China News Service, Lanzhou, April 8 (Yan Jiao) In the past few days, a news that "Gansu Zhengning responded to netizens breaking up due to 300,000 betrothal gifts" aroused the attention and discussion of netizens, and "high-priced betrothal gifts" once again became a hot topic of discussion.
Previously, some Qingyang netizens said: "The object of the conversation for several years has reached the point of talking about marriage, but was forced to break up because of the bride price of nearly 300,000 yuan."
The Zhengning County Party Committee Office of Qingyang City replied on the 7th that Zhengning County has issued a policy that clearly stipulates that the bride price for rural marriages should not exceed 80,000 yuan, and that for public officials should not exceed 60,000 yuan.
Why does the betrothal gift that should have become a "happy head" frequently become a "sweet burden" for newcomers?
The traditional customs of "six rites of marriage" can be traced back to the Western Zhou Dynasty. The ancient book "Rituals" says, "There are six rites in the dark: accepting the adoption, asking the name, accepting the rite, accepting the levy, requesting the date, and welcoming it in person." In the style of luxury comparison, the betrothal gift gradually changed its taste, rising to hundreds of thousands or even millions of yuan, forming a "high-priced betrothal gift".
In recent years, the sky-high price of betrothal gifts in rural areas has been controversial, and many places across the country have made heavy efforts to control them: Changzhi, Shanxi clearly stipulates that the maximum standard of betrothal gifts is 50,000 yuan; Shangqiu, Henan has clear requirements for returning betrothal gifts; Ningling County, Henan Province introduced new regulations to limit the amount of betrothal gifts not more than 30,000 yuan.
A group wedding was held in Qingyang City, Gansu Province with the theme of "May 4th Spirit Revolutionizing Old Ding Ding Xin Ding New Changing Customs and Changing Customs and Youth First".
The picture shows the newlyweds riding a bicycle to welcome their relatives.
(Data map) Photo by Chen Fei
Qingyang City, which has attracted much attention this time, has previously taken various measures to rectify high-priced dowry gifts, held collective weddings that "change customs and customs first", advocated "low dowry" or even "zero dowry", and included "frugal weddings" into the village rules and regulations. , establish matchmaking agencies and matchmaking service associations, and conduct standardized guidance, training and mandatory management of urban and rural "matchmakers".
Years of soft and hard measures across the country have been effective, but they have not been able to cure it.
As Zhengning County officials said, it is difficult to control high-priced betrothal gifts with rigid regulations, and requires long-term education and guidance and the participation of the whole society.
The love and happiness of young people should not be measured by money, and they need to support each other for a lifetime.
The betrothal gift was one of the marriage customs in ancient times. How to make the betrothal gift return to the number of rituals?
We might as well shift more attention from sky-high betrothal gifts to traditional rituals, so as to realize the transformation of "heavy rituals and light betrothal gifts" over time.
In this process, in addition to official hard-core measures, more folk voices can also be added to "melt" the "iceberg" of unhealthy local customs with the example of low and zero bride price, and lead a new trend of healthy, frugal and civilized marriage.
(Finish)