What are the traditional wedding customs of Hakka people?

Marriage is a major event in life. As a life ceremony, it has been widely valued by all ethnic groups and regions in China. Hakka wedding customs have this basic style, mixed with a lot of folk songs and a series of local etiquette rules, which are quite lively and complicated.

When young Hakka men and women come of age, they can ask matchmakers to fix up and introduce their marriages. Generally, the man's parents entrust the woman's home as a matchmaker, and some women's homes let the matchmaker visit the man's home first. Both men and women talk through the central media. If both sides are interested, they will agree on a time to "see their sister".

After both parties agree, they will inform each other of the date of birth. When you go back, please ask the fortune teller to "check the eight characters". If the eight characters get along and don't conflict, write a Geng post and put it on the incense table. If there is no writing on the wall in three days, the marriage will be settled. If the eight characters don't match, the man will return the Geng Tie to the woman's home.

Once a matchmaker proposes to a Hakka, the first thing to do is to examine whether the "eight characters" of both men and women match. According to the traditional marriage view of Hakka: harmony will make future generations healthy, friendly and United, and grow old together; Disagreement leads to family instability, separation and family disintegration, so it is a prerequisite for successful marriage.

The eight-character "grass eight characters" and "red eight characters" refer to the eight-character post that the matchmaker first asks the woman's home. Because there are many books on papyrus, it is called "Caobazi".

There is also a saying with the mouth, called "mouth eight characters", which are not formal eight-character posts. The "red character" is not the case. It is to write the characters of both men and women in a very formal red paper envelope, indicating that the two families are officially engaged.

Hakka's horoscope is checked and confirmed by a special "Mr. Constellation".

After eight characters, the man's parents, clan relatives and matchmaker go to the woman's house together and draw out the bride price that the man wants to give to the woman's house. Some red lists should also include gifts for husbands, such as hats, silver flowers, clothes, shoes, socks and so on.

In the process of opening a red bill, the two sides will bargain and finally finalize it through negotiation. After the red list is opened, both men and women will exchange tokens, such as rings and handkerchiefs. Finally, the man came to the woman's house and went back after lunch.

The next step is engagement, also known as "big tie", which is to formally confirm the marriage again. Young men and their parents are going to the woman's house to deliver pig's head, fish and meat. , as well as the woman's parents, brothers and sisters, uncles and grandparents will appear. After lunch, girls will come out to meet and call each other "parents" and "parents-in-law" and "mother".

Before and after the "big tie", the woman went to the man's house to look after the house. Everyone except the girls and their parents will go, including aunts and sisters. A dozen people, large and small, didn't bring gifts, and even if they did, that person didn't dare to pick them up.

After the marriage is settled, the man should ask the fortune teller to choose a date to go home, including the date and time when the bride goes out and the time when she goes home. In addition, the date when the woman cuts the red skirt and the man makes the bed should also be chosen at the same time.

On the wedding day or the morning before, there will be a ceremony in which men and women exchange wedding gifts with each other. First of all, the man chooses several young and strong men as gifts for the woman's family. These people are clean and handsome. Gifts are mostly peanuts, eggs and walnuts stained with red ink, as well as a complete pig head and dozens of dried noodles.

About the pig's head, Hakka people have a special jingle to talk about its benefits: "The pig's head is flat and sharp, change your big braid."

The woman's return gift is actually the dowry and dowry of her mother's family. These gifts were brought back by the man's giver, and they were not sent by himself.

Because "gift giving" is usually carried on the shoulders by reeds, in winter and December, the rural fields in Hakka settlements present colorful gift giving wonders, attracting passers-by and farmers in Tanaka to stop and watch.

Hakka people want to kill Xi pig when they get married. Different from killing pigs on New Year's Day, killing pigs on New Year's Day is usually in the open space outside the hospital, while killing pigs at the time of marriage is in the hall. The master judges the quality of marriage by whether a knife is fatal or not.

The night before the bride enters the door, she must cry bitterly at her parents' house, which is called "crying marriage".