What is the engagement custom in Pingba, Guizhou?

The Miao family is monogamous, and the marriage custom that they formed in the long history to express the national cultural phenomenon of their own branch is still intact. Marriage involves four stages: love, marriage proposal, engagement and marriage.

1, love. This branch of Miao people has always had a tradition of free love, mainly in the form of "playing with the moon", "jumping flowers" and "jumping fields", and some relatives and friends introduced love. "Playing with the moon", "jumping flowers" and "jumping on the field" are good opportunities for unmarried young men and women to fall in love.

2, proposing relatives, also known as speaking relatives. The time to propose marriage should be in April or after the autumn harvest. Miao people generally avoid thunderstorms when they get married, and it is unlucky to get married in thunderstorm weather. In the ancient calendar, there were no or few thunderstorms before February and after the autumn harvest. When proposing marriage, the man finds a person who is familiar with each other and both husband and wife have prestige as a matchmaker. It takes three times to propose, and the success is over. The second time is basically a bottomless pit.

3. Engagement. Engagement, also known as "eating chicken wine", is a ceremony held by young men and women to formally confirm their unmarried relationship. The procedure is not complicated. The man's family chose a date, and asked two elders who were familiar with the wedding rules to bring 12 Jin of wine, 12 Jin of sugar, 12 Jin of sunflower and bride price money to the woman's house. Most matchmakers will follow. The matchmaker informed the woman's family about ten days in advance, and the woman's family simply made some preparations. After the man's guests arrived, the woman's family invited her uncle's family, uncles, brothers, menstruation, sisters and village elders to accompany her. Give a banquet and return the next day.

4. Get married. Generally through the following procedures:

Wedding date: the man's family chooses the auspicious winter date according to their own situation, or takes "National Day" and "New Year's Day" as the wedding date, and lists the wedding date, or the matchmaker verbally sends the date to the woman's house one or two months in advance.

Bride collection: On the day of bride collection, the matchmaker will not go. The groom, an elderly person in charge, the best man, the bride's daughter (unmarried) and several other young people who helped * * * brought a pair of killed chickens (a male and a female), which were called "exorcism chickens". They can keep all evil spirits at home and wait on guests.

Wedding and farewell ceremony: At the wedding, the woman's family sends a girl as a bridesmaid, and a young man as the bride's brother or younger brother leaves first with the groom, the best man and the bride's daughter in the early morning. Don't let pregnant women see you when you go out. The bride should wear a red umbrella and hang a mirror on her chest to ward off evil spirits. Arrived at the door, the man's one-year-old man carried a big cock around the bride's head three times, read the words of blessing and good luck to ward off evil spirits, and then went in to bid farewell to the guests and others who married the bride until dawn. When you send the bride away, you should bring a set of beautiful costumes of the bride and kill a pair of "bad chickens" with you. There are generally no less than three tables for seeing off guests. No matter how many people there are, among them, first of all, we should choose an older couple with complete children (wealth) as our elders, represent our parents, and be the host of Fujian, and choose a young couple as our eldest brother and sister-in-law. The rest of the married people should be married and unmarried, and avoid seeing the guests off by widows and pregnant women. At the end of the man's stockade, the bride, bridesmaids and bridesmaids have arrived at the intersection outside the stockade, waiting for the guests to change with exquisite dresses. After changing clothes, everyone lined up and walked slowly to the groom's house.

The man who sent the bride went in and out for three days. The man's family will also kill a pair of "evil chickens" to take away. When seeing off guests on the road, the bride will be very sad and cry at the same time, saying that she needs to cry to be lucky. Besides, it is reasonable for the bride to leave her parents' life and cry bitterly. At this time, the brothers and sisters among the farewell guests were all at hand, and each gave the bride more than ten dollars to stop her tears and persuade her to stop.

Back to the door. The third day of marriage. The groom asks a best man to send the bride back to her family for three days, which is called returning home. At home, the groom will make one or two barrels of glutinous rice cakes and press them into pieces, each of which is as big as a sieve, mainly for parents-in-law, uncles and elder sisters. When entering the house, the groom and the best man should bow and kowtow to their parents-in-law. At this time, if your sister-in-law is present, you should get up quickly after kowtowing, otherwise they will come forward to suppress and make fun of you. During the three days at home, my uncle and sister-in-law will prepare delicious food for the girl and son-in-law, and each family will send money when the groom and the best man come back. /kloc-more than 0/00 yuan, less than 50 yuan, to show my love for my new son-in-law. At this point, the bride and groom's marriage ended successfully, and what they have to do next is how to start a family business.