Liuyang folk custom

In the old society, marriage was called red marriage, and there were often couplets such as "Six Rites" on doors and gates. Six rites are custom-made marriage etiquette in the Zhou Dynasty, such as receiving gifts, asking names, accepting gifts, inviting guests, welcoming relatives and so on. Liuyang marriage customs, on the basis of these ancient rituals, have derived complex procedures. Generally, the man's parents entrust relatives and friends or matchmakers to propose marriage, which means receiving ancient gifts. There are also matchmakers who make profits and cover up the truth in order to make up the marriage. Therefore, parents or relatives of both sides should go to each other's house to make an unannounced visit to "check the roots", which is called visiting relatives. If both sides think that the other side has good roots and good seedlings, the man will give birth to a boxer (year, month, day, and hour), which is represented by the eight characters of dry branches and ask the matchmaker to give it to the other side, which is called "sending eight characters". After the "fortune-telling", the woman thinks that it meets the requirements, and also gives her a boxer back to the man, which is called "returning the eight characters". If the man thinks that the character of both parties is bad or that of the woman is bad, he must return it within 7 days. The so-called "men are flying all over the sky, and women are seventeen times." This is the ancient ceremony of "combining Geng", that is, "asking the name to pass Geng" Some people accept each other's birth and put them in a shrine first. If chickens and dogs lose their bowls within three days, it is that they think there is a conflict between the eight characters and will retreat. If everything goes well in three days, it will be the last episode. He Geng went smoothly and gave each other tokens. The man gave him clothes, cloth and a small amount of gifts, plus a pair of shoes for the future groom, which means "harmony". The woman responded with pen and inkstone stationery and made a pair of cloth shoes and socks soles according to the shoe pattern. The two sides exchanged the words "a perfect match made in heaven" as evidence. This process is called "Ding Geng" or "Ding Geng", that is, the ancient ceremony of "Naji Xing Hire".

After the marriage is settled, the man must prepare a certain amount of bride price and other property for the woman as a dowry, which is also called big engagement, bride price, chicken and goose gift or door-to-door gift (some women ask for a high bride price, which is actually the nature of buying and selling marriage). The woman prepares a dowry, which is a gift for collecting money in ancient times. Then, the man sends a date list, that is, he chooses two auspicious days to urge the bride to go through the door (also called visiting the door). This is called reporting the day, and the common name is looking forward to the day, which is the ancient ceremony of "inviting the day to announce". The woman chooses one of the dates as the wedding date. One or two days before the wedding, the man sent a bride price, happy Cambodia, etc. To the woman's house, this is called "giving gifts". The woman carries a dowry box (box) to the man's house, arranges a new house and calls it a shop. There are also men who carry dowry boxes when they take over marriage. The day before the bride's wedding, the married woman is asked to twist off the hair on her face with twine, and trim the velvet hair and eyebrows at the temples to make the temples neat and the eyebrows thin and curved, which is also called face-opening. On the wedding day, the man picks up his relatives in a sedan chair carried by four or eight people, or calls the bride, guided by flags and gongs. If there is a cage, the chickens and geese in the cage are paired. The pairing of chickens and geese originated from the ancient "drinking geese" ceremony: in the pre-Qin period, it was no longer an accident that the new husband needed to present two geese as a meeting gift when he went to Yue's home, in order to get the geese without losing the festival. Because geese fly in a line without losing the group, if they lose their lovers, they will only be together for life, and the road is at the end. Later, because geese were hard to find, chickens and geese were gradually regarded as symbols of "drinking geese". Hua Shan County Records Marriage in Qing Dynasty holds that "the so-called goose in Gaigu is also a goose". In cities, most of them also have ancient "marriage" ceremonies. In rural areas, matchmakers or other family members greet the bride. The bride is wearing a wind crown, a Xiapi (commonly known as a veil) and a red headscarf. Before getting on the sedan chair, an elderly woman twisted red paper soaked in vegetable oil and lit it, and looked inside and outside the sedan chair several times with a mirror in one hand, commonly known as "looking at the sedan chair" in order to exorcise evil spirits.

When the sedan chair entered the room, the ceremony exploded. The bride got off the sedan chair, and the floor was covered with a red carpet, supported by her mother, so that her feet didn't touch the ground. Otherwise, she thinks she stepped on her husband's house and her mother. After bowing to the bride in the hall, the bride entered the bridal chamber, and the newlyweds chose auspicious days to sit side by side. Their mother suggested that they drink a glass of wine (tea). In ancient times, it meant two spoonfuls of a glass of wine. In ancient times, the newlyweds each held a spoonful of acacia wine, indicating that they were one, so it was called wine in a cup. The bride was brought into the wine, praised with happy words, and threw red dates, peanuts, cassia seeds, melon seeds and other things on the bed, meaning "early birth." Then open the bride's red scarf, and the newlyweds can meet here. After the ceremony, the bride is taken to the hall to meet her relatives, elders and other family members. This is called "dividing the size", that is, seeing the ceremony in an ancient temple.

The woman's wedding relatives are called big relatives, upper relatives, high relatives, the chairman sitting at the wedding banquet, and the old parents accompany the new relatives. In some places in Nanxiang, Liuyang, after the wedding banquet, "high relatives" should try their best to steal a bowl and take it back, indicating that they are constantly picking up food for their families.

On the wedding night, it is informal to make trouble in the new house, and it is also fun to laugh at the bride. Some dragged the master's elder (grandfather) to the bridal chamber and forced him to carry his ashes. The more elegant program is to praise tea. The bride and groom grab the tea tray to deliver tea, and the greeting guests must reply with rhyming compliments, such as: "As soon as they enter the new house, the lights are shining, gold and silver are everywhere, and the children and grandchildren are full." Another example is: "The tea tray is square, and the newcomer is better than Yuanyang. Tonight's wedding night, a champion lang will be born next year. "

On the second or third day of the wedding, the bride and groom go back to their parents' home to visit their relatives, which is called Huimen, which was called mothering in ancient times. The bride's family holds a luncheon to thank the guests, which is called "back door meal" to accompany the new guests. After the meal, dry tea (a non-staple food produced by farmers) is served. On this day, the groom should be alert to being teased and become a laughing stock.

In the early years of the Republic of China, especially after the May 4th Movement, urban youth began to fall in love freely and find their own reference. When the wedding ceremony is held, there are ceremonies and witnesses' speeches, introducers, and the newlyweds bow to each other and exchange rings, so as to abandon the old habit of meeting the bride. In rural areas, the matchmaker leads young men to the woman's house for blind date, which is called meeting relatives. Girls can offer tea to male guests, which changes the custom that they can only meet when the veil is lifted.

Liuyang folk custom

Liuyang folk houses are generally houses with halls in the middle and corridors in front. Some have wings on one side and are curved; Some have wings on both sides and are nicknamed "a lock". The hall is also called the first room, and the houses on both sides of the first room are called the first room. There is a main room on each side of the main hall, which is called "three rooms", and there are also "five rooms", "seven rooms" and even "nine rooms". Rich people mostly live in courtyards with two or more entrances at the front and back and horizontal buildings at the left and right. There is a courtyard in the middle, flowers and trees in front, terraces in front, slotted doors and enclosed houses outside, as well as splayed walls, gables and zhaobi. A big house, with as many as five or even seven rooms in front and back. Each room is equipped with carved screen-type middle door, and each room is connected by wooden columns, bucket arches, double eaves and mountain pavilions. Every happy event is in the middle gate, from the gate to the shrine of the temple, tens of meters or even hundreds of meters deep. There are symmetrical horizontal halls on both sides of the main hall, connecting the halls, cloisters and alleys outside the hall to connect dozens of houses into a whole. If an outsider enters a maze, he will know what he is entering, which is of great architectural and artistic value. Before the Republic of China, it was not uncommon for such people to live together in a big house. In Liuyang township in the north, it can be said that it is both. For example, Jia Peng's home in Jiaoxi has helped more than 300 families. This kind of house is magnificent and convenient for festive activities, but the indoor lighting is not good, the central area is dark and humid, and even green moss grows in spring. During the Republic of China, wars, fires and floods were frequent, and more and less big houses were destroyed. There are several places in Liuyang and other places, which are precious. For example, the Faba Temple Mansion in Longfu Township, Liuyang was built in 1865 (the fourth year of Tongzhi in Qing Dynasty) and is still well preserved. It has a 14 main hall and a horizontal hall, and once hosted 300 guests at the same time.

Changsha has four distinct seasons, and Leng Xia is hot in winter. In summer, farmers often rest on the ground and bask in the sun in the valley until the dead of night; I like chatting around the stove in winter. Generally, there must be a fire room in the main room on one side of the hall. When guests visit, they often lead them to this room to have a rest by the fire. There is a stove near the window in the room, and a hook (also called fire hook and shuttle hook) is hung on the building. The pot and stove are hung on the hook. Pine, also known as hardwood, as well as trees and chaff are burned in the furnace. Village women are spinning by the fireside, while men are enjoying themselves while warming themselves, smoking and chatting.

In order to avoid soldiers and bandits, some people build a wall at home, that is, a wall is built between two rooms, and a space about 1 meter wide is left between the two walls as a darkroom to put some valuable items. When necessary, people go downstairs to hide, which is difficult for outsiders to find. There is another living custom in some villages in Liuyang-borrowing houses is not a pair. That is, guests spend the night and couples don't live in the same room. If it is necessary to live for a long time, they must rent a house to live together. It is said that it is not good for the house and the main family to borrow in pairs.

The size and building materials of Liuyang folk houses vary from place to place. In hilly areas, due to abundant wood and suitable terrain, houses are relatively tall, and some roofs are more than 8 meters high and the depth is more than 8 meters. Generally, wooden floors are nailed upstairs, which can be paved upstairs, where food can be stored, and farm tools and sundries can be piled up. Masonry, red stone or smoke brick are mostly used at the foot of the wall, and most of the walls are adobe, some are built by literati, and even all are wooden walls, which are called wooden houses. Rich people also have smoke bricks to build houses. The building foundations in mountainous areas are mostly bluestone slabs, and the walls are mainly soil, covered with green tiles, straw or fir bark.

Folk houses are the most oriented, and generally prefer to sit facing south. As the saying goes, "one room faces south, and children and grandchildren can enjoy happiness." Some people believe in geomantic omen, and demand that there are "Long Mai" behind and on both sides of the house, with mountains and water and open terrain. If the official career is frustrated, or the population is not prosperous, it is difficult to blame the housing field. Some houses have been demolished and rebuilt, and some have changed the direction of the slot door. At the same time, it is emphasized that there are feng shui trees in front of and behind the house, which makes the house hidden. If the old trees flourish, it is considered that the house is prosperous and the population is doubled. As the saying goes, "There is a big tree beside the house, and there is a birthday girl in the house." If an outsider destroys the Feng Shui tree, everyone in the room will fight together, and men, women and children will surround the tree, which smells like "defending to the death".

When people build houses, they usually ask local residents to look at the land and set the direction, and then choose auspicious days to start construction. It is even more grand when big doorframes or beams are erected, and guests should be entertained. Especially the upper beam, a ceremony must be held. It is best to use catalpa wood for beam wood, which is homophonic with "zi", meaning that future generations are developed. There is a red and black Tai Chi picture in the center of the front of the beam, and the word "Gan Kun" is written at both ends, indicating the year, month and day. There are eight pictures between the word and the picture. When boarding the beam, the craftsman shouted, such as "Congratulations, Dong Jun, you boarded the beam today." Zhang Liangyu, Lu Banchi. China people are lucky and prosperous ... "

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