What are the wedding customs of Dongxiang people?
The Dongxiang ethnic group is a distinctive ethnic minority in Gansu Province of China. It has a long history and folk customs. It has integrated and developed multiple cultures to form today's Dongxiang ethnic group. In the past, polygamy also existed in the marriage form of the Dongxiang ethnic group, but now monogamy is basically practiced and two principles are strictly enforced, namely, marriage outside the family and religious marriage. Expatrimony means that members within the same family are strictly prohibited from marrying. Religious intramarriage means that regardless of gender, the spouse must be chosen among those who believe in the same religion, namely Islam, and preferably a member of the same sect.
In addition, Dongxiang weddings are deeply influenced by Islam. They are basically decided by their parents. Young men and women are not allowed to meet and talk, and most of them are sent between "seeking Chi"(matchmakers). Generally, the man first invites him to "find Chi" to the woman's house to discuss the marriage. After the woman agrees, the man will send him "ordering tea" as a meeting gift. "Order tea" usually consists of a few kilograms of fine tea and a few pieces of clothes. After that, the formal betrothal procedure was completed, namely "Mahaleche"(betrothal gift). At that time, the man and his father, uncles, matchmakers, and accompanying guests will bring the bride price to the woman's home. There are two types of betrothal gifts: one is tea, brown sugar, cakes, etc., and the other is clothes, cash, earrings, bracelets, etc. that have been negotiated in advance by the matchmaker. In some mountainous areas of the Dongxiang ethnic group, there is also the custom of sending steamed buns when engaged. The man's family ground the wheat he received back then into white flour and steamed it into steamed buns, each of which is about 1kg. The top is pre-applied with turmeric and cut it slightly with a knife. After steaming, the top of the snow-white steamed buns looks like yellow flowers, indicating that the in-laws will have a bumper harvest in the coming year.
The wedding of the Dongxiang ethnic group is commonly known as a "banquet." On the wedding day, the families of both parties were very lively. Relatives, friends, and neighbors next door came on request, and "gifts" were made according to the closeness of relatives and the thickness of friends 'friendship to express congratulations. The dining at the banquet focuses on following traditional rules, mainly including various fried pasta, sugar buns, meat buns, stewed vegetables, mutton, chicken, etc. No alcohol or tobacco is allowed at the table. The marriage date can be discussed at will by both men and women's families. It is mostly held after the autumn harvest or during the winter leisure season. Generally speaking,"Zuma"(Friday Wedding Day) is the auspicious day.
On the day of marriage, a simple Islamic ceremony is performed. When the man goes to the woman's house to get married, the imam presided over it. After soliciting the consent of young men and women to get married, he chanted "Nika" in public, indicating that the marriage was recognized by society only after the imam witnessed the marriage. If one of the parties is unwilling when the imam consults, the marriage contract will be null and void. While chanting "Nika", the imam publicly agreed that the man would give the woman a certain amount of "Nika money" after marriage. "Nika money" symbolizes the obligation a man has promised to a woman, restraining her from abandoning her wife at will.
After reading "Nika", the witness sprinkled a plate of red dates and walnuts that had been set in advance to the surrounding adults and children, indicating that they had children early. When the bride arrives in front of the groom's house, the bride must be carried out by the brother who sent her off from the carriage and enter the courtyard. Family and friends gathered together to sing "Harry" to express their congratulations. One of the guests took the lead in calling "Harry", and everyone (mostly teenagers) responded, high-fives or claps their arms according to beat rhythm, bending their legs into a riding posture, and turning left and right. The lyrics were improvised and sung by the guests, and most of the content were praising the handsome groom, the beautiful bride, the loving husband and wife, and never separated. The house is also bustling at night. The next day, the bride meets with guests and calls it "visiting guests." In the afternoon, the bride enters the kitchen for the first time, rolls out long noodles, called "testing knife noodles", and invites the elderly in the neighborhood to taste the craftsmanship of the new daughter-in-law.
The Dongxiang people who live west of Tao River, east of Daxia River, and south of Yellow River in Gansu Province also have an interesting program called "Kitchen Stealing" for their wedding. On the day of the bride's wedding, the bridegroom accompanied the groom and others came to the woman's home, and the woman's home would hold a banquet in honor as usual. After the wedding reception, the groom will personally deliver the wooden combs and grites prepared at home to the bride's boudoir, and will express his gratitude to the women who helped the bride comb and dress up. Then, the groom and his companion slipped into the kitchen of the woman's house. First, they greeted the chef and the girls who helped the stove politely, and second, they spied on the opportunity to "steal" a piece of kitchen equipment from the kitchen without anyone knowing it.
But it is not easy for the groom to steal a tool in front of the girls 'eyes. Unexpectedly, when the girls saw the groom and his companion enter the kitchen, they first started teasing and taunting the groom, and then simply started, grabbed the black ash at the bottom of the pot and smeared it on the faces of the groom and his companion. They had to smear them into big painted faces to be satisfied. In the midst of the noise and frolicking, it is the time for the groom to fish in troubled waters.
Amid the chaos, the groom quickly "stole" a gadget and hid it on his body. The girls knew that the groom had "stolen" something, but they didn't know what equipment he had stolen. So, the bees swarmed up, dragged him aside with all hands and fingers, and then smeared a pot of smoke. The groom had succeeded in "stealing the cook", so he tried his best to rush out of the encirclement of the girls. Amid the laughter of the girls, he fled in confusion and refused to even marry the bride. After the "kitchen theft" is over, someone will naturally marry him a bride.
In some places, Dongxiang people will play their parents-in-law at weddings. When the bride entered the bridal chamber, the guests in the bridal line began to play the Duke. The groom's father, uncles and other elders had their faces covered with a pot of ash, a tall paper hat on their heads, red peppers hanging from their ears, wearing sheepskin jackets upside down, small bells tied around their waists, and their hands and feet were symbolically tied with chains. They were then pressed and sat on an overturned square table, lifted by people, and shouted to the public for fun.
In some places, fathers dressed like clowns are allowed to ride on small donkeys or scalpers. Cows are courageous and are generally not easily frightened. The little donkey was timid. When everyone shouted, he kicked and jumped. My father-in-law sat on the donkey's back and was often in danger, but like everyone else, he was smiling and proud. Dongxiang people believe that teasing the Duke like this on the big day is the man's sincere welcome and most respectful congratulations to the bride.
After playing the role of Uncle Gong, another climax in Dongxiang people's weddings was "smashing pillows" in busy rooms. In the new house, the bride was sitting at the corner of the kang with a veil covered. The girls surrounded the bride tightly. The young men broke into the bridal chamber and asked for a look at the bride's dowry. They specially brought a pair of beautifully embroidered flower pillows over and over, and deliberately said that the flower pillows were not embroidered well or beautiful, and the bride was clumsy. Afterwards, the boys sang while throwing pillows at the bride. The girls on the kang protected the bride tightly, grabbing the pillows thrown by the young men and throwing them at the young men. As this goes on and on, the damage becomes more and more intense.
young men rushed towards the kang, and the girls pushed under the kang. The delicate girls were naturally no match for the strong young men. The bride would inevitably suffer from being hit by a pillow. In desperation, the bride had no choice but to remove the veil over her head, stand on the kang and let the young men look at her carefully, and ask the girls to open the cabinets. The young men rummaged through the dowry she brought one by one. The new house was filled with the laughter of girls and boys, and the faces of the bride and groom were also filled with happy smiles.
After reading these, do you find it as interesting as the "wedding chamber" in our Han weddings? However, what is regrettable and embarrassing is that in recent years,"excessive" incidents of making wedding houses have occurred frequently and have become increasingly serious, even to the point where there is no bottom line of moral civilization. Making a bridal chamber is originally a wedding custom that adds joy to the couple and boosts them. According to law, it should have a certain moral and civilized bottom line as the benchmark and guarantee. However, in reality, this bottom line of civilization has been repeatedly broken through, and making a bridal chamber has also changed from promoting fun to being a down-to-date move.