Four and eight words to welcome a bride in rural areas

The following are the four basic sayings for welcoming a bride in rural areas:

1. This year’s bridal chamber will be filled with flowers and candles, and a fat baby will be born next year.

2. The moon is crescent and the stars are twinkling. What you marry is a flower, and bees will pluck it tonight.

3. The bride and groom are in love for the longest time; they have a name for each other.

Rural marriage customs

1. Engagement: Usually the man invites a matchmaker to provide a matchmaker, prepares a gift and sends a Geng Tie, which contains the man’s birthday and horoscope. After the woman received the post, she combined it with the woman's horoscope to calculate. If the couple agrees, they will reply to the letter and agree, which will be called a "Yun Tie", and it will be regarded as a formal engagement.

2. Choosing auspiciousness: that is, the man asks the woman for a wedding date. First, ask Mr. Yin and Yang to calculate the auspicious days. Avoid single days and unlucky days, and prefer double moons and double days. The days of Huachao Festival and Laba Festival are the most common. After choosing, write the wedding date on red paper, and prepare gifts from the matchmaker to the woman. If the woman has no objections, the two parties will start making various preparations for the marriage.

3. Preparation for marriage: The man builds a new house and decorates the interior, and the woman purchases a dowry. Dowry can be divided into full marriage and half marriage. Those who are fully married will have four sets of chests, clothes, and quilts, which means prosperity in the four seasons; those who are half-married will have two sets of each, symbolizing being in pairs. Middle-class families mostly have full-married people, while farmers mostly have half-married people. The rich buy a full dowry, which is extremely luxurious. One or two days before the auspicious day, the man prepares a large gift and sends it to the woman's home, including meat, chicken, goose, clothing, etc.

4. Marriage: The wedding time is always in the early morning or early in the morning. During the wedding, the man prepares a colorful sedan and goes to the girl's home to pick her up.

5. Getting married: The bride and groom first worship heaven and earth, then their ancestors, then their parents, and then to each other. After the ceremony, the groom takes off the bride's headband. Then a banquet was laid for the guests. At the banquet, the groom and the bride should toast to each guest one by one in a certain order such as proximity and seniority.

6. House quarrel: usually held on the night of the wedding, and some last for several days.

7. Ancestor worship: Before departure, the groom should worship his ancestors at home, report the happy events to his ancestors, and ask his ancestors to bless them safely.

8. Post happy words: The groom’s family will post the happy words outside the door in advance before the wedding, and take them off on the morning of the wedding. Usually, they ask the elderly in the village who are good at writing to write them. This word "happy" is the certificate of marriage.

9. Setting off firecrackers: This custom starts when the wedding convoy approaches the door of the bride’s house and continues until the groom picks up the bride and goes out.

10. Pressing the sedan chair: The queue to receive the bride is often very long, including suona players, sedan bearers, and some opera singers. The sedan cannot be empty. There must be a child inside. The old folks call the child the "salan bearer". After the child arrives in the sedan chair, he cannot come out casually. The family has to lure the child with a red envelope before the child can come out.

11. Weeping before getting married: The bride should cry before getting into the sedan chair. Crying at marriage does not mean that the bride is reluctant to leave home, but expresses the bride's gratitude and reluctance to her parents and family.

12. Bride-snatching: In many places, there is a custom of bride-snatching. Before the wedding team arrives, the door of the woman’s house is closed, and the best man of the groom’s family will get off the car and walk to the door of the woman’s house. Knock on the door, get in the car quickly, and then open the door when the groom gets out.