Customs of Yunnan:
1. Antiphonal singing
Antiphonal singing is a traditional way for many ethnic minority youths in Yunnan, and it is also a way to celebrate festivals.
For example, the Miao people's "You Fang", the Yao people's "Singing Fengliu", the Buyi people's "lang whistle and catch up with the watch", the Lahu, Hani and Bai people's singing tunes, the Tibetan people's singing folk songs, etc. They are all methods and ways for young men and women from ethnic minorities to communicate their feelings, find lovers, and choose spouses through antiphonal songs.
2. Crying wedding
Crying wedding is a marriage custom among Zhuang, Yi, Hani, Tibetan and other ethnic groups. It is usually carried out a few days before or on the wedding day, and is attended by the bride’s mother and family members. The female family members accompany the bride to cry, expressing the bride's sadness over the passing of her girlhood life, her repayment for her parents' nurturing grace, her attachment to her family's departure, and her complaints about her dissatisfaction with the marriage.
3. Robbery
The Yi, Dai, Bai, Achang, Lisu, Jingpo, Yao and other ethnic groups in Yunnan have the custom of kidnapping, usually when free love and marriage between men and women are blocked. occurs. With the woman's tacit consent in advance, the man pays a partner to pretend to steal the bride or asks a partner to steal the secretly selected girl. Even if the girl is willing, she must pretend to resist.
4. Throwing bags
Every year during the Water Splashing Festival, Dai young men and women dressed in festive costumes line up in two rows opposite each other. The woman throws the flower bag to the boy she likes. If the man is interested, , he pretended not to accept the flower bag, happily gave up, gave the gift to the girl, and both left the scene to talk to each other. The bag dropping is interspersed with singing, dancing, picnics and other activities.
5. Axia marriage
The old marriage custom of the Mosuo people in Ninglang, Yunnan. "Axia" is a Mosuo language and means "friend". The man and woman are not called husband and wife. Called "Axia", as long as the man and woman are in love, they can live together after exchanging tokens.
Among them, visiting marriage is the most peculiar. In visiting marriage, the man visits the woman’s house at night and returns to his own home at dawn the next day. He does not have the same food and work, and there is no family economic connection. The children born belong to the woman. Both men and women can have the same relationship with other people, and this type of marriage is a remnant of a matriarchal society.
6. Plagiarizing cattle to celebrate the harvest
It is a sacrificial festival for the Dulong people to celebrate the harvest. One day is chosen every autumn as the day to celebrate the harvest. The cattle slaughtering ceremony is held in the village square. It is presided over by the family patriarch and the cattle are tied to wooden pillars in the square.
A young woman hangs a string of beads on the horns of the cow. After a short ceremony, a girl puts the linen fabric on the cow's back. Finally, a young man with both parents puts the linen fabric on the cow's back. The sharp bamboo spears were stabbed into the cattle, and everyone jumped up and cut open the meat. Then people cheered and jumped, dancing the joyful Guozhuang dance to celebrate the festival.
7. Stepping on the moon
It is a custom of Miao young people to make friends and get married. They go from village to village to find the girl they like, play and sing, laugh, get to know each other through "stepping on the moon", establish friendship, and even fall in love and vow to stay together forever.