The beautiful and artistic oil-paper umbrella hangs upside down and has bamboo ribs, which means rising steadily! Oil-paper umbrellas represent romance and steadfast love among the Yao people, and are often used as tokens of love. When a man goes to the house of the woman he likes to propose marriage, he will bring a red oil-paper umbrella and place it on the shrine in the main room.
If a girl has a good impression of a man, she will take off the umbrella herself, tie various triangular hanging balls tied with floral cloth or silk thread on the umbrella ribs, close the umbrella, and place it under the umbrella. An inch-long colored whisker will appear on the edge.
The woman handing the umbrella to the man for safekeeping represents the success of the engagement. The oil-paper umbrella has also become a token of love between the two people. If the two parties divorce, the man needs to return the hanging ball tied to the umbrella to the woman. , represents the end of the relationship.
Oil-paper umbrella
For Chinese people, oil-paper umbrellas are of course not only a token of the relationship between men and women in ancient times. The practical function of the umbrella is to avoid rain.
According to legend, the invention of the oil-paper umbrella has something to do with Lu Ban’s sister. Before the oil-paper umbrella was invented, people had no choice but to hide at home when it rained. If they happened to be outdoors when it rained, they would have no place to take shelter and would end up soaked in the rain. In order to solve this problem, Luban used his brain.
At this time, Lu Ban was already a world-famous carpenter, and it was inevitable that he felt a little uneasy. His sister wanted to calm down her brother, so she made a bet with Lu Ban to see who could invent a more practical rain shelter. . Lu Ban felt that he would definitely win, so he spent the whole morning building many pavilions in the village and went back to show off to his sister.
Lu Ban’s sister didn’t say any nonsense and produced results. Lu Ban looked at the object in his sister's hand. It was made of bamboo and silk. If opened, it would have the same function as the pavilion he built. But it could be closed and easy to use. It was equivalent to a mobile pavilion. The utensil invented by Lu Ban's sister was oil paper. The origin of the umbrella.
Since that time, oil-paper umbrellas have been accompanied by Chinese people as a daily utensil for thousands of years. During this period, they were also endowed with rich cultural connotations. Until the 1970s, they were still used in some areas of the country. You can see oil paper umbrellas. However, after the 1980s, with the rise of metal frames and nylon cloth, traditional oil-paper umbrellas gradually disappeared from people's sight.