Traditional rituals, why the uncle can represent the maternal uncle's family

This friend, in China's traditional society, people very often is through the national law outside the family rules of family law to solve the family boundary

problems, uncle meddling nephews family boundary matters belong to an unwritten family law. Especially in times and regions where the concept of law is weak

, in addition to the matriarchal system, individual family conflicts often rely on the maternal uncle to resolve, and sometimes

two families have conflicts, but also rely on their respective maternal uncle to mediate. Especially in a housewife was husband

husband or children unfair treatment, to uncle as the representative of the maternal uncle's family will come to the door to comment on reasoning,

sometimes resorting to force for the maternal family to seek justice, the folk "uncle is the mother of the master," said,

speaking is this! The reasoning behind this is that In the whole process of dealing with affairs, a housewife has grievances to the mother's family

said, the maternal uncle is obliged to step in, otherwise it will be laughed at, and did something wrong in this family is also much deterred by the mother

uncle family mediation, or some convergence, or to change the evil from the good. This shows the importance of the uncle in the nephew's family

. This section of the separation of the family to find uncle, is also the best footnote of this custom.

Generally, after the children of the family, most families choose the parents and children to start a new stove, divided

open a single life, folk called "separation of the family". The main thing is to share the family property, that is, the family members of the **** have property.

When the family is divided, the old custom is to sacrifice to the ancestors, and the family property is generally divided equally among brothers, and in some places, sisters are also included

included. There are two kinds of cases: if the parents are alive, the parents will preside over the family, and also get a share of the family property,

Brothers and sisters who get the family property still have to *** with the support of the old man, and when the parents are dead, the brothers and sisters to share their parents' share of the

inheritance. If both parents are dead, the head of the clan will preside over the estate and deal with it in accordance with the parents' will or customary practice.

However, in many places, the brothers' uncles are invited to preside over the division of the family, such as in Hangzhou in the past, where the maternal

uncle is the eldest, and the division of the family is presided over by the maternal uncle, who chooses an auspicious day, writes a good "division of the family book", and organizes a "division of the family wine".

When the family was divided, a "public property" was also set aside to ensure that the parents of the brothers in the divided family in addition to the cost of living outside the meals

Use. Especially in the case of the death of the father, the mother is still alive, but also by the uncle to preside over the separation of the family, the purpose

is to fight for his sister or sister should be entitled to the old age property and better maintenance treatment. In the affairs of the nephew's family,

especially when it comes to the vital interests of the housewife, the uncle (maternal uncle) often takes the lead and presides over the situation.

Even after the death of the housewife, this role of the maternal uncle remains unabated. For example, in the Jieshan area of Dongping County, Shandong Province

There is a custom that if a nephew is unfilial, when his mother dies, the uncle will bring along his own son and other people during the funeral, and chastise the unfilial nephew for all kinds of reasons, so that he is punished by having his face swept away. It was only when someone interceded and the nephew kowtowed and admitted he was wrong that he was allowed to be buried.

In fact, in folklore, uncle is not only in the mediation of nephews on the family boundaries of justice, plays an important role, more often than not he is still a very respected role, and a lot of customs around the world can also reflect this. For example, in the old days, when a child had a full moon, there are family members of the maternal uncle's family to the name and the custom of twisting fetal hair, the uncle can not be present, to place a pestle and mortar as a symbol. September 9 Chongyang Festival symbolizes the longevity and well-being of the elderly, nephews in the old days to send "Denggao" (made of glutinous rice flour cakes) to honor the custom of maternal uncle. Some places in the marriage of a daughter, the bride out of the boudoir to worship ancestors and parents, maternal uncle, uncle and so on. Aunt relatives accompanied the bride to the groom's home, the wedding banquet by the bride's maternal uncle to sit in the chief, the food and wine must be placed in front of him first, to show that the meaning of honor. Northern Jiangsu people in the old days to marry a woman, there is maternal uncle "pinch lock" custom, that is, when the bride left her mother's home, the dowry box to hang an open lock, and so on the groom to all the "joints" are opened, by the maternal uncle to pinch the lock, only then, the bride can become The bride can only become a "legitimate" member of the groom's family in this way.

In the relationship between uncle and nephew, in addition to the honor of uncle, there is also a close relationship between nephew and uncle, the so-called uncle and nephew friendship. This seems to be evident from the following proverbs, such as the nephews and nephews of the relationship between the pro: "nephews like uncle", "maternal uncle pro maternal uncle pro, broken bones and even tendons", "incense, but pork, pro but aunt and uncle ", "Raising children with maternal uncle" and so on. In addition, there is a lot of folk love to take the uncle to play the phenomenon, containing nephews and uncles close relationship and uncle for the meaning of the honored, such as "wear two hats dead uncle", "do not wear a willow in the Qingming Festival, the next generation no maternal uncle," "the first month of the year shaved head dead uncle" and so on.