Ba Min Culture, Ba Min Customs and Wedding and Funeral Customs

Ba Min Culture, Ba Min Customs and Wedding and Funeral Customs

The traditional marriage customs of the Han nationality in Fujian have to go through the procedures of talking about marriage, engagement, selective marriage, wedding ceremony and visiting relatives at home. It is similar to the six rituals of "asking names, accepting gifts, accepting gifts, inviting guests and welcoming relatives" in the Central Plains.

When talking about marriage, the man usually asks the matchmaker to propose marriage to his favorite woman's house. If the woman agrees, the two sides exchange eight characters and agree to get married. The bride price is prepared by the man's family on an auspicious day and sent to the woman's family. The woman accepts part of the bride price, and the rest is returned to the man's family with the woman's fixed post and marriage certificate to show the end of the engagement. It is very important to choose the date of marriage. The date when the man's family first chooses to have the personality of married men and women; Or, according to the rules of the calendar, choose the auspicious day for marriage, write down the wedding date with red stickers, prepare gifts and inform the bride's family, commonly known as "sending the day" or "sending the day post". When the auspicious day comes, the groom will go to the woman's house and marry the bride at the wedding. When the sedan chair arrives at the man's house, it first worships the heaven, the earth, the ancestors and the high hall, and then the husband and wife worship it, commonly known as the "sacrificial hall". On the wedding night, the man holds a banquet, commonly known as the "wedding banquet". After leaving their seats, the wedding ceremony of the newlyweds will be completed after the "noisy room". After the wedding, the bride must go back to her parents' home to visit relatives and friends, commonly known as "visiting relatives in the province", "returning to Luan", "being the first guest" and "asking her son-in-law". The date of returning to Fujian varies from place to place. After three days in eastern Fujian, southern Fujian used to visit after seven days, and Changle was in the first month of the following year.

In the Chongwu area in the east of Hui 'an, southern Fujian, a peculiar marriage custom of "staying at home for a long time" has been popular. Local women return to their parents' homes after three days of marriage, and only on holidays will they temporarily come to live with their in-laws. Only after the woman is pregnant can she stay at her husband's house.

Before Qin and Han dynasties, hanging coffin burial prevailed in Wuyishan area of Fujian Province. The specific burial method is to put the coffins with bodies directly in natural caves or artificial caves on the cliffs along the river, and some of them are placed on wooden stakes artificially inserted into cliffs and crevices, so they are also called "cliff burial", "cliff tomb" and "cliff cave tomb". Because its coffin is like a boat, it is also commonly known as "coffin burial". Later generations are mysterious because their coffins are placed on cliffs, so there are legends of "fairy boat", "fairy coffin" and "fairy burial place"

Since Wei and Jin Dynasties, the custom of burial in the Central Plains has prevailed in Fujian. During the Tang and Song Dynasties, "it is filial piety to be strong in folk customs and try your best to be rich and luxurious with ..." (Ouyang Xiu: Collection of laity, volume 35), and some people went bankrupt. During the Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties, Fujian people's funeral customs were deeply influenced by Zhu Jiali, Lu Zizhen's family ceremony and family ceremony. Generally speaking, funeral customs include seven things: moving shop, mourning, mourning, mourning, mourning, burial, burial and handling.

It is called "moving the bed" to put the dying person in the hall, which has the ancient meaning of "yi" The deceased was gone, and the families of future generations immediately mourned and cried around the deceased. When mourning, you should also light an oil lamp or candle under your feet or overhead, commonly known as "foot tail light" and "foot tail candle". Holding a bowl of dry rice with a pair of chopsticks is commonly known as "pillow rice" or "walking rice". Burning incense and paper money is commonly known as "tail paper" At the same time, the family members of the deceased informed their relatives and friends of the funeral by setting off firecrackers, posting obituaries, holding funeral posts and reporting good news. When the bones are not cold, relatives should bathe the dead body, then put on clothes, commonly known as "wearing shroud", and conduct a "rice bag" ceremony in parallel to show filial piety. After he finished the funeral, he set up a mourning hall incense table, set up a memorial tablet of the Lord of the gods, offered fruit incense sticks, and waited for the dead at the store, commonly known as "guarding the store." The gown, also known as mourning, moves the body into the coffin, stipulating that the eldest son holds his head, and the second son, son-in-law and illegitimate child hold his waist and feet in turn. After the coffin is covered and nailed, it is customary to abandon the daily necessities of the deceased before and after death, such as headboards, straw mats, old clothes and taillights. , known as "send feet to send tail" or "send grass". The funeral time is mostly decided by the wizard, and most of them are carried into the ground by relatives with the same surname, and land at the right time. Return after the funeral and prepare a meal for the funeral of relatives and friends. Since the death of the deceased, there has been a seven-day sacrifice next to the hall, which is called "doing seven". The first seven days, commonly known as the "first seven"; The seventh seven days, commonly known as "all seven" or "tail seven". After "seventy years old", you can take off your mourning and wear mourning clothes instead of plain clothes.

Due to the huge burial cost, some poor families simply can't do it. Under the influence of "tea skin cremation method", cremation has been widely practiced in Bamin area since the Song Dynasty. Volume 16 of Ye Shi's Collected Works of Mr. Shui Xin records that Luoyuan County "buries the dead and burns their bones". During the Yuanfeng period of the Northern Song Dynasty, a cremation tomb was discovered by the West Lake in Fuzhou. Since the Song Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty, cremation was strictly prohibited or opposed by * * * and the scholar-officials, but the poor family was unable to bury it, so it was forbidden.