Unhealthy trends such as high-priced betrothal gifts have been effectively suppressed

Make every effort to promote the reform of marriage customs "to lighten the burden for love"

　　□ Our reporter Pu Xiaolei

　　For a long time, in some places in the field of marriage customs, there have been problems such as high-priced dowry, large-scale activities, casual comparisons, extravagance and waste, and vulgar marriage troubles, which have become a heavy burden on the masses and have been criticized by the society. Governance.

　　In order to implement the decision-making and deployment of the Party Central Committee and the State Council on changing customs, since 2018, the Ministry of Civil Affairs has promoted the reform of marriage customs as a key task. In April and September, the civil affairs department identified 32 national marriage customs reform experimental areas in two batches, starting from four aspects: carrying out marriage and family counseling, advocating simple and moderate marriage customs and etiquette, cultivating civilized and upward marriage customs culture, and inheriting good family customs and family education. By innovating the carrier of marriage and childbearing culture, education and guides young people to establish a correct view of marriage and love, family, and control the bad habits of marriage such as sky-high betrothal gifts, build a new culture of marriage and childbirth, and help marriage and family happiness and stability.

　　At the regular press conference for the fourth quarter of 2022 held by the Ministry of Civil Affairs recently, Yang Zongtao, the second-level inspector of the Social Affairs Department of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, said that for more than a year, the Ministry of Civil Affairs has actively guided the experimental areas to explore and innovate, and each experimental area combines local In practice, the work is carried out in a targeted manner. The reform of marriage customs is improving the quality of services, guiding local governments to innovate wedding customs and etiquette, providing all-round marriage and family counseling services, and carrying out rectification of unhealthy practices such as sky-high bride price gifts, large-scale exercises, and casual comparisons. In this regard, significant results have been achieved.

　　Innovative wedding etiquette instead of big exercises

　　For more than a year, the Ministry of Civil Affairs has actively guided the experimental areas to improve the quality of services, and played the role of the main front of the marriage registration authority in the reform of marriage customs.

　　The 32 experimental areas have generally improved the hardware and software environment for marriage registration, implemented online and telephone reservations, and established marriage registration areas, divorce registration areas, waiting areas, pre-marital education rooms, marriage and family counseling rooms, and certification halls, making registration more convenient, It is fast and the environment is more warm and romantic, making marriage registration a beautiful memory in the life of young people.

Marriage culture museums or marriage culture corridors are generally set up to display traditional and excellent marriage culture, excellent family education, family traditions, love stories of sharing weal and woe, and red marriage culture, etc., which play a subtle role in improving the sense of sanctity and responsibility of marriage for new couples. effect.

Guide the newly-married parties to sign a letter of commitment or proposal for the reform of marriage customs, promise or advocate a new and simple marriage, reject high-priced brides, make a big deal, and make a vulgar marriage, and be the leader of the new era of marriage customs.

　　Under the guidance of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, various regions have innovated wedding etiquette.

　　The experimental area has generally carried out certificate-issuing services, explored certificate-issuing weddings, established a certificate-issuing system for local leaders, deputies to the National People's Congress, members of the CPPCC, and social celebrities, introduced certificate-issuing ceremonies into the marriage registration process and realized the normalization of certificate-issuing, so as to improve newcomers. For the sense of sanctity and responsibility of marriage, the parties should be guided to use the solemn certificate ceremony instead of the big deal.

Group weddings are generally organized on a regular basis in various places, and many places have specially set up outdoor group wedding bases. At important time points, group weddings are organized for different groups, which has played a good role in demonstration and leading.

For example, the collective wedding of "Oath of the Sea" held in Zhoushan City, Zhejiang Province, the "National Tide" collective wedding held every year by the Civil Affairs Department of Hunan Province, the "Zero Dowry Wedding" held every year in Hejian City, Hebei Province, and the "Zero Dowry Wedding" held every year in Qingdao City, Shandong Province Get connected to the vibrant ocean city, love in the wonderful and pleasant city” and practice collective weddings in a civilized manner.

Many places have also moved the marriage registration offices to parks, where group weddings and certificate-awarding activities are held regularly; many places also simplify traditional wedding ceremonies and innovate wedding forms that meet the needs of young people in the new era, which are well received by newlyweds. The parties are welcome.

　　Rectify sky-high betrothal gifts and curb unhealthy trends

　　The comprehensive development of marriage and family counseling services is one of the obvious achievements of the reform of marriage customs.

　　The Ministry of Civil Affairs, together with the All-China Women's Federation, issued and implemented the "Guiding Opinions on Strengthening Marriage and Family Counseling and Education in the New Era", instructing all localities to rely on marriage registration agencies to establish and improve a one-stop, diversified marriage and family service mechanism to provide emotional counseling, psychological Provide services such as counseling, marital crisis mediation, and methods of handling family relations, so as to improve the comprehensive ability and quality of the parties to maintain marriage and family.

　　At present, 84% of marriage registration offices at or above the county level have set up marriage and family counseling offices.

Explore effective methods to provide pre-marital counseling and marriage and family counseling tracking services during the cooling-off period for newlyweds, guide localities to actively apply the "Internet +" service model, carry out "cloud counseling" for marriage and family, expand the scope of services, and extend the content of counseling.

In many places, marriage and family counseling, family conflict resolution, and good family style family education and family training propaganda have been extended to villages and communities, and the evaluation of "good family", "good mother-in-law" and "good daughter-in-law" has been carried out. To influence neighbors and harmonious families.

According to the random inspection of 32 experimental areas, the social effect is very significant.

　　At the same time, we will carry out the rectification of unhealthy practices such as sky-high bride price gifts, big exercises, and casual comparisons, and explore the establishment of a sound long-term mechanism.

Guide local grassroots self-governing organizations to incorporate boycotting of high-priced bride price gifts and large-scale activities into village regulations and residents' conventions, and make provisions on standards for bride price gifts, wedding banquet standards, ceremonial standards, and the number of participants; Organizing, guiding and supervising the wedding; giving full play to the exemplary and leading role of party members and cadres and village sages in marriage arrangements, and standardizing and educating the rural matchmaker groups to strictly prohibit the promotion of the bride price standard.

Through these measures, unhealthy trends such as high-priced dowry gifts and large-scale actions have been effectively suppressed.

　　In addition, in order to meet the needs of the masses to apply for marriage registration in different places and save the time and economic costs of the parties, with the approval of the State Council, starting from June 1, 2021, the Ministry of Civil Affairs will launch the “inter-provincial link” for marriage registration for mainland residents in 7 provinces and 2 cities. As of the end of September 2022, a total of 75,514 marriage registrations for "inter-provincial" marriage registrations have been handled nationwide, which has effectively enhanced the sense of gain of the masses and has been highly recognized by the masses.

　　Mobilize the masses to consciously participate in the reform of marriage customs

　　Yang Zongtao said that in the next step, the Ministry of Civil Affairs will follow a series of requirements put forward in the report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, such as "promoting traditional Chinese virtues, strengthening the construction of family education and family style", "inheriting the excellent traditional Chinese culture" and "establishing a fertility support policy system" as a series of requirements. Guide, continue to deepen the reform of marriage customs.

Specifically, it is mainly promoted in four aspects:

　　Conscientiously carry out the work of summarizing the experience stage of the national marriage customs reform experimental area, hold a work experience exchange meeting in the experimental area, summarize and refine the typical experience obtained in the process of marriage customs reform, and increase the promotion efforts with points and areas, and upgrade mature experience and practices into policy measures.

　　Organize and mobilize the masses to consciously participate in the reform of marriage customs, further strengthen the role of the Red and White Council, Morality Council, Village Council, Township Council and other organizations, and guide village (resident) committees to study and formulate wedding and funeral etiquette norms, and form self-management by the masses. It is a good mechanism for self-supervision and self-discipline, and turns the leadership of the party and the guidance of the government into the conscious behavior of the masses.

　　Guide all localities to rely on public service facilities in rural communities to open up public spaces for holding red and white events for the masses, strictly control large-scale operations, and effectively reduce the burden on the masses.

　　Coordinate with relevant departments to expand the scope of the "cross-provincial universal" pilot program for marriage registration, and continue to promote "reducing the burden on love".

　　Comics/Li Xiaojun