Hakka customs

Marriage custom matchmaker In the past, young men and women of Hakkas could ask matchmakers to fix their marriages after they were sixteen. Generally, the man's parents entrust the woman's home as a matchmaker, and some women's homes let the matchmaker visit the man's home first. Look at that sister. The two men and women talked through the central media. If both parties are interested, they will agree to "meet the sister". The two sides agreed to inform each other of their birthdays after writing the Geng post. When you go back, please ask the fortune teller to "check the eight characters". If the eight characters hit it off and don't collide with each other, write a Geng post (common name wedding list) and put it on the incense table. If there is no writing on the wall within three days, the marriage is settled (if the eight characters don't match, the man will return the Geng Tie to the woman's house). Making a red list is also called "opening a red wedding post", or talking about bride price. The man's parents, clan relatives and matchmaker go to the woman's house together and draw out the bride price that the man wants to give to the woman's house. Some red lists should also include gifts for husbands, such as hats, silver flowers, clothes, shoes, socks and so on. In the process of opening a red bill, the two sides will bargain and finally finalize it through negotiation. After the red list is opened, men and women will exchange rings, handkerchiefs and other tokens. Finally, the man came to the woman's house and went back after lunch. Engagement is also called "gift", that is, formally confirming the marriage relationship again. Young men and their parents are going to the woman's house to deliver pig's head, fish and meat. , as well as the woman's parents, brothers and sisters, uncles and grandparents will appear. After lunch, girls will come out to meet and call each other "parents" and "parents-in-law" and "mother". Looking at the house means that the woman goes to the man to look after the family. Sometimes it is before the "big gift" and sometimes it is after the "big gift". Except girls and their parents, the woman's aunt and sister will go. A dozen people, big and small, don't bring gifts, even if they bring a little, the man is afraid to pick them up. After the wedding date is set, the man should ask the fortune teller to choose the date to go home, including the date and time when the bride goes out and the time to go home. In addition, the date when the woman cuts the red skirt and the man makes the bed should also be chosen at the same time. One or two days after the bride delivers the vegetables and brings the dowry, the man's family should ask the clan to send the bride price and the fish, meat, poultry, noodles and other things stipulated in the red list to the woman's family, and bring the bride price and furniture back to the man's family when they come back. Wedding reception is also called picking up the bride or going through the door. On the day before the wedding, the man's family will go to the woman's house to pick up relatives, including a drummer band, firecrackers, a sedan chair, a censer (going to the woman's ancestral temple, temples and social workers to burn incense), a porter, a chicken guide (a male and a female) at one end, wine and Song Ming at the other end, and the woman will bring the clothes worn by the bride and a wooden basket. When the parents arrive, they eat snacks first, and then they take them to the ancestral temple to burn incense to worship their ancestors. At noon or in the evening, the woman's family will hold a banquet. The bride usually leaves at midnight or midnight. She is getting brighter and brighter, which symbolizes that she is moving towards the light. If she had gone out at night, she wouldn't have had such unlucky things as carrying a coffin. In front of the wedding procession are lanterns, followed by drummers, sedan chairs in the middle, and people who accept the wedding ceremony in the back. When the bride arrives at the man's house, she will wait at the gate or the house next door if she hasn't arrived at the prescribed time. The introductions are usually at 7: 00 or 8: 00 in the morning, and some even have to wait until noon. When entering, the bride will kick open the door of the sedan chair, and the man's bridesmaid will lead the bride out of the sedan chair and then "cross the fire" at the gate. Before entering the gate, the bride will cross the fire with fir branches. After the bride entered the hall with the sound of drums, she began to pay homage. There are incense tables in the hall, with parents and elders in the east, consorts in the west, relatives in the north and younger generations in the south. Before meeting the bride, the husband will hang red on the groom and cover him with a five-foot red cloth. I read aloud: "I have five feet of red in my hand, and I only beat the groom, so that the groom can have a son and his son can be the champion." When visiting the church, the groom stands on the left and the bride stands on the right. Li Sheng said: One worships heaven and earth, the other worships ancestors, the third worships Gaotang, and the four couples respect each other as guests. Finally, relatives meet and give the bride a red envelope. After the ceremony, the bridesmaid led the bride into the new house with red roses, and the bride and groom scattered wedding candy from the door to the hall with firecrackers. Then the bride and groom propose a toast. The maid of honor held a chicken in a tray and said while drinking, "Round and round, pearls are connected together" and "Guanyin gave birth to your son early"; Husband and wife make up and grow old together. This kind of etiquette is not common in Meizhou and has been replaced by modern wedding mode. ) Have a banquet at noon, have a wedding banquet, invite guests with loud guns once every half hour, and ring three times when the banquet begins to sit. Then, the gift students signed up for the table, and two people took the table. According to seniority and personal relationship, arrange them to sit at the table first, and then others can sit at the table casually. The male and female guests are seated separately, and the bride and groom want to propose a toast. A noisy room is noisy in the lobby, a noisy room is in the new house, and a noisy room is in the lobby before going to the new house. During the noisy period, firecrackers will be set off every few minutes until midnight. The back door is also called "turnstile". Generally speaking, on the third or fifth day after marriage, the woman sends the bride's sisters and other women to invite the bride and groom as guests, and the matchmaker and the bride and groom's sisters also go, totaling 7- 14. After lunch, they will come back that day. Send the full moon one month after the wedding, the bride's family will come to send the full moon and send chickens, vegetables, seeds, seeds and beans at the same time. It means that the grain is abundant and the fortune is prosperous. Often, the mother-in-law is strict with her daughter-in-law ~ traditional festivals and customs start work after three days of marriage 1. Fertility etiquette promotes the pregnancy of married daughters. When the baby is about to be born, usually one or two days before the baby is born, the family will come to the daughter's house with chicken, eggs, noodles and dry powder. "Life" means hope to be born safely. When my mother was gone, my sister-in-law was born and gave a banquet at noon. 2. Adult Etiquette Hakka's adult etiquette is divided into male and female. Male adult etiquette is called "crown ceremony" and female adult etiquette is called "ceremony". On the birthday of a married daughter, a rooster, a shroud, a hat, a birthday cake, a birthday shoe and a birthday sock will be given from head to toe. Father will celebrate his birthday, and at the same time, he will send a whole set to his mother. In addition, he will also send birthday axes, happy firecrackers, birthday candles, roosters, birthday peaches, birthday noodles, birthday cakes and birthday cakes. Others come to celebrate their birthdays. Generally, relatives and friends send birthday wishes, birthday couplets, or gifts. In many places, birthday ceremonies are held for elderly people over 70 years old, with many descendants and good family circumstances. Hakkas' birthdays and birthdays are all gifts from insiders themselves, and congratulations from home are given first, then invited; Except in-laws and close friends, send invitations, not invitations. Building a house and moving a new house Hakka people regard building a house and moving a new house as one of the major festivals, which should be celebrated grandly. When building a house, please ask Teacher Kan Yu to determine the location of the house and the orientation of the door. When the column is on the beam, it should be decorated with lanterns and pasted with red couplets. After the completion of the new house, you should "exorcise evil spirits" and "eliminate evil spirits" the night before you move in. When moving into a new house, you should bring lanterns (or oil lamps), fire cages, scales, etc. When you enter the house, you should also bring a nest of chickens and steam them into the new house to show that the new couple is prosperous and beaming. When you move to a new house, you should hold a "house wine" to entertain relatives and friends, builders and helpers. There should be leeks, tofu, pig intestines, pig blood and rice cakes in the dishes, which means long time and high fortune. The traditional Chinese New Year custom is "Hundred Festivals First". Like most parts of the province, Hakkas regard the Spring Festival as the biggest and happiest festival of the year. People began to prepare for the Spring Festival very early. 9. Sweet potato slices and rice cake slices will be dried in 10 for frying and frying in the New Year. As soon as the "winter solstice" arrives, we will start steaming wine. For nearly 30 days a year, every household will steam rice cakes, make rice fruits, kill pigs, make tofu and kill chickens. Welcome the New Year with great joy. 1February 23rd. Brush the kitchen stove clean after the night of the 23rd, and take down the old kitchen stove and burn it. On the morning of 30th, post a new picture. When you get a free one, you should put wine, meat, candy, sugar cane, rice fruit and so on. Burn incense, light candles and set off paper cannons in front of the stove. The twenty-fifth day of the twelfth lunar month enters the Year Pass, which means that the gongs and drums can already be rung. Step up preparations for the new year, and everyone who goes out must rush home for the new year. After entering the fixed number of years, we should educate our children not to scold each other and not to say unlucky things. Before and after entering the new year, we should choose an auspicious day to clean the dust and clean the house. We should clean the tables and benches in the kitchen, clean the bedding and mosquito nets, and celebrate the New Year cleanly. New Year's Eve, that is, New Year's Eve, is the warmest and happiest day of Chinese New Year. On this morning, every family should worship bodhisattva and god. On New Year's Eve, portraits of ancestors should be hung in each hall, and red Spring Festival couplets should be posted at the gate. Red notes should be posted on barn doors, in front of livestock fences, on furniture beds and beside water tanks, which are called "sealing the year" or "becoming popular". Adults and children should take a bath, put on new clothes and celebrate the New Year cleanly. Each hall will also be decorated with tables, incense tables, chickens, fish, meat, fruits and so on. To worship their ancestors. On New Year's Eve, we have a family reunion dinner with rich dishes. Put more bowls and chopsticks on the table to invite our ancestors back for the New Year. Before meals, sift the wine for your ancestors, sprinkle it on the ground, and then start eating. During the dinner, the old people and children eat chicken legs to show respect for the old people and young people. Have a reunion dinner at the end of the year and clean the stove to prevent vegetarianism on the first day of the first month or all day. At night, we should keep the old year, say goodbye to the old and welcome the new. Every room should be brightly lit all night. This is called "lighting the old fire". In some places, cowshed and pigsty should also be illuminated. Parents should give their children lucky money, and some places give old people lucky money. On the first day of the first month of the first month, according to the auspicious time stipulated in the "Tong Shu", firecrackers suddenly broke out one after another and resounded through the sky. I am a vegetarian on the morning of the first day of the first lunar month. After dinner, people greet each other with auspicious words. The children are wearing new clothes. They are very happy and love to play. Some of them are vying to pay New Year greetings to the elderly: "My grandparents and uncles have money, and all the candied fruit is given to ya (me)." On the second day of the first month, visit relatives to celebrate the New Year. In particular, the newly-married son-in-law (the Yue family will post an invitation with a book) will go to her parents' house to pay a New Year call. Generally, young couples go together, and a son-in-law goes alone; Some came back the same day, and some stayed for five or six days. When you go, you should bring little hens, rice fruits, candy, incense sticks and firecrackers, and then burn incense, light candles and set off firecrackers in front of the ancestors of the Yue family. At noon, the Yues treat, and the son-in-law should be drunk, not drunk or enthusiastic. On the morning of New Year's Eve, we eat "New Year's Rice" (some steamed on the 29th night of the previous year, and some steamed on the 2nd night of the first month). Chopsticks are inserted in the rice, several pairs are inserted by several people in the family, and a leafy branch is inserted with some fruits such as oranges and grapefruit on it. Before eating the New Year's Eve, you should put the rice on the "Sun" shrine to worship the gods and ancestors. There are many dishes to prepare for the New Year's Eve, including chicken and meat, which is similar to having a reunion dinner on New Year's Eve. You can't kill animals in the third grade, but chickens should be killed in the second grade or kept during the Chinese New Year. On the fifth day of the first month of a year, the year is over. The portraits of ancestors in the hall should be put away, the paper curtains should be taken down and burned, and those who go out on business can start. On the seventh day of the first month, you should eat "seven kinds of vegetables", that is, seven kinds of pure vegetarian dishes are cooked together. That is to say, smashing tea [3], Hakka people eat smashing tea on People's Day, and eat seven vegetarian dishes to enjoy the moon on the fifteenth day of the first month of the Lantern Festival, which is also called "Shangyuan Festival". Every family should prepare dishes and drinks for the New Year. To celebrate the Lantern Festival, the Spring Festival amusement activities will reach a climax. From the beginning of the Lunar New Year to the fifteenth day of the first month, entertainment activities are constantly going on in various places, mainly Youlong lanterns and lion dances, and some activities begin on the first and second days of the first month. Dragon lanterns and lions will be posted in advance before they arrive, and red envelopes and snacks will be given when they arrive. Dragon lanterns, lions, etc. It will not only perform in every household, but also pay New Year greetings to gods and ancestors in various temples and ancestral halls in the village. During the first market after the Spring Festival, all kinds of dragon lanterns, boat lanterns and lion lanterns will be performed at the party, which is called "opening the market". From the Spring Festival to the Lantern Festival, there are also some entertainment activities in various places: generally speaking, on the first day of the New Year, a team of three or five people will send out pictures of spring cows to all households, including those who play suona, drums and cymbals, and go door to door to send out "Happy New Year" red stickers, and the owner will give them red envelopes. The rice straw dragon was cut into pieces and filled with incense, and the children danced in front of the stove and cowshed in the pigsty on their backs to congratulate the family safety and the prosperity of the six animals. The family should give red envelopes, the children will be happy, and the owner will ask for good luck. Bat lights are also danced by children from door to door. "The fire dragon came into the house and asked for candles" and "Congratulations on getting rich and buying a house". Bat lights don't accept red envelopes, only candles. Ship lights are like boats, performing and singing on land. Rehearsal before the Spring Festival, gongs and drums team, playing ten times to cooperate. When we arrive at the village, we will have some snacks and then perform in the open space. The boatman and the boatman can sing tunes such as Pregnant in October, Ancient People in December, Guazi Ren, and A Flower. The boatman just rows a boat and can't sing. In the evening, I will "open the heavenly officials" in the ancestral hall, sing "God bless the people" and so on, and finally have a drink and dinner. There are Nuo people on the lion lantern, including a lion head, a lion tail, a monkey, a sand monk and a gongs and drums team. After the lion, monkey and sand monk sing, they will perform martial arts, boxing, knife dancing, playing with sticks and jumping on the table. Lions will hire a master to coach martial arts before the Chinese New Year. The spring equinox in February begins to sweep graves to worship ancestors, which is also called "Spring Festival". Before sweeping the grave, a grand ancestor worship ceremony should be held in the ancestral hall, pigs and sheep should be slaughtered, drummers should be invited to play, and the ritual students should read the eulogy and quote three praises. At the beginning of the spring equinox grave sweeping, the first thing is to sweep the graves of ancestors and distant ancestors. The whole family and the whole village have to be dispatched on a large scale, and the team often reaches hundreds or even thousands. After the ancestral graves of Kaiji and Yuanzu were swept, they were divided into rooms to sweep the graves of ancestors in each room, and finally each family swept the graves privately. In most Hakka areas, ancestor worship and grave sweeping in spring begin at the vernal equinox or earlier, and must end in Tomb-Sweeping Day at the latest. There is a saying everywhere that after the Qingming Festival, the tomb door is closed, and the ancestors' spirits are not needed. Qingming March Qingming, ancestor worship. In addition to the vernal equinox, most Hakka areas sweep graves to worship their ancestors, and some places are also sweeping graves in Qingming. On this day in Tomb-Sweeping Day, there are places for offering sacrifices to altars, such as the roadside land Bogong. Dragon Boat Festival is the Dragon Boat Festival on the fifth day of May. Every household buys meat, kills ducks, makes zongzi and makes rice fruit for the holidays. Dragon Boat Festival is a big festival. In many places, people who work outside will go home for the New Year. On Mid-Autumn Festival, July 15 is usually regarded as "Ghost Festival" in Hakka area. In some places, it is necessary to celebrate the festival one day in advance, which is called "14 people on July, and ghosts on July 15". In some places, Hakkas also worship their ancestors in July and a half. Mid-Autumn Festival August 15 Mid-Autumn Festival, commonly known as "August Festival", is also a big festival. Eat moon cakes, enjoy the moon and celebrate the reunion. Every household has to buy a dining table, buy pork, kill chickens and ducks, and cook rice and fruit for the holidays. On the night of Mid-Autumn Festival, families get together for the holidays, eat moon cakes and enjoy the moon after dinner. Double Ninth Festival The ninth day of September is the Double Ninth Festival, also known as the Double Ninth Festival, commonly known as the "September Festival", which is a big festival at the end of the year. There is a saying that "there is no big festival after the Double Ninth Festival", and many people who go out have to rush home for the New Year. On this day, people in many places will take their children to climb mountains. Some people fly kites on the mountains, which means they can avoid evil spirits and plagues. Many old people say that this custom was brought by ancestors from the northern Central Plains and passed down from generation to generation. On this day, some old people and women go to temples to burn incense and worship Buddha. The winter solstice is in November of the lunar calendar, also known as the "winter solstice". On the solstice of winter, we should eat pork and beef, make rice fruit and soup pills, and the rich should eat pilose antler and ginseng to make up for the winter. Folk Entertainment Hakka folk entertainment is very rich in content. The main festivals are yangko, dragon boat race, boating, dragon dance, lion dance, teacher walking on stilts, greeting lanterns, riding lanterns, playing flower drums, musical instruments, performances and fireworks. There are usually folk songs, ditty singing, piano playing, guzheng playing, erhu playing, flute playing, chess playing and gobang playing.