Want to know some Chinese customs
Bridge Sacrifice Festival
This is an ancient religious festival of the Miao people in southeastern Guizhou, that is, worshiping the Bridge God. The Bridge God is the "Girl Who Sends Children" in the religious concept of the Miao people. It comes from such a legend: Once upon a time, there was a couple, Xiangmaoxiang and Limaoli, who had been married for many years but had no children, so they cried every day. The swallow asked them why they were crying, and they told the swallow the truth. The swallow said, we build nests on the rock wall, and the green snakes eat them twelve times a year! If you let us build a nest under your roof, we will tell you the secret of having children and raising children. Xiangmaoxiang and Limaoli both said, come on! The swallow told them that the children have short legs and there are gullies and rivers across them, so they can't cross. You go and build a bridge, and the children will come to your house. Xiang Maoxiang and his wife went to build a bridge. The next year on the second day of the second lunar month, a fat baby was born. Since then, every year on the second day of February, it has become the Miao people’s Bridge Sacrifice Festival. The Bridge Festival is not only a gift for the mother-in-law, but also a blessing for the healthy growth of the child. Because of this, every Miao household has its own bridge. Some clans also have a big bridge. Every year, they have to sacrifice pigs and sheep. It is very grand. They believe that the bridge can bring wealth to the whole clan. Each family in the small bridge has to sacrifice it once a year. If you don't invite For wizards, parents lead their children to kill chickens and ducks on the bridge, sprinkle blood, cheese and wine as a memorial, and offer glutinous rice and dyed eggs and duck eggs to the well. On this day, you are not allowed to control Cambodian children, let alone beat or scold them. After the sacrifice, the whole village people gathered together to have a reunion dinner, drink home-made wine, remember their ancestors, and bless each other, so as to enhance mutual assistance and friendship, unity and harmony, and pray for good weather and a good harvest.
Yin marriage encyclopedia business card
Yin marriage is also called ghost marriage, which is to find a spouse for the dead. Some boys and girls, after getting engaged, both died for some reason before they could get married. At that time, the old people believed that if they did not get married for them, their ghosts would cause trouble and make the family uneasy. Therefore, a shadow marriage ceremony must be held for them (her), and finally they are buried together to become husband and wife, and their bones are buried together. This also prevents lonely graves from appearing in the tombs of the male and female families. Some boys and girls died before they even got engaged.
Definition
Out of love and longing for their children, old people believe that they failed to choose a spouse for them during their lifetime and will marry them after their death. Fulfill your responsibilities as a parent. In fact, this is where people’s emotions rest. In addition, in the old days, people were generally superstitious about the so-called "feng shui" of cemeteries, believing that the presence of a lonely grave would affect the prosperity of future generations of the family. At that time, some "Feng Shui masters" (called "Kanyu" in ancient times) tried their best to encourage such shady marriages in order to make more money. Shadow marriages often occur among nobles or wealthy families, and poor families will never engage in such activities.
[Edit this paragraph] Historical development
Yin marriage existed before the Han Dynasty. Because shadow marriage consumes society's manpower and material resources and is meaningless, it was once banned. "The Rites of Zhou" says: "It is forbidden to move to bury or marry off the dead." However, this trend has never been eradicated, and some of it is even directly reflected in the rulers. For example: Cao Cao's favorite son, Cao Chong, died at the age of thirteen. Cao Cao hired the deceased Miss Zhen to be Cao Chong's wife and buried them together. In the Song Dynasty, shadow marriage was the most popular. According to Kang Yuzhi's "Yesterday's Dream", when an unmarried man or woman dies, his parents will ask a "ghost matchmaker" to arrange marriage, and then perform divination. After getting the marriage approval, they will each make ghost clothes for the ghost and hold a marriage. Sacrifice, bury the bones of men and women together. "History of the Yuan Dynasty: Biography of Women" records: "If a son dies without a wife, he may be buried with the bones of his deceased daughter." "History of the Ming Dynasty: Biography of Women" also records: "Yang □ died and his fiancée died; Liu Bochun died, and his wife died The same goes for women, who were all buried together in a coffin. In the Qing Dynasty, this custom of women being buried in the underworld was still very popular with the strengthening of the concept of chastity. It was not until the late Qing Dynasty that feudal ethics gradually disappeared under the impact of Western spiritual civilization. In Beijing at the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China, there were still remnants of the custom of ghost marriage. Some families also arranged "happy events" where the deceased married the dead, which was called "making bones and corpses." . In the early years, this kind of "wedding" ceremony was mostly held at night. Sometimes, when people were sleeping peacefully, they were suddenly awakened by the drumming in the streets and alleys, which turned out to be "building bones and corpses". A paper sedan is carried, preceded by a single drum, a single trumpet, and a single suona.
When the bride and groom are ready, the matchmaker prepares wine and fruit at the tomb to offer sacrifices for the marriage. "
[Edit this paragraph] What is the bad habit of "shadow marriage"
It is that the dead marry the dead. The ceremony of the dead's marriage mixes the red and white etiquette. Depending on the opinions of the parties involved, the form generally varies. Generally speaking, ghost marriages are introduced through a matchmaker, and both parties have to go through the marriage ceremony. The fate of the couple and the man's placement are also required, and half of them are made of real silk and gold. , half of which are made of paper and various clothing, and are finally burned at the door of the woman's home or on her grave.
[Edit this paragraph] Other related events
The wedding ceremony is indispensable in ghost marriages. A tent is also built for the banquet, and the bride's photo or tablet is displayed in front of the door, and the bride's wife takes it out to the marrying wife. After it is placed in the wedding sedan at the groom's house, the wedding wife takes out the "bride's" tablet or photo. The offering table in the wedding room is placed next to the "groom", and if the wife of the bride offers incense and bows to the gods on her behalf, even "cups of wine", "descendants dumplings" and "longevity noodles" must also be offered to the "newlyweds". In the future, a good day will be chosen for burial. The woman will be buried next to the man’s grave at the designated time, and the two coffins will be placed next to each other in order to be buried together as husband and wife. After the burial and sacrifice, the family members of both men and women cried and said "great joy", and then they stayed together as in-laws.
Hope to adopt it