撒拉族婚礼仪式在清乾隆年间编撰的《循化志》一书中有较为详细的记载,二百多年来,整个婚礼仪式程序未有太大的变化,传承体系较为完备,对研究撒拉族文化史有重要价值。
Wedding ceremony is the most important event of Salar people in their whole life. It takes place in the high time of winter and goes through, in about half a year, the procedures of match-making, go-between dispatching, engagement tea offering, engagement money presenting, marriage scripture reading, bridegroom sending and returning to bridegroom home. It still preserves the ancient Turkish marital ritual of offering the back of lamb, which is basically extinct in the Turkish ethnic groups now. Thus it is a living specimen of ancient Turkish culture despite its tremendous distance away, both in time and place, from Turkish cultural circles.
撒拉族婚礼是撒拉族人生礼仪中最为重要的一个礼仪活动。撒拉族传统的婚礼仪式都在每年的隆冬季节举行,从订婚到举行婚礼仪式需要经过相亲、打发媒人、送订婚茶、送聘礼、念合婚经、送嫁、回门等几个程序,大约半年多时间。在撒拉族婚礼中迄今还保留着敬献”羊背子”等古老的突厥民族婚礼习俗。这些习俗已在突厥民族后裔的生活中绝迹,却在时间和空间上远离突厥文化圈的撒拉族风俗中得以传承,因此它是研究突厥古代文化的活化石。
The wedding ceremony of Salar nationality used to enact a dancing opera which records an instructive history of its migration. But it survived until 1950s. Due to the social changes and shortened wedding ceremony, the opera is extinct and only remains in the memory of old people.
撒拉族的婚礼中保留的”堆委奥义纳”是一出以民族迁徙史传统教育为主要内容的带有一定话剧特点的民族舞蹈,20世纪50年代以前的婚礼中尚有保存,但是由于社会变革,婚期缩短,这种表现形式已不复存在,只有一些老年人尚有记忆。
The wedding ceremony is recorded in elaborate details in Book of Xunhua. It has not changed much in over 200 years and remains very stable in its practice, thus of great value for studying the cultural history of Salar nationality.