Chinese wedding customs?

I. Fm radio and married couple

The word "fm radio" is unfamiliar to modern people. However, the "fm radio" of the groom and the bride is very familiar to everyone who has been married or attended a wedding. "Fm radio" means that the newlyweds drink fm radio in the cave room. Fm radio is the meaning of fm radio, a lagenaria split into two scoops, the bride and groom each take one, to drink, called fm radio, fm radio began in the Zhou Dynasty, the fm radio, fm radio, and fm radio is a bitter inedible, used to hold the wine must be bitter wine. As contained in the "Records of Rites": "So the body, the same honor, in order to pro also."

After the Song Dynasty, the fm radio ceremony evolved into the newlyweds *** drinking the cup of wine. Tokyo Meng Hua Lu - marrying a woman" records: the new couple "with two marbles with colorful knots, each other drink a marble, so-called cross cups. Drinking, threw the lamp and flower crowns dry under the bed, the lamp a tilt and a close, the Valley Cloud Daji, then all the happy congratulations, and then cover the tent and finished." The symbolism of this ceremony is meaningful.

Using colored silk or colored paper to link the two wine cups, men and women change each other's names, each drink a cup, symbolizing that thereafter the husband and wife will be connected as one, merged into one. Of course, in many cases, "but the bride is shy and refuses to dye her fingers and taste it. (Republic of China: "solution of the county")

Drinking after the cup thrown thousands of beds, in order to divine the harmony or not, if the cups happen to be a tilt and a fit, it symbolizes the male and female tilt, full of pleasure, the sky over the earth, the yin and yang harmony of the matter, is obviously a great fortune. During the Republic of China, Shanxi folk marriage, worship after heaven and earth, "introduced into the cave, son-in-law first, on the bed on the four corners, the bride into the bride, sitting in the back corner of the bed, drink the cup of wine, the day of the 'fm radio', fm radio, there are still visits to the ancestor of the day to see the courageous nuns and other rituals, roughly on the day after the marriage of the line! "After the fm radio, there are still rituals such as visiting the ancestors and seeing Yonggu. (Republic of China: "Fushan County Records")

Today, the wedding of young people in rural areas of Shanxi, fm radio is essential, but its form is much simpler than in ancient times. Men and women each pour wine after the two arms hooked, eyes on each other, in a warm and joyful laughter in a drink, either in the cave or in the wedding hall, restaurant, restaurant. According to folk traditions, fm radio is held in the cave room, so all the fm radio and into the cave together, but regardless of the different ways of expression of this custom, its meaning and mentality are the same, the knot Yonghao, not separated from the implied for the newlyweds will have an impact on the future of the long term of the married life of the couple.

When people are in a wedding ceremony in a remote mountain village, no matter how hard life is for them, they can see their love for each other and their desire for a better life through the smiles and laughs that come out of the handing over of cups of wine.

According to wedding customs, the ceremony of tying the knot is often held after the wedding. In ancient times, this ceremony was called a "hairdo", in which the hair of the newlyweds was taken and knotted, and the newlyweds were seated on the same bed, with the man on the left and the woman on the right. However, this ceremony is only limited to the first marriage, remarried people do not need. People often refer to the married couple, that is, the original couple, married concubines and renewals, etc. can not get the honorary title of the married couple.

Ancient marriage customs, knotting hair contains a very solemn meaning, and later this custom gradually disappeared, but the knotting hair of this term has been retained. Hair tie is respected by people, and hair tie symbolizes the good meaning of husband and wife who will never be separated, just like the cup of wine, which is still fully affirmed and praised by most people in the countryside.

In an era when men were allowed to take concubines and keep aunts, married couples were especially prominent. So much so that no matter whether it is a neophyte scholar who is a field house groom in the morning and ascends to the hall of heaven in the evening, or a merchant landowner who has a sudden fortune, when they are climbing up the ladder of riches and wealth, searching for flowers and concubines and renewing their concubines, they generally have to maintain a certain degree of respect for their married couples.

In the Chinese people's psychological and emotional, from ancient times to the present day, long thousands of years, especially heavy married couples.

Because it means "first time". In the case of men and women are not kissed, people in their lives, deep friendship with the opposite sex of only a few stars, hair, means that the first time to accept the freshness of the opposite sex, the first time to send out a smile, the first time to taste the happiness of love, the first time to set up a family of their own. So, no matter what, this first time is precious and worth cherishing.

In addition. Tying the knot also has the deeper meanings of solemnity, sanctity, providence, destiny and so on which are recognized by the society, and on the basis of which the two parties to a marriage develop a sense of obligation and responsibility.

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Two, the secret of the cave

The cave is the final program of the wedding, but also any wedding are indispensable. less content, it is the climax of the wedding, but also the most lively and interesting program.

The wedding night, relatives and friends sitting around the room, the bride of all kinds of banter, known as the "room", "play bride". There are a variety of ways to make a fuss, and there are differences in the same place. In summary, can be divided into two kinds of cultural and martial arts. Wen闹 in a more elegant way, often to the bride out of riddles, pairs of pairs, please tell the experience of love and usually do not see in the mouth of men and women's affairs, Shanxi folk said, "said the order of the child", interesting, forcing the bride can not answer and make a fool of themselves, to make fun of it. "is the night, the good people talk about harmonic language compiled into the words of the tune, forced the bride to sing, called 'haunted room'. Recently, it has been intensified, the celebration of the enthusiasm out of the banter, the inhibition of rites of passage is very far." (Republic of China: "Yicheng County Zhi") martial arts is the use of a more brutal way, not only obscene language, but also on the bride's hands and feet, quite a mischievous nature.

Haunting the bridal chamber, peers, juniors, relatives and friends, classmates and colleagues have embraced the new room, laughing and teasing, especially the groom's friends, they try their best to come up with all kinds of ways to let the bride perform in public to tease and make fun of, as the saying goes, "three days without size," in addition to the parents are able to make fun of. During this period, the casual relationship between people is allowed by etiquette, many taboos have been lifted, rather like the carnival in Western culture. Therefore, no matter how the drama, how difficult to accept, the bride is never to turn against the angry. If the gas away from the people in the bridal chamber, will be regarded as the bride's capriciousness, people are not good, the future of the light will not be good.

Haunting the bridal chamber is a way to congratulate the newlyweds. In folklore, people believe that the cave in the fox, ghosts and demons, in order to tend to chase the evil spirits of the yin, to enhance the human potential of the yang, the cave, so the folk saying that "people do not haunt the ghosts haunted".

Haunting the room in function is also a test of the newlyweds, including resourcefulness and patience, was originally a "test of the pass", but in the folk tend to go too far, become a bad custom.

The origin of the custom of the cave is very ancient, "Han Shu" records "Yan land marriage night, men and women are not different, but only for the honor." (Han Shu, "Geography"). ("Book of Han", "Geography") the custom of the room may have originated in the "listening room". On the wedding night, friends and relatives eavesdropped on the words and actions of the new daughter-in-law outside the window of the cave, and what people were interested in was nothing more than male and female love. From the point of view of sexual psychology, this action seems to be the Freudian theory of "masturbation". Later gradually evolved into teasing the bride of the cave. This custom to the Tang Dynasty, popular among the people, not only the male relatives, guests and friends have the right to tease the bride, and even irrelevant strangers, you can also stop in the middle of, pinpointing, touching and laughing, need to ask for a hard time. This custom from ancient times to the present, has changed from individual behavior to collective behavior.

To summarize the custom of the cave, driving people to listen to the room, the psychological motivation of the cave is complex.

First of all, this is a kind of people's sexual awareness of the externalization of the subconscious impulse, people from the house drama women and caressing women, the performance of the opposite sex of some kind of teasing, after the venting out of the envy and jealousy can be overcome to achieve a certain balance of sex in the "subconscious" realm of the attitudes and behaviors of the opposite sex in the normal course of time is strictly limited, the cave-in is a very important part of the psychological motivation of the people. The strict limitations of this attitude and behavior towards the opposite sex in normal times, the caveman just provides an opportunity to do so.

Secondly, the caveman is a product of the traditional arranged marriage. Because only after the wedding ceremony, the excited groom can get open the bride's red scarf, the new couple did not know each other before, no fellowship, and even more emotional communication, the first time they meet to *** fall in love, obviously strange and embarrassing. Therefore, the custom of the bridal chamber can eliminate each other's distance and unfamiliarity, to coordinate the tension between the two people, togetherness. Undoubtedly, the cave of the mess is the necessary preparation before the 100-meter race.

Moreover, in the prosperity of the psychological tendency of the family, most of the newlywed family, there are both suffering from the crowd of friends and relatives, but also happy to let the double psychological.

The house can make the two sides of the family and friends familiar with, show that the family is full of friends, prosperous, and enhance the communication between friends and relatives and feelings, as well as the harmony of the neighborhood.

Buzzing is the aesthetic ideal of Chinese people's lives, and the bridal chamber is the means to achieve this. Lively in order to form a happy atmosphere of celebration, haunted is a happy scene, is a kind of jubilation and prosperity and development of the symbol, only haunted, haunted, happy to have the market, the road to wealth can be opened, the people can prosper.

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Three, the cave room test chastity

In China, sexual behavior is a highly regulated by custom. Not only do people show great interest in open, legal sexual relations, but the norms of custom try to penetrate every crevice of our lives.

In the Book of Songs, we can speak of many stories of women running away with their lovers, and at least in the time of Confucius, sexual relations between men and women in the upper echelons of society were more or less as chaotic as in the days of fallen Rome. Divorce was easy, remarriage was not difficult, and the chastity of young girls was not yet a particular concern.

However, with the rise of Confucianism, especially after the proliferation of rationalism in the Song Dynasty, women were considered responsible for the morality of the society, and the rationalists forced women to live in a world of confinement, where remarriage of widows was a moral sin, and the chastity of women was highly valued.

The Chinese worship of women's chastity has since become a psychological obsession. One egregious example of this obsession is the so-called "bride test". This custom turns the bride's chastity into a naked virginity test that is verified on the spot and witnessed by all the people, but sadly, the groom does not think that this is a desecration of his own feelings, and the bride does not feel that it is an insult to her own personality. Customs have warped people's minds.

The custom of virginity testing in the cave is known in folklore as "checking the red" and "awarding the scarf", and has existed for a long time. Generally on the day of the wedding, the mother of the bride gave her daughter or son-in-law a white scarf, for the first time to perform sexual intercourse, also known as the folk "hippie".

Old times, the wedding of successive dynasties, there is the gift of the scarf. Some places such as Guangdong, after awarding the scarf, the bride and groom closed the door into the room, cloud and rain for love, while the groom's parents and friends are waiting outside the door, after the affair, the groom holding a Zhu plate, the plate placed in the awarded scarf, covered with a red handkerchief, which shows that the bride is a virgin new red, everyone is very happy, have to express their congratulations, and to the bride's family with the roasted pig. Prior to this, the bride's family has been anxious, fearing that the bride did not see the virgin red.

Because the hymen is ruptured to become the only test of chastity, the only standard, once the red, the groom and his family will be attributed to the bride unchaste, at least in the psychological to produce a great deal of suspicion and disharmony, the formation of the diaphragm. In the light of the bride speechless, humiliated for life, in-laws and husbands in front of no status, the heaviest by the matchmaker to send the woman back to her mother's home.

The importance of virginity is a common concept in Chinese society. Observant literati in turn gave it a romantic flavor.

Wang Shifu's The Story of the Western Wing, after recounting Zhang Sheng's rendezvous with Cui Yingying, made special mention of the scented scarf, writing:

"The spring roses (of the Houtian flowers) were white, and I saw the red fragrance pointing to the tender color, and I looked at them under the lamp, and saw that they were covered with flesh on the chest, and I was so happy and happy that I didn't know where the spring was coming from."

The playwright Tang Xianzu in his "Handan Dreams" that is quite colorful dialogue said: "Good couple into the cave flower candle,...... river foul Crouch, fierce capture, no matchmaking weaver to invite marriage. Do not count hang, did not contend ah, much like Tan Lang dipped eyes shocked red Chad, beauty with a smile blow silver wax. This night we sleep together with the blue window veil, tomorrow we will see the fragrant Luo Pa."

Tao Zongyi's "Dropout Record" recorded a man married to the bride did not see the virgin red, the literati Yuan Kexian gifted RuMengLing a "tonight Sheng row feast, quasi-proposed LingFang once again, the spring has been gone, ask what red depth red shallow, do not see, do not see, but also you a side of white silk."

Today, in the rural areas of Shanxi, the custom of checking the red has been rare. But some places often in the morning of the second day of the wedding, the white towel to see red outside the new room in plain sight, to show outsiders that the bride is a virgin.

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Four, wedding customs

Complete wedding customs in ancient times, there are natsui, ask the name, naji, nazheng, Please period, pro welcome six rites. But since the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Shanxi, the complete six rites have ceased to exist, such as a large number of local records contained in the, "the wedding is different, about six rites, only four of its existence: ask the name, Nacai, please period, pro-greeting only, there is no pro-greeting." (Qianlong: "Pingyang Fu Zhi")

After the liberation of the wedding form of the old and new, and the new form of wedding gradually in place of the old form. New, more civilized and modern forms of wedding during the Republic of China has begun to implement in various parts of Shanxi, as a new wedding customs, we put it in detail as follows:

"Marriage certificates, still with the red invitation to the past, but the officiating person, witnesses, introducers, bridegroom, bride, all sign their names. The marriage ceremony, the Department of the court set up in front of the ceremony, playing music, by the master of ceremonies into the north stand, sang: "men and women guests seat" and the north stand. The male and female wedding officiants take their seats and stand in the south. All the men and women of the male and female communities take their seats and stand east and west. The witnesses and presenters are seated and stand in the south. The celebrant is seated and stands in the north. Male and female guests to introduce the groom, the woman seat, all face north.

Playing music. Witnesses read certificates, and for the groom and bride to exchange jewelry. Groom and wife perform wedding ceremony, east-west standing. Double bow. Play music.

The master and the marriage celebrant give a speech, the groom and the woman thank the witnesses and the introducers, and bow three times.

Representatives of male and female guests give eulogies, present flowers, two bows. Play music.

The bride and groom make a speech of thanks, two bows.

Representatives of female guests sing civilized wedding song.

Witnesses, introducers, male and female guests retire.

The bride and bridegroom visit the male and female celebrants and the whole clan, playing music, the male and female celebrants and the elders stand facing the south, three bows, male and female flat, the younger generation stand facing the east; two bows. The entire male and female clans perform the ritual of meeting each other, standing facing east and west, with two bows.

Male and female concubines lead the groom and the bride back. The two families of the man and woman in charge of the wedding and all the male and female tribes, the correctional officers, and the master of ceremonies all retired. After the ceremony, the banquet was held." (Republic of China twelve years: "Linfen County")

Today's wedding customs in rural Shanxi is also largely so, only in the content and form more rich in some of the characteristics of the times.