What are the characteristics of Shunde customs?

Shunde County is a county with fertile land and relatively developed economy in the Pearl River Delta of Guangdong Province. There used to be some special customs here, maybe bad habits, which were quite interesting. Here are a few examples.

First of all, a unique wedding

Shiken Township in Shunde County and the neighboring Nanhai County belong to Qibao area. In the early 1930s, there was such a special kind of wedding: not only different from other counties, but also different from other places in the county.

First, Cai Yu will return every other day. If the first day of a month is designated as the wedding date, then the real wedding should be the second day. According to local regulations, Cai Yu, the man's wedding ceremony, must go to the woman's house after sunset on the New Year's Day, and only after Cai Yu arrives can he dress up the married woman. However, not only parents can't do it, but even maids and maids can't do it. They can only be dressed up by group partners in the boudoir, and group partners are not allowed that night. They will work slowly until dawn the next day. Therefore, when Cai Yu returned to the man's house, it was already noon the next day. This practice actually prevents the bride and groom from getting married on their wedding day.

Second, there is no drum music when the wedding is held. This is true not only for poor families, but also for rich children. This practice has its historical roots. It is said that Liang Sandian, the third son of Liang Chu, a college student and prince of Ming Dynasty, was a Shiken who used his father's power to run amok and seize women. As soon as I heard the drum music, I went to a neighbor's house to get married, took a pawn with him, and suddenly went to the "wedding banquet" and occupied the position of a guest at the wedding. If the bride is slightly attractive, the groom will be imprisoned, or driven out and take possession of the bride. If a fierce woman resists, she will often kill her, so I don't know how many people died tragically under her violence. Those who are afraid of their own power bear the burden of humiliation, those who refuse to accept it sue the officials, and the officials are afraid of their own power, but they falsely accuse them. Therefore, hundreds of nearby towns and villages are not allowed to play drums when celebrating weddings, which has been passed down from generation to generation.

Second, dress yourself up and don't stay at home.

Unmarried girls in Shunde county in the old society left braids and tied them into a bun after marriage. Braids and bun as signs of unmarried and married. However, there are still many women who comb their hair and stay at home, including Panyu, Zhongshan, Nanhai and other counties, and similar situations have occurred.

The so-called "self-combing" is to easily braid your hair and tie it into a bun through a specific ceremony to show that you are determined not to get married and swear to die. This is called "self-combing" or "self-combing", that is, self-combing.

Shunde self-grooming girl

The so-called staying at home is another kind of girl, or forced by her parents' orders, and she can't get up, so she has to return to her parents' house after the wedding to avoid living with her husband. Or, don't marry yourself first, visit a reliable man when you are half a year old, and invest in setting up a concubine for him to be a nominal husband and wife to show that you are not unmarried; In other words, although they are married, their parents give their women a dollar a day, which does not urge them to leave home, even if they go back to their in-laws' house, it is once or twice a year. Some even funded their husbands to set up concubines, saying that they were married, but they were actually alone. These are called women who never leave home.

However, this habit of staying at home has also been broken. According to the newspaper at that time, there was such a story. Luo Jinxiu, a woman from Banjiang Village, Shunde, lives by reeling silk and has considerable savings. His father married Deng, a native of Xiqiao, Nanhai. After his own wedding, he never lived in a man's house after two years of marriage. Deng is doing business in Guangzhou. Whenever he returns to his hometown this season, his mother will be invited to see Jinxiu, but they are all turned away or avoided. Deng had no choice but to tell his brothers. Tomb-Sweeping Day is coming, and Deng wants to go back to his hometown to visit the grave. His brother A gives him advice and lures his wife out of the province. Deng was asked to cheat death at the junction of Shun and Sheng provinces, and was given a bad seat. A sent his mother to bury Deng's wife, saying that Deng died of phlegm at the crossing on his way back to the provincial capital. My mother-in-law believed it after listening to it, and even sent Jinxiu to cross her condolences. Jinxiu wept bitterly, and when she saw her husband covered with a rotten mat, she sang a sad song and hanged him: "Sister stepped on the bow to see you!" " Goodbye, young man, alas! "At this time, the ferry had already left, and Deng immediately pushed open the rotten seat and sat up, scaring his wife to lose face. I know the trick, but the ship has already left and I can't escape, so I have to live in Guangzhou with my husband.

The appearance of self-combing women in Shunde is directly related to the relatively developed silk reeling industry in Shunde before the 1930s. Shunde women are silk reeling women and sericulture women, and they are quite self-sufficient economically, so many girls are satisfied with "self-combing". They are richer. Pay more attention to eating, you can cook well and cook. In 1930s, Guangdong silk industry was hit by foreign silk and plummeted. These women who comb themselves or stay at home are unemployed because of the closure of the silk factory and go to Guangzhou and Hong Kong to be "housekeepers". Because of their meekness and cooking ability, they are very popular with their owners. At that time, 90% of the maids in Hong Kong were Cantonese, with the largest number in Shunde.

However, the custom of living at home is not desirable, and there will always be "immoral" things from time to time. According to the report of Yue Hua Bao 1930 on April/7, "Yesterday, Feng Mou of Rongqi Jia Peng Lane made a living selling medicine in Xiaolandu, and his daughter had an affair with a beef cattle, so she became pregnant with cardamom. When neighbors complain, they will have a baby in private. He died of an overdose. After listening to this, the beef boy went to his daughter's house to attend the funeral, performed a strange play of buying water from Chencun then, and frequently wiped his tears with a towel along the way. The insider, into a private performance of the truth. "

Third, drink the wedding banquet.

In Chencun, Shunde, there is a custom of wedding reception, that is, on the day of the wedding, the uncle will sit as the chief. After my uncle is seated, all relatives and friends can be seated. If my uncle leaves, all my relatives and friends must also leave.

According to this newspaper's report on May 1930, on May 18, Li of Chencun Laocha Lane married Longjia. On the same day, he married the door and held a banquet to celebrate. According to the custom, his great uncle took the seat first. Soon, he suddenly suffered from dysentery and was in a hurry to leave his seat to go to the toilet. However, as soon as I sit down, if I leave, according to the rules, all my relatives and friends have to go with me, and I am forced to hold back. But as the saying goes, "A lawsuit is not as tight as shit." Although I tried, I was really embarrassed, anxious, tasteless and inconvenient to say it. As a result, I was in trouble, and my pants were full of stench and embarrassment. Friends and relatives are also disappointed. My uncle blushed and had to go home to cook. Friends and relatives in the audience all think that this custom should be abolished.

Fourth, Chinese Valentine's Day.

On the evening of July 7th, it is said that the Double Star Festival will be held once a year. Throughout the ages, it has been handed down as a myth. Generally speaking, women with little knowledge do not hesitate to spend money on large-scale exhibitions, ready to be greatly revered and worshipped. This bad habit should also be abolished. However, Shunde women's enthusiasm for this move has not diminished, especially diaosi women. At that time, more than 10 people or dozens of people will gather to form the so-called Chinese Valentine's Day. Some gather in advance, pay money monthly, and save it for later use, for a long meeting. Some temporary meetings, meeting organization. The money is paid in one lump sum for short-term meetings. Whether it is a long meeting or a short meeting, it is a few days before the festival, and each has its own duties. After several days of preparation, it was finished. Small utensils, such as flowers, clothes, chairs, tables and bedding, are made of paper, wood, sesame seeds and colored beans, all kinds of strange things. Cover the sunflower shed, set the table, line it with antiques and help it with lights. It is said that it is for the gods to appreciate and let people watch. Its scale is large and it costs hundreds of gold. The simplest one costs hundreds of gold, or a hundred or two hundred gold.