Wine Culture 美酒文化 Drinking Custom of Maonan Nationality 毛南族饮酒习俗

毛南族人好饮酒，也自酿酒。酿酒的原料甚多，糯米、粘米、玉米、小米、高梁、地瓜、南瓜、都可以酿出美酒来。所酿之酒度数不高，一般为20至35度。庙节一般在农历五月，此时插秧已结束，必须祈求天神给予风调雨顺，同时还要祭祀饲养牛的创始人“三界公”。
People of Maonan nationality are fond of drinking and they make wine by themselves. There are so many raw materials for brewing, including glutinous rice, sticky rice, corn, millet, sorghum, pachyrhizus and cushaw, which all can make good wine. The degree of the brewed wine is not high and generally 20 to 35 degrees. The Temple Festival is usually in May of Chinese traditional calendar. At this time, people finish transplanting rice seedlings, and they must pray the gods for good weather for the crops and sacrifice the originator of the cattle-breeder “San Jie Gong” at the same time.
届时，各村都要杀一条菜牛进行祭祀，并给耕牛饲糯米饭团和粉蒸肉。祭祀在三界庙前举行，由“鬼师”主持，并要举行“椎牛”的仪式。毛南族人多礼好客，吃饭时无论客人大小，都被邀请与主人家长辈同坐。吃饭时如无酒招待，会被认为失礼。客人入席后，先用手指或自己人子、蘸酒洒地，表示先敬主家祖先，并祝愿主家万事如意，而后主客碰杯互祝饮酒。
At that time, every village shall kill a beef cattle for sacrifice and feed the farm cattle glutinous rice balls and steamed pork with rice flour. The sacrifice ceremony shall be held in front of Sanjie Temple and presided over by the “Ghost Hunter” and held the ceremony of “Eating Cattle”. The people of Maonan nationality are hospitable with lots of etiquettes. No matter whether the guests are old or young, they are all invited to sit with the eldership at meals. If there is no wine, it will be considered as breach of etiquette at meals. After seated, the guests shall dip the wine by his finger and sprinkle it on the ground, meaning to worship the ancestors of the host at first and wish good luck in everything of the host’s family, and then the host and the guest have a toast together.
毛南族过去盛行早婚，儿子几岁就由父母代为定婚。婚礼有“送典”、“穿耳”、“踩门”、“认亲”等等程序，其间也少不得酒。例如认亲，女方由姑嫂或女伴陪同到男家，男家要办两三桌席请舅父母、叔伯等近亲来，与姑娘见面。在结婚的时候，宾客到达，带队的人要先到主人家屋檐下的一张安放有迎亲神龛的桌子旁，赂神敬酒，然后才能进屋。结婚时不拜堂，但要拜祖先和长辈。
In the old days, it was popular to get married early in Maonan nationality. The son was engaged by his parents when he was very young. There were such procedures in the marriage ceremony as “Song Dian”, “Chuan Er”, “Cai Men” and “Ren Qin”, in which the wine was indispensable. For example, in the Ren Qin ceremony, the female side shall go to the male family accompanied by her aunt, sister-in-law or chaperone, and the male family shall prepare two or three feasts to invite the aunts or uncles to meet the girl. At the wedding, when the guests reached, the leader shall go to the table set with a greeting bride shrine on it under the eave of the host’s family to worship the gods and have a toast, and then go into the room. At the wedding ceremony, the couple shall not perform formal bows but worship the ancestor and the eldership.