The clear process of marriage of boat-dwelling families on the boat

? Dwelling families is a collective term for water dwellers in China's coastal areas, mainly in the provinces of Guangdong, Guangxi and Yunnan.　

When a boat-dwelling family member gets married, family members and friends give the newlywed a gift of cloth for making boat-dwelling clothes. Usually, the length of the gift is determined by the production of a single piece of boat-dwelling clothes, usually five feet of cloth to make a top. The bride also chooses red cotton cloth to make the boat-dwelling clothes for her wedding. According to the local custom in the past, every boat-dwelling woman, her family will send six feet of cloth as dowry. Before the wedding, the women would make these dowries into red wedding shirts and lace dresses. For men, it's a high button-down shirt and long black pants.

In the evening, a large number of friends and relatives gather at the man's house in their boats for the wedding banquet. Dozens of boats are moored together, their bows facing each other, and pergolas are set up with red cloth. The eloquent bride sings a salty song and receives a red packet for the tea ceremony. Subsequently, the wedding banquet began, boiling, laughing, singing and teasing, the scene is lively, friends and relatives have been to the late night before the boat dispersed. Banquet, no matter how many dishes, "taro buckle meat" a dish can never be less, and is a particularly large bowl, to be made by the family female elders hand bubble.

The children of boat-dwelling people get married, although they follow the order of their parents and the words of matchmakers, but they have their own characteristics, and there is no lack of romantic color. Qing Dynasty writer Qu Dajun wrote "Guangdong new language - boat language - egg (boat-dwelling) family boat", said: "the eggs to boat as a home, is said to egg family. There are men not hired, then set pots of grass at the top; women not hired, then set pots of flowers at the top, so that matchmakers. Marriage to the barbaric song to welcome, male song win is to seize the female over the boat." Qing Dynasty poet Chen Tan "boat-dwelling pier" poem said: "Longdo Lu Yu is a kind of people, deep water and clouds and hide. Pots of flowers and grasses are very popular, singing fishing songs and good relations."