men should marry when they are young, and women should marry when they are young. this has been an unchanging principle since ancient times. although it is now advocated to change customs and engage in new weddings, pared to the 1960s and 1970s, it has bee more luxurious and the simple customs of people no longer ist. i am from zhuzhou, hunan. let me talk about the wedding customs in zhuzhou.
    isiting and engaging
    matchmaker es to propose marriage
    when men and women reach the age of marriage, their parents first find a matchmaker. when the matchmaker discovers that there is someone of appropriate age in the family, they first municate with their parents and then schedule a date to arrange a blind date location, usually a market place. on the day of the market, both the man and the woman go to the designated location, take a look at each other, say a few words, and show their cheerful personality on the spot. generally, they will return home and talk to the matchmaker. after agreeing, the man will choose a date for engagement (we call it dingshi there). there is also a type that is favored by oneself or by parents, such as cousins. if they are related, parents will entrust an acquaintance to act as a matchmaker. in the 1960s and 1970s, many cousins got married in rural areas, and the third representative of siblings getting married was more. this is called \"new relatives getting married with old relatives\", which is even more joyful, but this kind of close relatives getting married is still not good.
    the engagement requires four kinds of gifts, that is, a few pieces of cloth. decent families will use dacron and dacron fabrics, nylon socks, and those with poor economic conditions will use khaki cloth and cotton socks. in this way, even if the engagement is successful, the man can go to the woman's home and send some gifts to the woman's home for the new year holiday. generally, the four kinds of gifts are the same, namely, the beginning of summer festival, the dragon boat festival, the mid-autumn festival and the spring festival. meat, eggs, noodles and a piece of fabric, after a year or two, when both parties have no objections, the woman tells the matchmaker that they can cut the shoe sample (that is, the man tells the woman the size of the shoes worn by his family). the man gives the woman some money for cutting the sample, which was only a few tens of yuan at that time. the woman needs to make a pair of shoes for each member of the man's family and match them with hand-embroidered insoles.
    preparation before and after marriage
    a necessary dowry for women
    before marriage, the man gives the woman some money to buy a dowry. depending on the family's economic conditions, he can give the woman three to five thousand yuan at once, and regardless of how much money she receives from the man, these things must be allocated. one large wardrobe or bination cabinet, one table, four chairs, one b table, one food cabinet, one washbasin rack, two large wooden cases, one small wooden case or leather case (similar to the larger travel case at present), two hot water bottles, cups and toothbrushes, aluminum pots for boiling water, pressure cooker and other daily necessities, four quilts and a pair of pillows. those with good family conditions will be equipped with a men's bicycle, a sewing machine, a black and white tv set, an electric fan, etc. in fact, no matter how much money the man gives the woman, the woman's parents basically don't use much of the money, and they return it to their daughter to make container money.
    what the man must prepare
    in addition to giving the woman three or five thousand yuan, the man only needs to prepare one or two new houses and doesn't care about anything else. if the man's family is poor and there is no dowry for the woman, the woman will also bring all the daily necessities.
    on the day before marriage, the man must pay a gift to the woman. the gifts include: half or one pig, chicken, clothes or fabrics, shoes and socks of the woman's parents, brothers and sisters. all things should be put in place. a big rack should be used to carry them to the woman, so that the woman's onlookers can know what's ing at a glance. if the man's family condition is not good, he will borrow something to put on it to save face, because all the things that went through the ceremony, cept for the food, returned to the man the nt day.
    the woman should prepare as follows
    put red packets in the quilt, usually two packets, each of which is 40 cents for the bed maker. the big wooden box is full of fruit, peanuts, sweet potato chips, eggs, candy biscuits, and clothes, shoes and socks when you see the man's parents, brothers and sisters in the man's side. in addition, the parents also need to give the daughter some box money (hundreds to thousands depending on the conditions). because after marrying the man, the mother-in-law will open the box the nt day, and people in the village will e around to see the citement, the purpose is to see if the woman has given enough money for the container.
    on the day before marriage, the woman will notify the man how many people will e to lift things the nt day. generally, eight or more men are required because the woman needs to carry everything to the man, and the man's room only needs to be prepared with an empty house. the nt morning, a wedding procession was arranged for the man to go to the woman's house to wele her. the men had to go, including the groom, two brides (women), five to six gongs and cobalt teams, and people carrying things. they all went to the woman's house to have breakfast together, blowing and playing. after dinner, the woman sent off the wedding, with one man and two women seeing off the bride. the procession carrying things took a step first, and then the groom and bride followed with umbrellas. regardless of the weather, each person had an umbrella, blowing and beating all the way to the man for lunch.
    after dinner, the wedding scene is also the most lively scene during marriage. the purpose is to help the groom and bride eliminate the feeling of shyness. various programs try to make their body and skin contact, such as mouth to mouth eating dates, two people lighting firecrackers, kittens fishing, and ash picking. the more tricks, the better. no matter how big or small, they can make as much noise as they want. after the 1980s, the habit of making wedding scenes gradually changed to watching movies, videos, and singing.
    conclusion: marriage in that era was the simplest, especially for office workers and workers who ate the national food, let alone worry about anything. they had free love, and when they got married, their unit had a share of the house. the unit leaders would personally hold the wedding for the young couple, and after marriage, the young couple slowly made some furniture. unlike now, houses must be bought by themselves, and some people would bee property slaves for a lifetime. that era was truly socialist!
    later, with the development of society and the improvement of material living standards, betrothal gifts emerged, starting with three major items: bicycles, watches, and sewing machines. later, it developed into four major items, five major items, and so on, until now, i won't say much about it.