Marriage customs (traditional marriage customs of Yugur nationality)

The name of China's national intangible cultural heritage: marriage customs

Applicant: Zhangye City, Gansu Province

Project No.: 1214

Project No.: Ⅹ - 139

Time of publication: 2011 (the third batch)

Category: folk customs

Region: Gansu Province

Type: new item

Applicant: Zhangye City, Gansu Province

Protection unit: intangible cultural heritage protection and inheritance center of Sunan Yugur Autonomous County

Introduction to marriage customs (traditional marriage customs of Yugur nationality)

Applicant: Zhangye City, Gansu Province

Yugur marriage custom is an important part of Yugur folk culture. It contains Yugur ancient language, folk songs, myths and legends, proverbs, traditional rituals and other rich content. It also contains traditional cultural content inherited for thousands of years, such as Shamanism, primitive worship, Buddhist belief and so on. Its rich content, distinctive features, wide number of participants and diverse forms are incomparable to other ethnic marriage customs.

There are matchmaker's words, parents' orders and free love in Yugur marriage customs. When it comes to the age of marriage, the man prepares the bride price, marries openly and holds a grand wedding ceremony. There are many and grand wedding ceremonies of Yugur nationality, including 28 rituals, such as marriage proposal and engagement, selection of guests, family banquet, girls wearing their heads, farewell seeing off their relatives, beating tips to welcome them, horse stepping on tent, archery to worship heaven and earth, crowning and wearing bridegroom, inspection banquet, banquet ode, bride drinking tea, returning to their parents, etc. The main procedure should be carried out for three days. On the first day, the wedding ceremony should be held at the woman's home, on the second day, at the man's home, and on the third day.

In addition, there is a kind of marriage custom of Yugur, that is, "tie waist" marriage in the eastern Yugur Language area and "wear head and face in the accounting pole" marriage in the Western Yugur Language area. It is just a ceremony, not a real engagement, which has been lost.

With the development of society and the improvement of living standards, the traditional way of life has changed dramatically, and the marriage customs of Yugur have been lost. Fewer and fewer people know the rituals, taboos, customs, compliments and so on. Without protection, they will face the loss of the whole marriage customs. Yugur wedding ceremony is mainly distributed in Minghua Township, Dahe Township, Huangcheng town and Kangle township of Sunan Yugur Autonomous County, Gansu Province.