China's ethnic groups vary in relation
to their love and marriage folklore. In China's southwestern Dehong Prefecture, Yunnan
Province, young men and women of the Jingpo ethnic group have very definite ideas about
how couples should conduct their love affairs. Young men and women of the group are
free to enter into love affairs. Generally, when the daughters grow up, the parents let
them live in a separate room and do not interfere when young men from other villages come
to visit them. In the village there is a public house especially for young men and women
to meet. In the public house, youths having lots of fun can be seen both from the local
village and neighboring villages. They sing and play the mouth organ and hurry home before
dawn. Festivals are a good opportunity for them to romance their sweethearts. They
frequently sing and dance, drink wine and prepare betel nuts for each other through the
night as they strengthen their friendship. Although they see each other freely, they are
not allowed to have sex or become pregnant before marriage. Other wise, they will be
punished according to the customs and the offender, if he is not very heavy, will be made
to kill a pig, or if he is heavy, he will be made to kill an ox to entertain the villagers
as an apology.
Their marriage ceremony is different from other nationalities because there is a custom
called "passing the grass bridge" on the day of their wedding. The family of the
bridegroom entertains the visitors as usual. Accompanied by beautiful music, the guests
take the bride (whose upper body is decorated with silver decorations and her lower body
with a deep red tubular skirt)not directly to the home of the bridegroom, but to a house
of her relatives in the village.Generally at noon she is met in front of the bridegroom's
house at the chosen time by the compere. At the ceremony, the compere grasps a chicken and
cuts its neck. Before it dies, the chicken is free to see where it flies. If it flies
toward the house of the bridegroom, that proves that the bride will bring prosperity to
the family of her mother-in-law. Later, the compere will drop the chicken's blood on the
grass bridge. In front of the gate of the bridegroom's house cogongrass is spread and
above it a wooden board is put down to form a grass bridge. Passing through the
chicken-blood grass bridge, the bride goes toward the house of and becomes the wife of the
bridegroom. Her mother-in-law takes off her necklace and gives it to the bride to wear,
signifying that she has handed over the power of the house to the bride. After this all
guests hail, drink wine, dance and enjoy the celebrations.
