Wedding Customs
01 · Historical Records
The Hui marriage customs are especially complete in the Ningxia area, which is closely related to the formation of the local Hui community: the customs belong both to the life rituals of Muslim believers and are the product of long-term blending among multiple ethnic customs — two strands fused into a single set of procedures in the wedding rites. Elders describe marrying off their son as "setting down the burden" (xiedan'r); only when the burden is set down is a parent's duty fulfilled, so from the day a marriage is agreed it carries the weight of the whole family. The proceedings have a fixed order — proposing the match, inspecting the family's standing, the meeting between the couple, conveying congratulations, fetching the bride, reciting the nikah, laying the banquet, teasing the in-laws, disturbing the bridal chamber, recognizing family seniority, and the return visit — not one step omitted.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
The marriage customs of the Hui people in Ningxia developed in step with the formation of the local Hui community; they are not only a part of the life rituals of Muslim believers but also the product of the blending of multiple ethnic customs. Hui elders often call holding a wedding for their son, or his marrying, "setting down the burden" (xiedan'r), regarding it as a "lifelong matter" and the elder's responsibility. When a marriage enters the wedding agenda, there are procedures such as proposing the match, inspecting the family's standing, the meeting between the couple, conveying congratulations, fetching the bride, reciting the nikah, laying the banquet, teasing the in-laws, disturbing the bridal chamber, recognizing family seniority, and the return visit. Laying the banquet is the climax of the wedding. Hui people of Ningxia generally refer to holding a wedding or celebrating a happy event as "laying the feast" (baixi) or "banquet" (yanxi). The banquet tunes (yanxiqu) are the "home songs" improvised by changjiazi (household singers) at the wedding banquet; these include songs of joy, the "presenting of needlework" that praises the newlyweds and thanks relatives and friends, "narrative songs" that add to the merriment, and humorous "wine songs" — the most festive and lively part of the wedding. Banquet tunes are the finest part of Hui wedding culture: their wording is refined and wholesome, their melodies beautiful and flowing, and their content extremely rich; they serve both to create a festive atmosphere and to impart instruction, and are precious primary material for the study of Hui ethnic history and music history. Hui marriage contains both religious and folk-cultural content; with the development of the times, Hui marriage customs, under the influence of modern social currents, have seen some traditional practices gradually fade from people's lives.
Proposal, seeing the household and the meeting
A proposal comes first, then a visit to see the household, and only after that the meeting of the two young people themselves.
The nikah recitation
After the bride is fetched the nikah is recited according to religious rite, establishing the marriage in religious terms.
The wedding banquet
The banquet is the high point of the wedding, locally called laying the tables, and the guests invited must be seated and fed.
The wedding song of the specialist singers
Specialist singers improvise wedding songs at the table: songs of joy, songs praising the couple and thanking the guests, narrative tunes and joking drinking songs.
Teasing the parents and the bridal chamber games
After the banquet come games at the parents' expense and jokes in the bridal chamber, where rules oblige the newlyweds to answer in turn.
Acknowledging the elder generations and the return visit
The couple must learn and salute each generation of the family by rank, and a return visit to the bride's home brings the sequence to a close.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
In adapting to and transforming their environment, people have formed local cultural characteristics; Hui marriage customs are therefore a concentrated reflection of Ningxia's regional features in folk life, carrying numerous ethnic and regional cultural traits and a rich body of cultural items.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Wedding Customs · Wedding Customs · Wedding Customs · Wedding Customs · Wedding Customs · Wedding Customs · Wedding Customs · Wedding Customs · Wedding Customs · Wedding Customs.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Hui marriage customs are distinctive because of the banquet tunes, and it is through the generational transmission of Hui marriage customs that many Hui artistic forms have been preserved and passed down. Today, the banquet tunes sung for so long at Hui weddings are gradually disappearing from the marriage customs, causing Hui wedding customs to lose their distinctiveness and splendor; therefore, protecting and transmitting Hui marriage customs and banquet tunes is a protection of the cultural genes of the Hui people and a preservation of their ethnic art.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Anfucheng 04-1986
- Mojinghai 05-3058
- Lan Yugen 05-3059
- Lei Qisong
- Wu Yumei
- Fang Weihua
- Guojinglin
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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