Posted 2017/7/9
It is an old-style wedding etiquette in some regions. When marrying a daughter, the parents would wail or hire someone to wail when the daughter was leaving home, a way to display their reluctance to let their daughter leave.
During the Warring States Period, when the princess of the Zhao State was about to marry and be the queen of the Yan State, her mother wailed for her just before her departure. It was probably the beginning of the long-prevailing custom of “哭嫁”. And there are weeping marriage songs, the content of which is generally about showing the gratitude for the fosterage of parents, the deep affection among sisters and brothers and the bitterness of departure from the kinsfolk, or expressing the concern for future life, and so on. The custom has disappeared in most places and can only be seen in the place where the Tujia people live.
