Marriage of the Li

They have three types of marriage:

The marriage of the thickness, in which the young people knows each other and they go to the thickness to court, in the night the boy goes to house of the girl, and this way during a time, if then they decide to marry, asks an intermediary to ask his wife.

In the village: When a wedding is celebrated, the young people of the nearby villages meets in the holiday. There are many opportunities to be known, and between singings and riddles some of them are falling in love, and separate of the group. Then, the following days the boy will send an intermediary to ask for the hand.

In the Fangliao: The men disguise themselves and go to "the house of the maidens" In the door sing: "It opens the door", the girl in turn answers him singing the song:" I do not want" o it "happens", and the boy acts following his orders. The girl sings "Sit down" and he the "Song of gratitude". Then he sings "To which I come", and she, if it interests in him, "Welcome". As they are becoming close he will sing "to Prove the love" and she "to Pull the love". And this way after the first appointment night by night they meet in the cultivation and "They Put to bed in the field", and the love is progressing until they decide to marry. These "Houses of the maidens" are a characteristic of the peoples Li, and of other peoples of firm ground. The young people of both sexes, on having fulfilled 13 years, is constructed by his friends, a few houses of bamboo a little removed from the village, where it meet single and married that still do not live with the spouse, and sing, and are courted, enjoying a big sexual freedom. The boys visit the girls in these houses, generally of other villages. These meetings rarely finish in marriage. The relations last little, changing often of couple, and one does not even discriminate either against the illegitimate children, or against the single mothers, the other way round they are more valued since the children will belong to the legitimate husband

Also they practise the called stolen Love, which is different in every branch.
They do not marry the people of the same clan. When they it fit from the childhood of the fiancés, matchmakers intervene and they are attentive to the signs auspiciosos. Very common age the riddle for the bones of chicken, in which there were observed the holes of two femurs of a chicken served in banquet, the entire sum must be a pair, but, the commitment was coming undone. Buffaloes were the dowry, from 2 to 5 according to the wealth. The expense that this was taking was doing that sons-in-law were adopted, poor peasants that if not, they might not marry. Other times the husband was remaining at the woman's up to paying with his service the debt of the dowry. Married many people were making use of the absences of the spouse to support sexual relations, and others were finishing in divorce, like the woman who wanted to get divorced he should return the gifts, they were always the men those who were asking for it. After the divorce the children were staying in the house of the father, except the nursing ones, that were with the mother, but supported by the father. The widows were enjoying freedom of the second nuptials. All this finished in the 50s, when the Communist Party took the control of his territories.

Wedding: The friends of the fiancé gather the fiancée, who is it was leading to house of the fiancé doing ceremonies to frighten the demons. After the night the fiancée returns to house of the parents. It is returning to house of the husband up to remaining there, when there is news about pregnancy the husband constructs a new house and they live already together.

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