Folk customs in weigang township

In the past, men and women had to go through many red tape from engagement to marriage. The general procedures are engagement, matchmaking, marriage, meeting the bride and returning home.

The engaged men and women are suitable for each other, and their parents are the masters. They asked fortune tellers to "match the eight characters" first, and then write a book "Cambodia" (engagement contract). In Cambodia, the man pays the bride price to the woman. The bride price of the rich is rich in gold and silver jewelry and satin, the woman pays with pen and ink, and the poor pay with cotton fabrics and silver ornaments. The engagement is fixed and cannot be changed.

The matchmaker sets the wedding date, writes down the heartfelt post in red paper according to the established format, and asks the matchmaker to send it to the woman's home, which is called "delivery day". If the woman has no objection, reply to the post. Two days before the wedding ceremony, the man sent presents such as dragon and phoenix cakes, pig's trotters, fish, rooster (northern male goose), new wedding clothes, and the woman returned with hens (northern female goose), clothes, shoes and socks and cakes. Bring back the dowry accompanied by the woman. The rich have houses, fields and servants.

Get married on the agreed date, rain or shine. It was midnight in the county the day before, but it was not noon in the countryside that day. The groom didn't meet him personally, but took a young child in a sedan chair. This is called "pressing the bridge". Palace lanterns lead the way, gongs and drums are loud. When the sedan chair arrived at the front of the woman's house, gongs and drums sounded "double happiness" to congratulate her, and then knocked "starling bathing" to urge the bride to take a bath and set off. At this time, the bride was carried into the sedan chair by her uncle or brother, covered her head with a red scarf, and began to cry, indicating that she was reluctant to part with her parents. Rich people use big sedan chairs to carry the bride, and small sedan chairs to "send the bride"; Poor people only use a sedan chair to sit twice. In addition to the bride, there is only one "seeing the bride off" without gongs and drums. The bride will exchange belts when she meets other sedan chairs. The sedan chair came to the door, firecrackers rang, and the groom arranged flowers and went out to greet the male and female guests. The bride should step over the saddle and hold the vase to show her safety.

The church worship ceremony was held in the nave, with incense and candles in the hall, presided over by the owner (called "Li Xian"). "seeing off the bride" and "receiving the bride" are to help the newlyweds to worship heaven and earth first, then to worship Gaotang (parents) and the newlyweds to pay homage. Then the groom used HongLing to lead the bride into the bridal chamber, and drank Longfeng soup and honey oil together. Then the bride presents handkerchiefs, shoes and socks or other items to her elders, and the recipient rewards the bride with coins, which is called "collecting money". In the evening, there was a "reunion wine", where the couple sat down and their wives accompanied them. Say something auspicious when serving the bride. After dinner, "break up the house", and then spread the dyed ginkgo, peanuts and dates from the hall and yard to the new house, to the bride and groom, and to sing and cheer with the crowd. Finally, relatives and friends "quarrel", there is a saying that "three days regardless of size", so all ages can participate.

On the morning of the third day after Huimen's marriage, the bride went back to her family with her husband, which is called Huimen. The bride's family gave a banquet to invite relatives and friends to accompany her. In the afternoon, the couple came back. When they get home, they have to take the "Champion Bridge" to enter the room. The "Champion Bridge" was erected in the yard, with square tables, wooden ladders, red carpets, dates, scissors, chopsticks, litres and so on. Born early, born fast. The bride is helped by the groom to cross the bridge, so that the bride can pick up and identify the things placed while walking for good luck. Building a new house is a private matter. In the old days, Yin and Yang teachers were generally asked to choose the base orientation and choose "auspicious day" to start construction. When Liang was made, an incense table was set up to pay homage to Lu Ban. Red paper (cloth) is wrapped around the beams, and the words "Jiang Taigong is shunned by the gods here" are written on red and yellow paper and pasted on the rafters in the room. There are couplets hanging on both sides, which say, "The beam welcomes the ecliptic day, and the vertical column welcomes the purple star". Setting off firecrackers, masons squatted on the beams, leaving steamed bread, peanuts and candy for the villagers to plunder, adding fun.

When moving to a new house, relatives and neighbors send wine, meat and supplies to congratulate the move, which is called "burning the bottom of the pot", and the host entertains with wine and food in the new house.