Traditional Culture Encyclopedia - Photography and portraiture - Why do Chaoshan girls carry flags when they get married?

Why do Chaoshan girls carry flags when they get married?

Chaoshan girl raised the flag to greet grandpa. The "grandfather" in Chaoshan area refers to the patron saint of a town or village (township), a national hero or a person who has made great contributions to the local area after his death.

Although Chaoshan people all speak Chaoshan dialect, there are differences in dialects in different regions.

"Master Ying" is called "Master Ying" in some places. Although the names are different, they have the same meaning.

Carrying the flag in Chaoshan is called riding (taking, carrying) the flag.

Flag riding is generally one of the literary parades in Chaoshan area, which is carried out in traditional folk activities such as respecting the elderly camp or offering sacrifices to ancestors held in the first month of each year.

Two people or one person carries a rectangular flag, and both sides of the flag are embroidered with Chaozhou embroidery unique to Chaoshan. Generally, some beautiful blessing words and patterns are embroidered on the flag surface.

It means praying for good weather, peace and prosperity and blessing the future life.

Chaoshan flag-raising requirements:

Generally, the number of flag-raising teams varies from 12 to 16, and there are dozens to hundreds of people. According to the size and population of each village, the number of flag-raising teams is generally even.

The traditional flag is a rectangular colored satin flag with a width of 4m and a height of1.2m.. The lower edge of the national flag is decorated with colored spikelets, and the flag surface adopts traditional tide embroidery.

The flag is embroidered with auspicious patterns such as flowers and birds, landscapes, unicorns, dragons and phoenixes, and auspicious clouds.

In the middle of the national flag, there are embroidered beautiful wishes such as "Tian Yao follows the sun", "Fuhai Shoushan", "Caiding Wangxing", "Happy birthday", "Celebrate the whole world", "Prosperous business", "Thank God for his grace" and "World peace".

The flagpole of the traditional national flag is a fresh bamboo pole with leaves five or six meters long, which means that life is as high as bamboo. Chinese knots are hung at both ends of the flagpole and decorated with small flower baskets.

As less and less bamboo is planted now, stainless steel pipes are used instead of bamboo in some places, which lacks some traditional flavors.