Dai birth customs
Many ethnic minorities have their own unique fertility customs and etiquette, and the Dai are no exception. Dai's fertility customs include many interesting etiquette, from women's request for children before pregnancy to childbirth.
If a woman is not pregnant after two or three years of marriage before pregnancy, she must ask the gods for a child. The main ways to pray for children include: chicken chickens and sacrifice to the village god to pray for children, offering eggs to the big tree near the village to pray for children, slaughtering ducks by the river and asking for children from the water god "Pinan", etc. No matter what kind of god you ask for a child, the person asking for a child must be sincere and ask to take a bath and purify your body before the sacrifice.
In addition, people believe that a woman's long-term infertility is also a kind of punishment from the gods to individuals. To do good things, they must perform Yin Gong to eliminate them. Therefore, infertile people often seek children by building bridges and building roads. Some even make "in-laws" with Yi and Hani families who have many children on the mountain to seek children with the joy of their "in-laws". In the Xinping Pond and Jiasa areas, some Dai men and women carry incense, chickens and ducks and other sacrifices to the Shenxian Cave of Damaoer Mountain to seek gifts from the gods.
When there is a pregnant woman in the family during pregnancy, it is a great joy and the family will take care of her. After women are three or four months pregnant, heavy physical labor is generally not allowed to be undertaken, but is mostly done by men. After conception, due to a series of changes in women's physiology, there are many taboos for pregnant women's behavior. For example, after Huayao Dai women become pregnant, they are not allowed to participate in major public sacrificial activities such as elections; they are not allowed to touch the sacred tree that is considered spiritual by the village; they are not allowed to climb and pick melons; they are not allowed to go up the mountain to hunt or go fishing in the river. Men see them, etc. It is generally believed that pregnant women who prefer to eat sour foods will be prone to giving birth to women; those who prefer to eat sweet foods will be prone to giving birth to men. Pregnant women cannot yet eat ginger, thinking that the child born after eating will have six fingers. With the development of modern civilization, prenatal education has also become popular in some families. For example, pregnant women are required to regularly check their fetal position, sit upright, eat more melons and fruits, listen to more music, listen to more good words, etc.
Dai women who are about to give birth generally rarely go to the hospital to give birth, and there are no professional midwives. Most of them are assisted by experienced elderly women in the village. When the new baby arrived, the husband and mother-in-law began to get busy together. The woman who was invited to help deliver the baby was busy cutting the umbilical cord of the mother and taking out the stolen goods from the baby's mouth; the mother-in-law, husband and others were busy boiling hot water to help the mother wash the baby. In the areas of Jiasa and Shuitang, babies 'umbilical cords are often cut off with the sharp edge of the broken shuttle tube. It is said that this can avoid infection. After the birthmark leaves the mother's body, it should be picked up with straw, banana leaves, etc., and placed in a hollow tree hole outside the village or placed firmly on the branches of a tree called "Manleguo". It is said that the person who placed the placenta should not look back when he comes back, so as to prevent the baby from suffering from head wind, squint disease, etc. when he grows up. After everything was cleaned up, the family was busy nourishing the mother's body with earth-pot rice, killing chickens, boiling sugar eggs, etc.
Three or four days after the named baby was born, the naming process began. Some asked for a name at the corner of the door; some asked for a name based on the divination of egg; some asked for a name with a foreign surname who was the first to enter the family after the baby was born and recognized him as "godfather." No matter which method is used to seek names, baby names are usually selected according to gender and ranking sequence. Men: Yan (eldest brother), Ni (second brother), Sang (third brother), Sai (fourth brother)...; women: Yue (eldest brother), Yu (second brother), An (third brother), Ai (fourth brother)... In addition, baby names are given based on the baby's weight, characteristics, place of birth and festivals, and children's names are required not to be the same as those of previous parents. If the father uses the word "Yan" and the first boy he gives birth to is given a baby name, he should avoid using the word "Yan", but can use the word "Ni" to show avoidance.
In addition to the baby name, the names of Dai people should be given scientific names when children reach school age. Most of the methods of addressing are the first surname and the last name, but the scientific name is generally not commonly used at home. Dai people believe that names chosen according to their own ethnic habits appear more cordial and follow the customs.