villages in southeastern Hubei is not only influenced by the natural environment in the local mountainous areas and hills, but also the result of continuous immigration and settlement since the Song Dynasty, especially since the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Moreover, the different migration order leads to the different ways of village formation and diffusion, and then a variety of settlement modes, such as one surname and many villages, living in groups and one surname and one village, and scattered, have been formed in a certain area. This family-style village form provides a favorable living soil for the organized management of clans. The emigration of immigrants from Jiangxi and other areas with strong patriarchal culture and the competition for living space by different ethnic groups led to the organization and institutionalization of immigrant families in southeastern Hubei in the early Qing Dynasty. The hierarchical structure of ancestral temple-branch hall-family hall corresponds to the settlement pattern of family settlement area-natural village-single family, which reflects the agreement between architectural pattern and family structure to some extent. Among them, the branch temples associated with natural villages (called ancestral halls, ancestral houses and public houses in southeastern Hubei) constitute the public space of their villages and become the core of public life such as sacrifice, entertainment, education and production. The overlapping of geographical space and consanguineous family space, the symbolic function of architecture and the actual operation of clan organizations have maintained the rural production characterized by family in southeastern Hubei since the Qing Dynasty.

People of the same clan live in concentrated communities. When a noble family builds a house, it is necessary to build a temple. Yujia is spectacular. Carving beams and painting buildings, a large number of small sects, competing to build ancestral temples, vying for grandeur, regardless of the cost. As a traditional ancient building preserved to this day, the ancestral hall is a one-story building. Ancient ancestral temples generally adopted a symmetrical layout with three or five entrances. It consists of front hall, back hall, left and right corridors, wing rooms, patios, gates, instrument doors, corridors, bright buildings, pleasure halls and sleeping halls. , as well as blue bricks, stone feet, cloth tiles, rest peaks, row beams and stone sill plates. Some ancestral halls have courtyards and gardens behind them, and many ancestral halls also have stages, which fully demonstrate the intelligence and creativity of the ancestors in southeastern Hubei with their simple and profound architectural artistic modeling and ingenious design techniques. In addition to the local art being destroyed by stupid people or natural disasters in the construction of western-style buildings, most of the wonderful ancestral halls of these ancient buildings still retain the original architectural style. Every ancestral temple in southeastern Hubei is a masterpiece of architectural art and the crystallization of the wisdom of workers. Dialects in eight counties and cities in southeastern Hubei are famous for their complexity. Jiangxi's hometown is a place that many children of Jingchu dream of. In the early Ming Dynasty,' Jiangxi filled Hubei', Jiangxi and the southeast coast moved here through immigrants and interacted with local residents, which made some customs and habits in southeastern Hubei very different from those in most parts of Hubei.

In most parts of the north, the custom of eating glutinous rice balls is observed in jiaozi, Jiangnan and other places from the solstice in winter, but it is ignored in southeastern Hubei.

Turn on the light. In southeastern Hubei, on New Year's Eve, the first day, the second day and the fifteenth day of the first month, all the lights in the house should be on, and there are lights everywhere. You can't touch the ground on New Year's Eve, and you can't pour used water outside on the first day of the New Year's Day. Be sure to pour at home and concentrate on the second day. You can't sweep the floor and take out the garbage during the Spring Festival, which means accumulating wealth and blessings, and you can't sweep them away.

On the second day of the New Year's Day in southeastern Hubei, the new funeral home will pay homage to the deceased on the second day of the first month, and relatives will come to pay their respects, which is called "removing new worries". That is, on the second day of New Year's Day, people who died in the past year are paid a New Year call. If anyone has a relative who died in the past year, all his relatives will pay New Year greetings to the deceased in his ancestral hall this morning. On this day, you can't go to the home of someone who has no deceased relatives in the past year. It is taboo to go there, and it is to curse others for not being good in the coming year. Therefore, on New Year's Day, we generally don't visit each other to avoid bad luck. But it seems to be similar to the customs in the southeast coast of Fujian, Fuqing and Putian.

There is a custom of picking up the squire in southeastern Hubei, also known as the landlord's meeting or picking up the king. Once a year, people with the same surname and clan carry their ancestors to every household in the village and finally to the ancestral temple. The entourage was noisy with gongs and drums, firecrackers were ringing, colorful flags were flying and people were crowded. For example, at the beginning of the year, the Liang Zi Lake area in Ezhou and the daye city area in Huangshi will have the custom of accepting Taigong. It is an important local traditional festival, and its folk cultural activities also have the function of praying for a bumper agricultural harvest, prosperous population and reproduction of future generations. This is similar to the championship in Chaoshan area at the beginning of the year, that is, the championship in Chaoshan area.

In the rural areas of southeastern Hubei, the custom of burning buns on Mid-Autumn Festival is an annual rural custom, and every household has to burn paper money for their deceased ancestors.

Wedding custom

Engagement and marriage have certain customs, including engagement, media appreciation, in-laws visiting, son-in-law visiting, newspapers, money media, wedding ceremonies and so on.

Engagement: introduced by an introducer, or engaged voluntarily by both men and women.

Xie Media: When engaged, matchmakers can be divided into sitting media and running media. Marriage is certain. Both men and women should prepare banquets. The matchmaker should be chief, accompanied by "three parties" at home and abroad. Men can cook breakfast and women can cook Chinese food. It is called "drinking Mao Gu Zhun", which shows that marriage is certain. In the twelfth lunar month, the man sent a gift to the matchmaker as a reward. In the first month of the following year, both men and women will hold spring wine, which is called "Great Gu Zhun" to show their gratitude to the media.

Door-to-door visit: after the marriage of men and women is confirmed, the woman's father first visits the man's house, and the man holds a banquet and invites the "three parties" to accompany him, with his in-laws taking the lead. In some places, the father-in-law gives the son-in-law a "meeting gift", and then the woman's family treats him. The process is the same, but the meeting ceremony is doubled.

The son-in-law comes to the door: the man chooses a good day, and the matchmaker takes him to the woman's house and brings some gifts. When the son-in-law goes home, the woman will also "send" gifts. In addition, from engagement to marriage, at 4: 08 every year, the man will give gifts to the woman, and both men and women will give gifts to each other in case of wedding, funeral and wedding.

Daily newspaper: Before the wedding, the man proposed to the matchmaker. After the matchmaker got the consent of the woman's family, he decided to celebrate the wedding. He wrote a "daily newspaper" on red paper and sent it to the woman's family. When the newspaper is published, the man usually gives the woman gifts such as food, jewelry and clothes, and also gives gifts such as fresh meat and cakes to her relatives and in-laws. When getting married, the relatives and in-laws of the woman should send back clothes, money and other things. After the newspaper is submitted, the woman will make a list of gifts, and the man will arrange gifts (or gifts) for her and thank the matchmaker again.

Money media: On the eve of the wedding, money media should pack money. The money media is presided over by the man, and the matchmaker is invited to take the lead, accompanied by the "three parties" at home and abroad. After dinner, the man handed the prepared red paper bag and cigarettes to the matchmaker and named them "Xie Media".

Dowry: Dowry is mainly prepared by the woman, and part of it is sent to the woman's home by the man. On the day before the wedding, the matchmaker leads the son-in-law and the dowry man to the woman's house, and the woman gives the key to the box to the son-in-law, and then the bride carries the dowry to the man's house.

Wedding date: once the wedding date is selected, it can't be changed rain or shine. Relatives and married people "cry to get married". On the third day, accompanied by the groom, the bride went back to her family to visit relatives, which is called "going back to the Three Dynasties", but she must go back to her husband's house that day. If men and women live far apart, there are also "back to the Six Dynasties" or "back to the Nine Dynasties".

In the past, most young men and women got married on February Flower Festival, April 8th, August Mid-Autumn Festival and the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month. More people get married on New Year's Day, the twelfth lunar month, March 8th, May 1st and National Day, some hold group weddings, and some go out to travel and get married. Tourism alliance