Marriage custom of Miao nationality

The ancient marriage of Miao nationality experienced consanguineous marriage, "punaluan family family marriage", pairing marriage and monogamy. After the implementation of monogamy, there are two kinds of marriages: autonomous marriage and arranged marriage. The age of marriage is generally around 16 to 23 years old, and the age of marriage for men is slightly older than that for women. Miao society strictly abides by monogamy and marriage system inside clan and outside blood clan. Miao young men and women mostly travel by tourism, and both sides can voluntarily become spouses and establish families. The restriction is that as long as the ancestors who are not of the same clan (referring to the descendants related to the paternal line) can get married. Children between cousins are regarded as close relatives of compatriots, and intermarriage is prohibited. Relatives of different generations cannot get married. In history, some people were involved in lawsuits because of marriage or other disputes and vowed not to get married. In the past, some Miao men and women did not marry people with different dialects, and the object of marriage was to choose from several surname members in the village. Due to historical reasons, people were reluctant to marry different nationalities in the past. Some Miao families don't even want to marry Miao people with different costumes, preferring to find Miao people with the same costumes in the yard dozens or even hundreds of miles away.

"Four Steps" of Miao Nationality's Marriage Custom

Premarital

After young Miao men and women fell in love, their parents chose an auspicious day for them to get married. But for a period of time before marriage, men and women can't meet, commonly known as "not meeting before marriage." The day before the wedding, the man sent the wedding supplies to the woman's house to have a look. In these wedding ceremonies, there is a kind of big and thick glutinous rice Baba, which is made of 25 kg to 30 kg of glutinous rice noodles, which is big enough to show that the bride and groom are round and well-fed after marriage.

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

On the wedding day, both men and women entertain relatives and friends and villagers at home. Accompanied by several groomsmen, the groom went to get married with gifts. There should be an experienced middle-aged man in the bride. When the brides arrive at the women's village, women will stick out bamboo poles to block the way and want to sing a song with the brides. After each pair of songs is sung, the married people should give gifts to these women, and then take back the bamboo poles to make way. Just walk for a while, sing a song and repeat it several times before reaching the bride's house. At the same time, it is also necessary to prevent the groom from being taken away by his wives. If they take it away, they will hide the groom so that the bride can't get the bride on time. At the bride's house, the girls will still surround the groom and tease him, causing the guests to burst into laughter. What's more, some girls blackened the groom's face with pot ash. People will burst into laughter when they see the groom in a mess.

wedding

After the bride marries home, a ceremony will be held to pay homage to the bride and groom. The bride and groom will toast their elders and guests and accept their congratulations. Before eating, the bride and groom should feed their parents the first bowl of rice. In the meantime, the girls who come from the woman's house to see the bride off can seize the opportunity to cover the groom with a big bamboo basket so that he can't move. Watching the groom struggling in the laundry list, people laughed, adding infinite interest to the wedding.

In some places where Miao people live in compact communities, there is still an ancient custom of robbing relatives, which they call Lamicai. On the basis of free love between young men and women, the two sides agreed on the time and place to rob relatives. At that time, the man asked several good partners to take the bride home. It is said that in the future, if the husband and wife are at odds or the man likes the new and hates the old, the woman will have reason to speak. Take the bride back to the man's house and hold the wedding according to the rules of the Miao family. At the same time, the man's family will send someone to the woman's house with a gift to explain the situation and apologize. The woman's family will also reprimand and scold a few words, and then accept the gift. In some areas, when the bride is robbed, there will be fun-filled fights: when the girl knows that the man is coming to rob her, she will deliberately hide and invite several female companions in the same village to wait with brooms and bamboo poles. When the man's robber came to the scheduled place, there was no sign of the bride In the chaos, the ambush suddenly came out, and countless brooms and bamboo sticks fell on the heads and bodies of relatives. Boys suddenly realize, but according to the custom, they can't fight back. They searched carefully for the bride beside the broom and bamboo pole. When they found the trace of the bride, they joined hands with Qi Xin to avoid the pursuit of the girls and brought the bride back to the man's house.

According to the custom, the bride can't leave after taking back her family. When the bride arrives at the man's house, it means that she has become a member of the man's house and can't go back to her family casually. In Malipo and other places, grab the girl to the man's house, cover her with a paper umbrella symbolically first, and then

Crying marriage

Crying usually begins three or seven days before the bride gets married, and some people start crying and singing in the first half month, one month or even three months. However, it started off and on. You can cry as much as you want. Relatives and neighbors come to give gifts and visit, and whoever comes will cry as a polite thank you. The night before the wedding, I got into a sedan chair the next day and cried and got married. During this period, crying and singing must be carried out in accordance with traditional etiquette, and you can't cry indiscriminately. Whoever can't cry will be laughed at and even discriminated against by others. Generally speaking, the main contents of crying and singing are "crying for parents", "crying for brothers and sisters", "crying for uncle", "crying for accompanying guests", "crying for matchmaker", "crying for combing hair", "crying for ancestors" and "crying for sedan chair". "Lyrics" are handed down from generation to generation, traditional and improvised by the bride and crying sisters. The main content is to thank parents and elders for their kindness and the care of brothers and sisters; Crying about the sadness that the happy life of girlhood is about to die and the confusion and anxiety before the arrival of a new life. There are also many dissatisfaction with marriage, hatred and helplessness to the matchmaker and his own life, and so on.

Marriage custom of Miao nationality

Most Miao marriages in Taijiang are independent marriages of the parties, which can be divided into three ways: independent freedom, freedom and classicism. [ 1]

Autonomous freestyle

It is a form of marriage in which young men and women get married through free love in "travel" activities. From identification to marriage, I acted completely according to my own will and had absolute autonomy over my marriage. This is the main form of Miao youth marriage at present [1].

Talking about freestyle

It is a form of marriage introduced by relatives and friends, and both parties love each other and voluntarily combine. After getting to know the woman at a festival rally or during a usual tour, young men can ask their relatives and friends to talk and get the consent of the woman's family to get engaged. After that, the two sides can get to know each other better, develop feelings and get married when conditions are ripe [1].

Classical style of speaking and combining

(including relationship marriage and uncle marriage): It has strong national characteristics and is still popular in county towns. It is a marriage agreed in advance by both men and women and their parents [1].

The above-mentioned marriage forms, except the classical ones, have to go through four identical but different processes: traveling, proposing marriage, making an appointment to choose a date and picking up relatives.

Miao youth travel

It is the main means for young men and women to freely fall in love and choose their spouses. It may have evolved from ancient pairing marriage and formed in the stage of monogamy. Although "oil mill" is a remnant of group marriage, it is by no means immoral private promiscuity, and the main traditional habits are carried out under moral norms. Therefore, both men and women should be polite and abide by some established rules after entering the playground. [ 1]

Tourism activities cannot be carried out anywhere, but must be carried out in a specific place. In Miao language, it is called "Gada Lianggeng", commonly known as "patrolling the fields". The number of "tourist fields" depends on the number of surnames or clans living in the village. If a stockade belongs to the same clan, a small village has one tourist field, and a large village can have more than two tourist fields. If multiple surnames live together, each surname will set a travel field for each surname. In short, take the principle of avoiding men and women sharing the same surname or family. These places for young men and women to socialize are generally located on the edge or in the village, with stone benches and wooden benches and centuries-old trees, so these places are regarded as scenic spots. If you travel frequently in the off-season, so do you during the day. In order to be polite and respect the woman's stockade, it is not advisable to swim and sing duet in the stockade. You can choose places such as rivers, intersections, bridges, trees and lawns that are not far from the stockade and can be seen by people. Don't choose hidden places. [ 1]

In order to facilitate young men and women to socialize and fall in love, Miao ancestors specially celebrated special dates for young men and women for tourism festivals. For example, in February, June and July of the lunar calendar, young men and women collectively hold three slope meetings in turn. Bashang, Baogong, JD.COM Tang, Tian Liang, Ge Dong and other places hold a slope meeting on February 15 of the lunar calendar (called' Lao Bo' in Miao language, and extended to' Chijie' in recent years). Rongshan and Yangjiazhai held slope meetings on March 15 and 16 respectively (same as above); After New Year's Day in June of the lunar calendar, young men and women are arranged to have an outing, herding sheep and playing watches.

Young men and women of Miao nationality have traveled when they were sixteen or seventeen. The most active is 18 to 20 years old. When they fall into the seeds of love in various public social activities, they will naturally have a good impression on their lovers. Young men and women not only have lyrical love with the object they have always admired, but also can talk and sing freely between strangers of the opposite sex, from which they can find the object they love. They sing to show their talents, show their feelings, exchange ideas, build feelings and choose their own marriage, so they rarely leave after marriage. [ 1]

Young men and women travel in different times and forms, and vary from place to place. Some regulations can only be carried out during festivals, some can only be carried out during the day, some can only be carried out in the evening or evening, some can be carried out in the woman's home, and some can only be carried out on the playground. The most frequent activity is the off-season, and it is the most active after sunset and night arrival. During the New Year and Spring Festival in China, girls invite each other to travel, just as they are celebrating festivals. Boys dressed neatly along the way, whether they know or don't know, whether they are old friends or new friends, can talk to them about songs or find bosom friends and choose a spouse. Next to the street of the market town, places where young men and women get together and talk can be seen everywhere. For all kinds of holiday parties, transplanting rice seedlings or threshing millet, the young man went to the village to travel around, and he didn't come back for ten days and a half, and there was no toll. Wherever he goes, he is entertained by that girl. In the interaction of singing, young men and women have different numbers of friends, and those who have feelings form a couple and take them to the men's house.