A preliminary study of Xiamen's marriage customs

As the saying goes: "A hundred miles of different winds, a hundred miles of different customs." However, in southern Fujian, no matter how many miles apart the villages are, they have continued the cultural customs of our country for thousands of years. I believe that these excellent cultural traditions will be inherited by people.

So, what are the marriage customs in the rural areas of southern Fujian? Minnan culture is also a very important part of our traditional culture, and some customs and habits in Minnan are also unique. Next, let me introduce you.

Although there are some different procedures in Minnan wedding customs, in summary, there are generally six kinds of ceremonies, namely: asking names, receiving gifts, collecting gifts, Naji, inviting parties and welcoming relatives.

I. Preparatory work

When the matchmaker or groom recommends a person to the bride's house to discuss the bride price, money for shirts and trousers, and red envelopes, both families will negotiate on the bride price. Under normal circumstances, if the conditions put forward by the woman's family are not too excessive, the man's family will accept it, and you will come and go from time to time.

The amount of dowry depends on negotiation. At present, the average bride price in rural areas ranges from 6,543,800 to 500,000.

The money for shirts and trousers includes the bride's wedding dress and three pieces of gold jewelry. Men's families. Generally 50,000 to 65,438+10,000.

Pick a good day to send a red envelope to the woman's family, which means to bring some money and gifts to her parents first.

Holding plates and carrying them is a very important marriage custom in southern Fujian. The so-called dish-picking is to bring the wedding necessities such as pig's trotters, sesame cheese and red candles from southern Fujian to the woman's home. The woman can't accept it all, she can only accept part of it, and then add some sesame seeds and whole grains to take back.

Above, on the wedding day, parents of the bride and groom need to comb their children's hair three times. A comb is respectful, a comb is full of children and grandchildren, and three combs mean to grow old together.

In southern Fujian, many people can hardly understand their dialects, so dialects are also a threshold. Fortunately, there are two people who can translate this wedding. One is my sister-in-law and the other is the bride's maid of honor. With the reform and opening up, Minnan people have more and more opportunities to speak Mandarin, so it is not difficult for us to communicate.

Second, the wedding

The groom took a float and a red envelope (10 yuan, 20 yuan, 50 yuan, 200 yuan, etc.), and a group of brothers led by the matchmaker came down to the bride's house and "smashed" the bride's door with red envelopes. Haha, this time I also cleverly grabbed 300 yuan's red envelope. The groom's brother looked for the bride's embroidered shoes. The person who protected the bride's embroidered shoes thought there were too few red envelopes (50 yuan), so the handsome boy took out two more. I said, let me see, and he handed it to me. I pinched it and said, well, it's a little small. Get a bigger one! The handsome guys turned to discussion and took out red envelopes to ask for shoes. I grabbed it and pinched it. Well, it's still a little thick. Just add another one and put it in my wallet. The other party asked, I said, how to get the red envelope back! The handsome boy blushed.

It's just that unlike Hubei, where we set off firecrackers all the way, this may be the reason why flogging is forbidden in the city!

Before going out, the photographer asked the groom to take photos with all the relatives and friends of the bride. I thought that Hubei people should hold a ceremony to recognize their relatives when they get married, and the recognized elders should give the bride and groom red envelopes, but Minnan people don't have this link, perhaps because they are afraid that we don't have red envelopes!

Later, as all relatives and friends of the bride's family, we took the car that the groom called to pick us up and took all the floats to the groom's house.

Third, get married.

With the reform and opening up and the development of the times, the concept of changing customs is gradually changing the customs of Minnan people, and many complicated customs and festivals are also omitted at weddings. However, in this wedding, the most unique is to welcome ancestors, worship ancestors and seafood feast. In order to worship the ancestors, the groom's family prepared enough, such as setting up an altar for offerings and preparing a lot of paper gold ingots. Before the banquet, the bride and groom, led by their ancestors, offered incense, saluted and made wishes to their ancestors, then set off firecrackers and burned gold ingots to their ancestors. Then there is a seafood feast. I have never seen such a big lobster. It is purely wild in the sea. How big is it? One talent 1.5 kg, around 500 yuan, and abalone, earth dragon, sea cucumber, sea crab, gentian grouper, bamboo shoot seafood soup, jade paste, ginseng pigeon soup and so on.