Taigu customs, taboos, marriage

The marriage customs in Taigu are complicated, including traditional culture, local customs and national styles. We should not only publicize the family power, but also adjust the interpersonal relationship of different classes around us through weddings and funerals, and at the same time establish the family image. This adds great difficulty to the wedding etiquette. If you don't pay attention to these details, you will be laughed at and complained.

When a son grows up, he should get married and have children to carry on the family line. However, in old China, in order to have children early, it was generally after the age of thirteen that people sought a matchmaker. The matchmaker said that matchmaking was protected by law at that time. Even if many ladies want to marry a rich boy, the man has to find a matchmaker to go through the motions. In ancient times, there was a saying that "parents' orders were matched by matchmakers' words". Negotiate through the matchmaker, agree on the bride price and other conditions, and then post them. Bring a bride price when posting and set a wedding date together. This premarital procedure is completed.

In the old society, there was a big gap between the rich and the poor. According to the financial conditions, the bride marries back by donkey or car. Others carried the bride and groom in two sedan chairs, ate the guests on horseback and saw them off. The elegant people use sedan chairs, and there are two people. These two groups refer to two groups of gongs and drums and suona musicians. Please choose an auspicious day for the teacher of Yin and Yang, and prepare four big sedan chairs for the wedding banquet, two red ones and two blue ones. Fancun's sedan chair clothes are all imported hala. There are four people, sedan chair, eight people carry the big sedan chair, and one person pulls the fiber. The fiber puller is wearing a short coat with a board on his chest. One end of the fiber rope is tied to the board, and the other end is tied to the sedan chair (it must be double rope). Just follow the bearers. This is just a performance. The wedding procession is huge. When entering the village, the lineup was rigorous, suona was played together, and gongs and drums rang together. Hearing the sound of gongs and drums, the sedan chair receiver who had been waiting at the woman's house immediately set off firecrackers to welcome the guests, and the person in charge of the woman's house immediately came out to welcome the guests. At this time, the best man, the steward and the musician all stayed outside, and the boy, the groom and the best man who ate and hung their hands and hugged the mailbox were welcomed in. Diners wear hats, blue shirts and black satin boots. The assistant's name is the same as that of the diners, but the difference is that a red ribbon is tied around the waist, and the corner in front of the robe is placed on the belt, so that people can tell the priority at a glance. Other people's clothes are free. Diners can only stand outside the door with their hands dangling when they enter the gift room, ready to eat money or other conveniences at any time. After the boy's invitation was exchanged for a reply, the gift room hosted a banquet for diners and others (also called the beating room).

Before the bride gets on the sedan chair, she only calls her bride. Before getting on the sedan chair, the new girl sat on the sedan chair with her back facing north and south. The maid and the eldest sister-in-law (bridesmaid) are fanning, and they keep saying, "Fan, you sit in the chair, the girl is very naughty." There is also a dowry basin next to it. There is a big lotus in the basin, and there is a fat doll made of new white cotton on the lotus. It's called lotus basin playing with dolls. Lotus means many children (seeds), and after crossing the door, you will have your son early. Then, the passengers will be carried into the back seat of the car. It is the custom in Taigu that the bride's brother must see Fujian off. If there is no elder brother, the elder brother of the same generation can take responsibility. This is called "Brother sends his sister to let us live a better life". After the couple got into the sedan chair, the mother took any clothes of her new daughter, turned left three times around the sedan chair and turned right three times. It means that the daughter has grown up under the care of her mother and will be a wife and mother. Don't forget to take time to go home. Then the mother will feed her a few bites of cake, which is the last time for her mother to protect her daughter for many years, and also implies that her daughter should not forget her parents' kindness after marriage.

The chief representative of a woman's dowry is Fujian, followed by maids (bridesmaids) with eldest sister-in-law. The number varies, but it must be even, and it is called "both pairs, grow old together." There are peppers, red dates, sugar, tickets, peanuts and black coal in the invitation box. Except for the gift list and invitation cards. Pepper means that I hope my daughter will be spicy after going through the door and not be bullied by others. The homonym of red dates is early children and early women. Sugar means that life is sweet, chestnuts seed early and peanuts blossom and grow. Don't just have boys without girls, or have girls without boys. Black coal is called black man, which means black man is healthy.

The bride wears a crest and a dress on her shoulders, a red silk embroidered coat on her upper body, an embroidered red skirt and red embroidered shoes on her feet. Cover the head with a red veil and cover the new couple's face tightly. It means a sunny day overhead, which is essentially used to cover up ugliness. In the old society, because men and women don't meet each other, the matchmaker has only one mouth, but as long as they worship heaven and earth, they are legal couples, and no matter how ugly they are, they can't be changed. Secondly, the beautiful women are covered, why are the beautiful women still afraid of being seen? There are many people at the wedding banquet. Once a beautiful woman is exposed to the public, it is inevitable that someone with ulterior motives will destroy the doctrine or be killed.

The groom is wearing a hat with silver leaves on both sides, a robe, blue satin boots, a red cross and a red hydrangea on his chest. In the past, the groom wore the red silk official uniform worn by the champion, which was recognized by the emperor, because people only had this prestige in their lives. Walking in the front of the wedding procession are two people, each holding a big red flag, a big gong hanging at the end of the flagpole to clear the way, and the other two holding a big fire handle dipped in cooking oil with straw, which symbolizes the prosperity of the people, with several gongs and trumpeters on their shoulders. The first one in the blue sedan chair is the diners, and the second one in the red sedan chair is the groom. Then came the second group of suona bands, in which the bride took the third red sedan chair and the Fujian people took the fourth blue sedan chair. Then there are the bridesmaids and maids' cars, and the two families ride red horses with drooping hands. Then the dowry car and his entourage. Those rich people will accompany their daughters in sedan chairs. Among them, the new girl takes the red sedan chair and Fujian takes the blue sedan chair. In this way, Gong Ba took the big sedan chair, leaving the next four, and the suona band was also two groups. In this way, the wedding procession has become eight big sedan chairs, four bands, plus hundreds of handyman to see off the couple, plus horseback riding and vehicles, which is unprecedented.

After the wedding, the sedan chair landed and the bride walked on the prepared red carpet with the help of the maid. Yin and Yang began to pour a willow tree full of black bean grass into the bride, and black bean grass was scattered around. This red carpet has been laid under the street gate. There is a long ladder on the threshold, and the other end is supported in the middle of the roadway with a bench. The bride should walk on this long ladder. It means to rise to the top step by step. After entering the street gate, the bride came down to the second door with the help of bridesmaids and bridesmaids. There is a fruit or steamed bread hanging on the lintel, and the couple can eat it with their mouths as long as they jump less. This means you don't have to reach for it. In fact, it is a joke to jump stairs and eat buns to test the bride's cleverness, agility and shortcomings. When the bride comes to the hospital, she should walk through the brazier with a skirt in her hand, which means that she can avoid disaster and live a rich life in the future. People in the gift room should prepare a bedroom (lounge) in advance for the couple to take a nap.

At the beginning of the wedding ceremony, the teacher of Yin and Yang was the master of ceremonies. There is a big square table in the yard with ancestral tablets. The groom's parents sat at the square table as the officiating guests. When paying homage, the master of ceremonies shouted, "Pay homage!" The groom is already standing in the yard, and the bride is helped by the maid to the square table. The master of ceremonies shouted, "Worship heaven and earth!" The bride and groom bowed to the purlin. (That is, the groom kneels in front of Tang Zong and kowtows three times. The bride kneels and kowtows three times after crossing her hands, and the bride and groom should do it at the same time. "Second, worship Gaotang!" The two also bowed to the ancestral memorial tablet. The emcee shouted: "Yin and Yang harmonize everything, husband and wife live in harmony, family is successful, and happiness is fragrant." Both husband and wife burned incense. Three white gaotang! At the same time, the two also bowed to their parents. This is what we often say: three worships and nine knocks. The emcee shouted "Bye, husband and wife!" The groom bows to the bride, and the bride bows to the groom without kneeling. The master of ceremonies shouted again, "The couple retreated into the bridal chamber!" The groom is holding a bow and arrow and shooting an arrow at the door of the cave. Then the bride entered the cave with the help of the bridesmaid, and Taigu called to the bedroom. ) The bridesmaid is always with the bride. After the ceremony, the bride had lunch in the bridal chamber, and under the care of the bridesmaids, she took off her hijab for dinner. The bridal chamber is at night. If there is no noise in the bridal chamber, a broom will be erected at the door after the couple sleep. The traditional custom of making trouble in the bridal chamber is to tear red and green paper into small pieces and stick them on the bride's face, so that the groom can lick them off one by one with his mouth and tongue. This is called eating torn pieces. Pulling a pigeon is to let the groom put a handkerchief into the bride's waistband, and then take it out of the trouser legs through the bride's sensitive place. This is a good wedding room. In feudal society, there was a great distance between men and women, especially boys and girls, who felt shy when they met. If it weren't for the bridal chamber, they would be in different beds in the same room. How early did you get your son? While making trouble in the bridal chamber, arrange the sister-in-law of the same age with the most children in advance, stab the window paper of the same room and say "boy, tit, boy, tit". It seems that the more you poke the window, the more children you have. When the new house is finished, when the couple are sleeping, the sister-in-law (the husband's sister) carries the urinal, and the bride has to pay the sister-in-law to carry the pot. This is called a little sister-in-law with a basin, a nephew and a group of men and women.

At this time, the wedding ceremony has all ended.