Miao wedding customs in Rongshui County

Guangxi
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The wedding of the Miao people in Rongshui, Guangxi has unique customs. Generally, the following three steps are required before the wedding is considered complete. The first step is the "gift song": in addition to the gifts (souvenirs) given to each other when the two people are in love, before the wedding, the man must give gifts such as silver, chicken, meat, and wine to the woman's family. The amount depends on the wealth of the family. On the day of the wedding banquet, the woman also sent a load (or several loads) of eggs, rice dumplings and glutinous rice cakes, as well as two chickens with ears of grain tied on their heads. After the man accepted them, he distributed the rice dumplings and glutinous rice cakes to the guests. This means that after the woman gets married, the crops will be abundant and the livestock will be prosperous every year. The second step is the "sheep snatching song": in addition to quilts, clothes, and suitcases, the woman's dowry also includes a big goat with red paper tied on its horns. When sending the bride, four unmarried young women lead the goat and walk out of the village with the gift carriers. When they arrived at the big tree at the edge of the village, the man had already sent a matchmaking team to take over the gift basket from the woman, and four unmarried handsome young men came out to stop the delivery of goats (meaning that there were too many gifts, so the goats should be left at the woman's home). At this time: one side wanted to deliver gifts, the other side wanted to stop, pushing and pulling, sometimes knocking to the ground; when it was tense, the people beside cheered and cheered. If the woman lost, the goat would be taken back to the woman's home; if the man lost, the goat would still be sent to the man's home. Generally, the man pretended to lose, and the goat would be "grabbed" to the south home. This activity of delivering and grabbing goats is also a good opportunity for unmarried men and women who are picking up and sending off the bride to find a partner. On the way to the bride's house, they sang love songs while walking, and sometimes four pairs of men and women walked hand in hand and sang, and everyone was immersed in joy. The third step is the "blessing song": the bride goes to the man's house to pay homage to his parents and siblings and then enters the bridal chamber. There are chickens, duck meat and sweet wine in the room, and a set of new clothes for the bride and groom are placed on the stage. At this time, the elders who have good fortune and longevity will enter the room to bless the bride and groom. The elders who are blessing will spray sweet wine on the new clothes on the stage, indicating that they have given good fortune and longevity to the newlyweds. After the blessing, the guests will leave and the newlyweds will get married. Only then is the wedding officially over.

Intangible culture related to the heritage

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