In ancient times, the wedding ceremony generally included three links: paving the room or warming the room, welcoming guests and returning to the door, which lasted for three days. Shop or warm the house on the first day, welcome guests on the second day and return to the door on the third day. The customs in Huizhou, Guangdong are different. Wedding basically refers to marrying the bride and delaying the bride. As for welcoming the bride (that is, receiving the bride), it mainly includes several main customs, such as paving the house, sitting in a sedan chair, sprinkling salt rice, crossing the fire and stepping on concave columns.
1. Pufang
Paving roads and building houses is an ancient custom that continues to this day. When a woman gives her husband a dowry, it is a custom for her sister-in-law to help decorate the new house. According to Huizhou custom, two points should be paid attention to when laying a room. First, pay attention to the orientation and feng shui of beds, cabinets and dressing tables. The most important thing is that the wardrobe mirror can't face the bed. In Huizhou custom, the mirror is synonymous with the magic mirror, but it is obviously unlucky to put the magic mirror on the bed. Second, people who buy houses should have a "good life". People think that the standard of a better life is mainly "many children and many blessings". Therefore, widows and infertile women are not allowed to participate in the store, and those who have many children are naturally the main participants in the store.
pass/spend a night
On the day before the bride's wedding, the clan sisters-in-law (the so-called lucky ones must be chosen) should dress up and dress up for the bride. This is what folks call "flower arrangement". This night, also known as "Flower Night", is a very grand ceremony before the bride's wedding.
During this ceremony, the bride is often accompanied by crying and singing. At this time, the bride is facing a major turning point in her life and is usually very emotional. But according to the old custom, after arranging flowers, the bride should sit in the pavilion and cry and sing until dawn. This is called "five o'clock vigil". On the night of flowers, the bride cried sadly and stayed up all night, showing a traditional wedding atmosphere of "mixed happiness and sorrow".
Greet the new year with a sedan chair
Huizhou traditionally uses sedan chairs to celebrate weddings. In the 1950s, there was a sedan chair shop that rented sedan chairs. Carry two, four or eight large sedan chairs, embroider "phoenix peony" and "mandarin ducks with rich flowers", decorate with "four-color lanterns" and cover with "red silk", so it is called "sedan chair".
When picking up the bride, the matchmaker leads the way, and the bride leads the sedan chair, drumming all the way. After arriving at the girl's home, the girls' sisters refused to go out, and the groom quickly sent "Lili". After passing the sisters, the bride can be taken out. The bride cried and refused to leave. The men used both hard and soft methods to coax her out of the boudoir and into the sedan chair. The groom must give the sedan chair bearer a "benefit" before he can get on the sedan chair. After several "struggles", the groom is often exhausted.
4. Rice sprinkled with salt
When picking up the bride, there was a habit of scattering salt and rice in some places in Huizhou in the old days. Put some salt, rice, black sesame seeds and other things in a container in advance, that is, sprinkle them along the road on the way to pick up the bride, which is called offering sacrifices to the bridge god; Scattered along the road is to worship the road god, which is the custom of sprinkling salt and rice in Huizhou traditional wedding customs.
The custom of sprinkling salty rice is actually a variation of the traditional wedding custom of China. "Paving corn beans" appeared in the Western Han Dynasty and prevailed in the north of Song Dynasty. Its traditional view is "eliminating three evils", that is, exorcising ghosts and evil spirits, which is not much different from Huizhou folk "salted rice" It's just that "Sagu beans" are mostly relics in the north, which is not common in the south. In Huizhou, it can be seen that the origin of Huizhou customs is very long.
5. Cover your head, step on the concave column, and get angry.
When the bride got home, all the relatives helped her get off the sedan chair with drums. This is the groom fanning each other with fans. If the elder sister-in-law of the man's family is in a figure of eight, it must be covered with a lid (bamboo container), a sieve and other things, and it is impossible to see the bride directly. Folks believe that the bride's good or ill luck is the head, and she is very murderous. The groom uses a fan, which means "weakening her murderous look", and people avoid it, which means "avoiding her murderous look". In some places, when the bride gets off the sedan chair, the groom blocks the back of the bride's head with concave columns (containers edited by editors). This custom is also reflected in the crying wedding song circulating in Huizhou: "I (the bride) stepped on the sedan chair door to cover my head, and I thank you for your contribution." It seems that the bride is quite afraid of this "cover". According to the folk saying, married women should be filial, even if they go to the man's house in a sedan chair, they should turn back step by step, and the groom's concave column is famous for covering the bride's line of sight. This practice is to let the bride concentrate on marrying the man's family and not always think about her own family.
In addition to the custom of covering your head, there is also the habit of stepping on the fence. When the bride got off the sedan chair, the man's family quickly laid a concave fence at the bride's feet for the bride to step on. There is a famous folk saying that "treading the concave fence turns with the nest". This is to let the bride concentrate on being a cow and a horse in the man's "nest" after going through the door.
When entering the house across the concave column, it is customary to let the bride cross the fire. Even if there is no special brazier, some old people will grab a handful of grass to burn at the door and let the bride pass. This custom is called "misfire" in the north. In some places, it is a long-standing folk custom to turn to carbon fire. He has two intentions. The first is to take the word "Wang". After the bride crosses the handle of Wanghuo, she will bring Wanghuo to her husband's family in the future. The other is to use the word "taboo", mainly to avoid evil worship. People believe that "evil" has two sources. One is that when they got married, the audience was like a cloud, and some of them were inevitably sick at home. Folks think they worship evil spirits, while Huizhou calls them "jealousy". Another evil source comes from the bride herself. A woman's body is "dirty", which is an old traditional concept in China.
Therefore, the custom of excessive fire in Huizhou, although it means "flourishing fire", is mainly to ward off evil spirits. Ainny, silk grass, picking cards and other things burned in the brazier are all traditional things in China to ward off evil spirits. Especially "Wang Cao", known as "plaster" by Huizhou folks, is a special medicine for traditional "dispelling summer heat" in Huizhou. It is a protective medicine used by people to ward off evil spirits in birth and marriage ceremonies and worship of mountains.