The Miao nationality in Huayuan Town is the eastern Miao nationality, formerly known as Hongmiao. The language is Miao dialect. Before liberation, the Miao people in Huayuan were generally monogamous, and some rich people were polygamous. Marriage between men and women is mainly matchmaking. Miao youth contact and love each other through labor, assembly, rushing to the scene and visiting relatives. After many dates, confirm the relationship, sing love songs and give gifts to each other, and then get married freely.
Engagement, usually the man's family takes the initiative to find the woman's relatives. When a man sees a girl or a man and a woman in love, he must prepare a gift and let the matchmaker go to the woman's house to "talk". If the woman's family is happy and enthusiastic, the matchmaker will report to the man's family and formally propose to the camera. The more times the matchmaker goes back and forth, the better, commonly known as "the more the more expensive." The bride's family discussed and agreed, and the marriage was finalized. By setting off firecrackers and eating wine, she was officially engaged. After the engagement, the man should choose a date to give the woman a gift, usually one year before the wedding. Gifts include bazin, wine, meat, rice, sugar and so on. The amount of gift money depends on the economic conditions of both parties, mainly to let the woman invite relatives and friends at home to have a wedding banquet and recognize new relatives. Subsequently, it was convenient for the man to "ask for a high salary" from the woman and take the woman's birthday, so as to invite Mr. Yin and Yang to choose auspicious dates and designate relatives. The night before the wedding, the man arrested a brother as the "master" and took the team carrying the sedan chair and dowry to the woman's house to celebrate the wedding.
In the past, the bride had to live apart from her family. On the wedding day, the bride's sisters like to play jokes. They mix bamboo shoots, shells, hair or pepper water with pot ashes and smear them on Guan's face, which makes people laugh. Usually late at night or early the next morning. After the bride trimmed her eyebrows, she cried and worshipped her parents, and her brother got on the sedan chair. The bride is accompanied by relatives and girlfriends when she gets married. In particular, women with full children are invited to be "mothers", and male and female singers are also invited to Sina's house to compete for songs. After marriage, Guan played lanterns to lead the way and went to the man's house. At the same time, all the guests who go to the woman's house for a wedding reception go to the man's house to eat "tap wine", which is called the "guest of honor", and other individual guests in the man's house are called "deputy guests". When the bride is connected to the door of the man's house, the man's house will burn a fire to symbolize auspiciousness and wealth, and then the bride will enter the house according to the selected auspicious moment. When entering the house, the man's family should hide in high places, which means that the bride will not suppress the whole family in the future. When the bride enters the room, she will take the cooker given by the man's middle-aged woman to show that she will become the family director from now on. Then, sit on the stool with "Fu Paper" on the right side of the fireplace until all night. In the afternoon, all the guests came to congratulate him, and the man gave a banquet in honor of the "guests". In the evening, the bride and groom invited "Bajiangsha" (Miao language, meaning singer) to sing a duet, and the guests enjoyed it. The next morning, a drinking ceremony was held. An old man congratulated the host and guest and raised a glass to congratulate the couple on their love and harmony and all the best. They also sang songs to celebrate, told the old saying of getting married and gave gifts to each other. During the wedding, relatives of the man invite guests to dinner in partnership, commonly known as "family banquet". So the wedding date is two days. Before the guests leave, the bride and groom can only meet and can't stay together. After the individual, the newlyweds entered a normal life.
After the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, the old marriage customs were gradually abolished, and a new wedding was held, which was no different from the Han wedding.