Yi Girl Crying at Her Wedding

Yunnan
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Crying for marriage is one of the most distinctive forms of Yi wedding customs. Before the wedding of the Yi people who speak the eastern dialect, the bride must cry for marriage accompanied by her female companions. That is, she sings the "Crying for Wedding Song" while crying. The "Crying for Wedding Song" has traditional lyrics and can also be improvised. The bride can freely express her joy or sorrow when she cries and sings. The scene is as follows: the girl is getting married, and her parents invite relatives and friends to build a "green shed" with branches in the yard and spread green pine needles on the ground. On the first night of her marriage, the girl will be accompanied by her female companions to stay in the green shed. Before leaving her own house, the girl bids farewell to her parents, reluctant to leave, and cries and makes a speech: In the large fields, grain and weeds grow together. Grains are left as seeds, and weeds are abandoned. I am proud of leaving seeds, but I am unwilling to be abandoned! There are more than ten houses, and the children are lined up in rows. The son is left to take care of the family business, and the daughter's family is sent out. The son is proud to stay, but the daughter is unwilling to marry. The girl, accompanied by her female companion, arrived at the green shed. Of course, she couldn't fall asleep. She heard the sound of roosters crowing in the distance. She thought that it would soon be dawn and the sun would come out. She would have to leave her home and marry in a foreign land. She couldn't help but feel sad, so she cried and sang: There are eleven rows of green sheds, and relatives and friends are already asleep. The girl is still not asleep. Why not? She is determined to guard the farmland and live in the house. It is impossible to guard it, and it is also impossible to manage the house. It is okay not to guard it, but it is uneasy to ignore it. The girl was very reluctant to leave her parents, her friends who had been with her since childhood, and her home, but the time was almost up and she had to leave: I hope the roosters don't crow. If the roosters don't crow, I will refine silver to inlay the rooster's beak and gold to inlay the rooster's comb. I hope the sky doesn't get bright. If the sky doesn't get bright, I will refine gold to pave the palace of heaven and refine iron to build the city of heaven. I hope the sun doesn't rise. If the sun doesn't rise, I will carry mud to repair the holes in the mountains and carry water to wash the peaks. Then she thought of her pampered girlhood and her future fate, and she had a lot to say: When she was growing up in her mother's house, she slept with her mother's arms, ate her mother's food when she was hungry, and wore her mother's clothes when she was cold; she didn't go down to the pond to fetch water, didn't go up the mountain to chop wood, didn't dig vegetables or climb the fence, and her loving mother took care of everything. When she married into her husband's family, she had to chop wood and climb the mountain, fetch water from the pond, and dig vegetables and climb the thorny fence; if the leaves of the vegetables were withered and yellow, her husband's family would gossip, and if the water was turbid, her husband's family would gossip a lot! The sad words, one singing and three sighs, moved all the listeners. It is said that in the past, when girls cried for marriage, the lyrics were mostly improvised. Some of them "cried" better, expressing everyone's feelings, and then they were widely spread among the people. After several generations of mass modification and processing, it has been passed down to this day and has become a famous and very infectious lyric poem "Crying Wedding Song" in Yi literature. (Chuxiong Online) (No pictures yet, welcome to provide.) (No pictures yet, welcome to provide.)

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