In Lingyun rural area, the Zhuang ethnic group has always maintained the unique custom of night weddings, which is closely related to the unique personality of the Zhuang people. Because the Zhuang people do not like to be ostentatious, they like to hold even such a big event as marriage at night, showing the ancient, strange, mysterious, beautiful, romantic, and original national culture. The unique Zhuang night wedding customs The Zhuang people's night wedding customs have gone through several etiquettes and marriage sequences such as engagement (pressing words), asking for horoscopes, going out, entering the house, and returning to the door, presenting a unique wedding custom with rich national cultural connotations. The first level: engagement, after finding a good object, the man usually takes out 30 to 50 kilograms of pork, rice, and white wine, and the matchmaker leads the way to press the gift. Several relatives of the man deliver the betrothal gifts to the woman's house together. At this stage, the prospective groom will not show up unless there are special circumstances. When arriving at the girl's home, the matchmaker will explain the man's family background and intentions to the girl's family. Generally, the betrothal gift cannot be too small. If the girl's parents are not very happy about this marriage, and then see that the betrothal gift is small, they will think that the man is not sincere enough, and they may return the betrothal gift on the same day or in a few days, and the marriage in front of them will be "blown away" like a soap bubble. If the matchmaker is scheming, he will persuade the girl with sweet words, and the marriage will have room for maneuver, otherwise it will be gone. If the girl's family accepts the betrothal gift, they will use it to entertain relatives and respected elders in the village to express that they have accepted this marriage and let everyone celebrate together. If the engagement is successfully passed and an auspicious day is calculated, the second etiquette will come: asking for the horoscope. After the man has found out how many relatives there are in the girl's family circle, he can also be accompanied by some relatives of the man under the pressure of the matchmaker. At this stage, the prospective groom can come forward. Prepare 100 to 120 jin of pork, rice, and liquor, pick up mooncakes or glutinous rice cakes (the number can range from hundreds to several hundred. If the woman's family is large and there are many aunts and uncles, more should be prepared so that they can be distributed to each family), and some candies. When arriving at the woman's house, put down the basket of betrothal gifts covered with red paper, set off firecrackers, and let the matchmaker explain the purpose of the visit. With the consent of the woman's parents, the bride's birth date and horoscope are collected, and combined with the groom's birth date to calculate a good date for the wedding that is satisfactory and convenient for both parties, and then inform the woman's family. If the woman has tacitly agreed to the marriage, they will use the gifts sent by the man to invite the closest relatives and friends to dinner on the night of "asking for the birth date" or the next day, and distribute the mooncakes or glutinous rice cakes to each relative with the same surname, so that everyone knows about the marriage and is ready to drink the wedding wine. The third wedding sequence: a grand night wedding, which is divided into two parts: "going out" and "entering the house". At night, when the moon and stars begin to rise, the groom's family will go out with firecrackers, and a wedding procession consisting of relatives and friends will be formed. The bride price will be carried in the car, the suona (eight immortals) will be raised, and the torches will be bright. They will chat and laugh as they drive or walk to the bride's house. After arriving at the bride's house, firecrackers and suona will sound, and there will be a lot of people. Then they will sit down face to face with the guests from the bride's family to eat and drink, and sing folk songs. If the distance is close, the bride and groom will rush back together that night to "enter the house". If the distance is far, they can only return the next night to wait for the bride to "enter the house". After dinner, a short rest, and calculating the time, the bride's family will set off firecrackers to let the bride "go out". In ancient times, before the bride "went out", there was a popular custom of "crying at the wedding", that is, the bride hugged her parents or a pillar and cried loudly, while crying and pouring out her feelings for her parents, thanking them for their upbringing, and talking about the hard work her parents had put in for her over the years, saying that now that her daughter was married, she could only repay her parents in the next life, etc. Often the bride was in tears, crying bitterly, and did not want to leave even if she died. Her parents were also sad and reluctant to let her go. Other relatives beside her persuaded the bride while pulling her away. The scene was very touching, reflecting the unique filial piety culture of the Zhuang people. Now, the scene of "crying at the wedding" no longer exists, but other customs have been maintained. Before "going out", the bride and groom must both kneel in front of the ancestors and parents of the bride's family before the bride can be taken away. After the two teams return to the groom's house together, if the "entry time" has not arrived, the bride's team must not enter the groom's house, but wait patiently with relatives in the village. At midnight or early morning, when it is time for the "entry", when firecrackers and gongs and drums sound, the bride's family team will escort the bride to the formal "entry". The bride can enter the groom's house only after she steps over a burning brazier (to ward off evil spirits and to symbolize a prosperous wedding). The bride and groom both kneel down to worship their ancestors and parents. After that, they go through another etiquette, "sending shoes", in which the bride gives her own embroidered cloth shoes to the groom's parents, grandparents, and other elders present, a pair of shoes and a towel each, to show respect and love. After receiving the shoes and towel, some of the elders of the groom's family will give the bride a red envelope as a "return gift", while others do not need to give any. After "sending shoes", the bride and groom can happily enter the bridal chamber. After entering the bridal chamber, the young men and women from both sides come together to make a fuss in the bridal chamber until dawn, which is very lively. On the night of the "entry", the groom's family is the most lively. When the night is quiet and all the lights are off, the man’s house is brightly lit, with torches flashing, people talking, suonas, cannons, melodious songs, laughter, and joy and peace, which is unique. The fourth step is to return to the bride’s home. After the “entry” is over, after dawn, a big banquet is held to invite relatives and friends to come and celebrate and eat, which is full of joy. The next day after the “entry”, the bride gets up early, dresses up, carries a load outside to fetch water in the early morning, boils the water after fetching it, and waits for her parents or grandparents to wake up, and helps to scoop the water for washing their faces and put it in front of them one by one. After they use it, she helps to pour it out. In the evening, she is busy helping to boil water for washing feet, and brings it to the elders of the husband’s family one by one to serve them, showing the diligence and understanding of the new daughter-in-law. On the third day, the bride should "return home", that is, go back to her parents' home to visit her parents. Accompanied by the groom, she will carry a chicken or other gifts and visit the bride's parents, chat with them, or help with farm work. On the fourth day, some brides go home with their husbands, while some brides are reluctant to leave their biological parents, so they let their husbands go home first and stay to help their parents with farm work, and then go back when they are free. The origin of night marriage Regarding the origin of Zhuang night marriage, there is a historical story passed down by word of mouth in Sicheng. Lingyun was formerly known as Sicheng, which has a history of thousands of years. Since the Ming Dynasty, the weddings of ordinary people were originally held in broad daylight on auspicious days. The beautiful and shy bride sat on the red flower embroidered curtain sedan accompanied by the bridesmaid, and the groom rode a red saddled horse, playing suona, beating gongs and drums, and setting off firecrackers, which was carried out in a lively manner. Later, due to the influence and interference of the "first night right" inherited by the chieftain system, Lingyun local tyrants were very rampant, covering the sky with one hand and doing all kinds of evil. Once they learned that someone's family was holding a wedding, they would send a "birth team" (i.e. a team of servants to rob the bride) to force the poor bride to the mansion, and first offer her to themselves for one or three nights, depriving the bride of her "first time" in her life. After playing with her enough, they would release her back to her husband's house. If the bride or her family resisted, they would be beaten to death or injured, and the family would be destroyed. In addition, there were still some thugs and gangsters who often pretended to be the "birth team" sent by the local tyrants to block the road and rob people. If they won, they would rob the bride, and if they lost, they would report their heads and flee, making the local people like dumb people eating coptis, with no place to complain and no place to redress their grievances. In order to protect the chastity of their wives and daughters and the safety of the area, the people thought hard and came up with a brilliant way to change the wedding to be held quietly at night. When it is late at night and it is pitch black outside, the groom, accompanied by dozens of young men, takes the sedan chair to the bride's house. He dares not set off firecrackers or speak loudly, but takes the bride home secretly. Over time, this custom has been passed down to this day. It is just that it used to be quiet and deserted, but now it is lively and bustling with music and drums. The night marriage custom of the Zhuang family in Lingyun County is the only wedding custom in Guangxi with local and ethnic characteristics. This wedding custom has been much simplified in terms of the wedding sequence and wedding form until now, but it is still enduring and popular. In recent years, the Lingyun County government and cultural department have explored and protected the Zhuang night marriage custom as a valuable folk intangible cultural heritage, and packaged, displayed and promoted it in various forms such as tea culture tourism festivals, folk customs and practices, festival performances, stage art, and media publicity, enriching the cultural elements of night marriages and enhancing their influence and aesthetics. In 2012, the Zhuang night marriage was included in the fourth batch of Guangxi's intangible cultural heritage protection list, adding icing on the cake for the cultural and artistic development of Lingyun.