Homecoming youth are bringing new ideas back to the countryside, and new fashions and new marriage customs are becoming new trends

New and simple wedding affairs, "light travel" for love

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Different from the traditional wedding of their fathers who went to the countryside and followed the customs, today's new young people bring new fashions and new wedding customs back to the countryside, to simplify the complex, and to spend more energy on entrepreneurial development and labor to get rich. At the same time, many places have also widely carried out marriage customs reform by issuing proposals and improving mechanisms, and continue to promote the reduction of the burden of love and protect the fruits of happiness.

There is no "sky-high" bride price, luxury cars to welcome relatives, and no mountain and sea delicacies, instead of riding a bicycle with the bride "low-carbon marriage", a family gathering is limited to relatives and friends... In recent years, more and more rural young people who work hard in the city have brought the new concept of wedding back to the countryside and become the main force advocating the new fashion of simple marriage affairs.

"We need to 'travel light' and embark on a new starting point for a happy life." Many young people who have returned to the home said that they chose to do a new and simple marriage to reduce the burden on both families, but also to return happiness to purity.

Bring new wedding ideas home

"Did you really decide to do the wedding so hastily? Won't Xiaoqian's parents have an opinion? "On the evening of May 5, Chen Zhou's father called him out alone again to inquire about the wedding." Xiaoqian and I have already discussed it, everything is simple for the wedding, so don't worry about it. Chen Zhou responded.

It turned out that that day was the big day for Chen Zhou and Zhang Siqian. Different from the traditional wedding ceremony, there are no luxury cars to marry, no bride price, dowry, and dozens of tables of wedding banquets, and only 10 tables of relatives and friends and a marriage letter are present to witness the "positive results" of the two.

After graduating from university, Chen Zhou, 27, works at an Internet company in Chongqing's main city while waiting for his girlfriend Zhang Siqian to graduate. At the end of 2022, the two decided to return to their hometown to start a business, and held a wedding at the same time.

"Both of our parents are from rural areas, and when we heard that we were going to get married, we were ready to make a big show." Chen Zhou said frankly that at the beginning, he also wanted to marry himself in a beautiful way and his wife in a beautiful way. But after calming down, Chen Zhou carefully calculated: according to local traditional customs, the bride price costs 8,8 yuan, plus buying cigarettes, buying alcohol, wedding companies and banquets, etc., the total cost is more than <>,<> yuan.

Chen Zhou, who has just started his business, does not have enough money, his family conditions are limited, and his wife also knows his difficulties, so the two sides each do their parents' ideological work, and finally decide to keep everything simple.

"The wedding is just a 'bridge' to marriage, and the relationship between the two parties can be a 'car' or a 'boat'. As long as the feelings are in place, it doesn't matter if there is a 'bridge' or not. Zhang Siqian said that if you hurt your feelings for the sake of face, the marriage is likely to last long.

In fact, with the extensive reform of marriage customs in China, coupled with the background of rural revitalization, more and more young people have returned to the countryside, and these returning young people have also brought the new concept of wedding to the countryside to reduce the burden of love.

It is not necessary to follow the customs

During the May Day period this year, Ran Zirui, who had just passed the year of establishment, returned to his hometown of Fengjie in Chongqing, and the day after arriving home, relatives came to him and lent him money for his son's wedding. After a detailed chat, Ran Zirui learned that his relatives were going to give the woman a bride price of 9,9 yuan, which is called "long and long", and also arranged a banquet with a price of 1888,20 yuan per table in a local five-star hotel... The price of the whole set is more than 6,<> yuan, and there is still a shortage of <>,<> yuan.

Subsequently, Ran Zirui learned that the woman's family did not actually ask for a bride price, nor did they make any excessive demands on the wedding, but the relatives' family insisted on earning face, and because they did not scrape together enough money, they postponed the marriage date again and again.

"There is no need to get married so complicated, so what can you do if you borrow money for a wedding and earn face?" Ran Zirui and other juniors lobbied. In the end, unable to resist the "wild bombardment" of these young people, relatives listened to the opinions and agreed to lower the specifications of weddings and banquets.

Similar situations are not uncommon throughout the country. In the eyes of the older generation, marriage is an important social ceremony, which is related to the face and dignity of the family, so it will gain social recognition by comparing the amount of the bride price and the size of the wedding.

"When marriage becomes a comparison and performance, it not only brings a burden to the family and a negative impact on the environment, but also makes the wedding custom go astray, adding many impurities to the originally pure wedding." Chen Zhou said that unlike his parents, his generation is more willing to spend their energy on entrepreneurial development and labor to get rich, rather than reluctantly accepting the traditional wedding of going to the countryside and following customs.

"Anyway, I will get married on a tour in the future, which is simple and romantic." Ran Zirui said.

The reporter noticed that driven by young people returning from the city, riding mountain bikes took the bride to "low-carbon marriage"; Have a self-officiated wedding on the lawn; Wedding banquet meals are mainly home cooking and healthy eating, and new trends and wedding customs such as "CD-ROM Action" and tourism and marriage are becoming a new trend in rural weddings.

Establish rules and regulations to protect "happiness results"

"At present, although there has been a trend of new weddings, the reform of marriage customs is still a long-standing problem." In the view of the relevant person in charge of the Propaganda Department of the Wuxi County CPC Committee, the old marriage customs are "old" in the thousand-year-old heritage, "big" in thousands of households, and "difficult" in removing the old and establishing a new. "To achieve change at the roots, education and guidance are the top priority, and at the same time, if the new fashion is to be normal, the establishment of rules and regulations is the key."

The person in charge introduced that in view of the bad habits of showing off wealth and comparing money, doing big things, and rectifying wine without anything in some areas, Wuxi County explored the establishment of a "general management lecture hall" for persuasion, formulated village rules and people's covenants to restrain them, and established village rules and people's covenants that included "wine bans" that conform to social conditions and public opinion.

Nowadays, the concept of "wedding and funeral banquets are frugal, and no banquets are not held" has been recognized and supported by the local masses. "Since the opening, we have made a rule: we will not organize, undertake or participate in 'Nothing Wine', and persuade villagers to make their wedding banquet meals simple and healthy." Tan Chuanlin, the owner of a winery in Guanfeng Village in the county, told reporters that he also signed the "Letter of Commitment not to Undertake Illegal Banquets" with several farm owners in the village and the town.

The issue of young people's marriage and romance is a matter for small families and a major national affair. At present, all parts of the country have promoted the reform of youth marriage customs and protected the "happiness results" through initiatives and rules. In January this year, the Chongqing Civil Affairs Bureau, the Office of the Municipal Spiritual Civilization Construction Committee and the Municipal Health Commission jointly issued the "Proposal for Civilized and Thrifty Operation of Red and White Happy Events", advocating that the joy of newlyweds be shared in a simple, moderate, green and low-carbon way through holding group weddings, family weddings, tourism marriages, participating in social welfare activities, and planting commemorative trees by husband and wife.

In this regard, Ran Zirui believes that it is sweeter to say goodbye to the rural wedding that follows the customs, and their generation of young people will start from themselves, unload the burden of love, return happiness to purity, and let the new wind of marriage custom reform blow all over the field.

(Workers' Daily, Huang Shiqiang)