What are the wedding customs of people in Tongren, Guizhou?

People in Tongren, Guizhou have many special customs when getting married. The main points are as follows: First, singing and sitting on the moon. Young men have to identify a partner through "walking and singing while sitting on the moon", and then go through the process of courtship, engagement, and engagement according to the old marriage system where the elders presided over the marriage, and finally choose an auspicious day to hold the wedding ceremony.

Second, the bride enters on time at the chosen auspicious time. On the night of the wedding, the groom's family invites his mother-in-law to pick up the bride, and the bride invites "Shangga" (a singer in Dong language) and several accompanying sisters to accompany her mother-in-law to the groom's home. The bride enters the door on time according to the auspicious time she has chosen.

Third, we must worship our ancestors. When the bride enters the door, she must pick up a handful of glutinous rice flour hanging with a silver necklace outside the threshold, raise her left foot and step across the threshold into the main room, place the glutinous rice flour under the shrine, and then sit on the bench next to the central pillar. Shangga" and his married sisters lined up on the left and right, and then they performed ancestor worship.

The fourth is not to enter the bridal chamber that day. The bride does not go to the wedding hall with the groom, nor enter the bridal chamber, nor does she stay overnight with the groom. Instead, she sings pipa songs and drinking songs with the male singer invited by the groom until dawn together with the "Shangga" and the bride's sisters. The next day, the groom and his companions send the bride, "Shangga" and the accompanying girl back to her parents' home (called "Zhuanyou" in Dong language). At this point, the wedding is considered over.

Fifth, the bride will live in her natal family after being transferred to her husband’s family. It used to take more than three years to live in one's parents' home, but now it takes at least one more year. The reason why the bride "stays away from her husband's family" is, firstly, to repay her parents for their upbringing; secondly, she is reluctant to leave her companions and has to return to the Moon Hall to keep company with her companions. She will not leave until the companions have a partner, and then the bride can arrive. The groom's parents live there.