How to deal with Feng Shui issues when picking up the bride’s car and returning home
Picking up the bride is one of the traditional "six rites". Personal greeting is the end of the "six rites" and the conclusion of the "six rites". What modern people call a wedding or what the ancients called a wedding ceremony is marked by the ceremony of picking up the bride. Picking up brides is particularly popular in Huizhou, Guangdong.
The wedding ceremony in ancient times generally included three steps: making a wedding room or conservatory, welcoming and returning home, and lasted for three days. Make a house or greenhouse on the first day, welcome them in person on the second day, and return home on the third day. The customs in Huizhou, Guangdong are different. The wedding basically refers to the two stages of welcoming the bride and staying with the bride. As for the wedding (that is, picking up the bride), it mainly includes making a room, welcoming the bride in a sedan chair, spreading salt and rice, and crossing the bride. Several important customs include burning fire and stepping on concave railings.
1. Building a house
Building a house is an old custom that continues to this day. Building a house is a custom in which the bride's aunts and sisters help decorate the new house after the bride's family sends a dowry to the groom's family. According to Huizhou custom, two things should be paid attention to when making a house. First, the bed, cabinets, dressing table, etc. should pay attention to the orientation and feng shui. The most important thing is that the wardrobe mirror should not face the bed. In Huizhou customs, mirrors are synonymous with shining on demons, and it is obviously unlucky for a mirror to shine on a bed. Second, the person who builds a house must have a "good fortune". Folks believe that the main criterion for a good fortune is "more children and more blessings". Therefore, widows, infertile women or women with few children are not allowed to participate in making houses, while those with many children and good fortune are naturally the main participants in making houses.
2. Flower Night
The day before the bride gets married, the sisters-in-law and sisters in the clan (must choose the so-called lucky ones) will dress up and dress the bride specially. This is This night is also called "Flower Arrangement" by folk customs. It is a very solemn ceremony before the bride gets married.
When performing this ceremony, the bride often cries and sings. When the bride faces a major turning point in her life, she is usually very emotional. However, old customs require the bride to sit quietly in the pavilion after arranging flowers and cry and sing until dawn. , which is called "five watch vigil". On the night of the flower arrangement, the bride cried sadly and stayed up all night, which further revealed the "joyful and sad" atmosphere of a traditional wedding.
3. Sedan to welcome the new bride
Huizhou traditionally uses sedan chairs to welcome brides. In the 1950s, there were even sedan shops that specialized in renting out sedan chairs. Most of them are large sedan chairs with two, four or eight carriages, embroidered with "Feng Luan Peony" and "Fulu Mandarin Duck", decorated with "four-color lanterns" and covered with "big red silk", so it is called "bridal sedan".
When picking up the bride, the matchmaker leads the way, and the bride leads the sedan chair and plays drums and music along the way. After arriving at the bride's house, the bride's sisters refused to enter. The groom hurriedly handed out "good fortune" to the bride, and after passing through the sisters, he could take the bride out. The bride cried and refused to leave, so the groom's family used both soft and hard tactics to coax her out of the boudoir and coax her (forcibly push her) into the sedan chair. The groom even had to seal the sedan bearer with a "good fortune" before getting up. After several "struggles", the groom is often exhausted.
4. Spreading salted rice
When picking up the bride, in some places in Huizhou in the old days, there was a habit of spreading salted rice. Some salt, rice, black sesame seeds, etc. were placed in containers in advance, that is, On the way to pick up the bride, they are scattered along the road to worship the Bridge God; while those scattered along the road are to worship the Road God. This is the custom of spreading salt and rice in Huizhou’s traditional marriage customs.
The custom of spreading salt and rice is actually a variation of the custom of "throwing grain and beans" in traditional Chinese marriage customs. "Throwing rice beans" appeared in the Western Han Dynasty and became popular in the north during the Song Dynasty. The traditional saying is that it is for the "three evil spirits", that is, to drive away ghosts and avoid evil spirits. This is not much different from the folk "spreading rice beans with salt" in Huizhou. It's just that "throwing beans" is mostly a northern custom and is not common in the south. However, it exists in Huizhou, which shows that the origin of Huizhou custom is very long.
5. Covering the head, stepping on the concave railing and stepping on the fire
The bride is received at home, and all the relatives help the bride out of the sedan amidst the sound of drums and music. This is the groom holding a fan to fan him. The eldest aunts of the family are incompatible with each other, so they must use lids (woven bamboo containers), sieves, etc. to shield them from meeting the bride directly. It is believed among the people that the bride is blessed with good fortune and has strong murderous intent. The groom uses a fan to "weaken her murderous intent", and others avoid her, which is said to "avoid her murderous intent". In some places, when the bride gets off the sedan chair, the groom uses a concave rail (a kind of container made by the chief editor) to block the back of the bride's head.
This custom is also reflected in the wedding songs circulated in Huizhou: "I (the bride) stepped on the sedan door and the man was covering her head, and the man was covering her head to cover the girl's death. I will thank you for whatever credit I have given." It seems that. , the bride is quite afraid of this "covering". According to folklore, every married girl should be filial. Even when she gets on the sedan chair and arrives at the groom's house, she should turn back three times every step. The groom's railing is to block the bride's sight of constantly looking back. It is very famous. This practice is to Let the bride focus on marrying into her husband's family and not think about her natal family all the time.
In addition to the custom of covering one's head, there is also the custom of stepping on a railing. When the bride gets off the sedan, the groom's family hurriedly lays a concave railing in front of the bride's feet for the bride to step on. There is a folk saying of "stepping on the concave railing and turning around the nest (concave)", which is very famous. This is to allow the bride to concentrate on being a cow and horse in the "nest" of the groom's family after passing the wedding.
When stepping over the concave railing to enter the house, it is customary to ask the bride to step over the fire. Even if there is no special brazier, some old people will grab a handful of grass and burn it at the door for the bride to step over. This custom is called "crossing prosperous fire" in the north. There are also places where cross-carbon fire is used, which is a relatively long-standing folk custom. He had two intentions. One is to take the word "prosperous". After the bride steps over the prosperous torch, she will bring "prosperous fire" to her husband's family the next day. The other is to take the word "avoid", which is mainly to avoid evil worship. Folks believe that there are two sources of "evil". One is that at the time of marriage, there are so many spectators, among whom there are inevitably some people who have family funerals or illnesses. Folks believe that they have evil spirits in them. Huizhou claims that these people have evil spirits. With "simmering (taboo)"; another evil source comes from the bride herself, the woman's body is "dirty", which is an old traditional Chinese concept.
Therefore, Huizhou’s custom of crossing the fire means “vigorous fire”, but it is mainly to ward off evil spirits. The grass, silk grass, picka and other things burned in the brazier are all from China. Traditional ward off evil spirits. Especially "Wangcao", which is called "wiping medicine" among the people in Huizhou, is a special medicine used in Huizhou to "remove simmering". It is used by people to ward off evil spirits during births, wedding ceremonies and "mountain worship" sacrifices.