I went to a high school friend’s wedding last weekend. I have not met my friend for 5 years, but I know the groom because he is her college boyfriend. After all twists and turns, they finally got married. It was a great wedding and I feel so happy for them.
In China, the usual marrying age is between 25 and 28. People in big cities tend to marry later than the rest. Because of the culture difference, many westerners are interested in how a Chinese wedding goes. It is quite complicated and not easy to describe. The wedding culture differs in different regions as China is really big. However, I will give you some general wedding customs in the following paragraphs.
The Chinese wedding customs has been undergone constant evolvements and innovations. The contemporary customs, to a large extent, presents a rich combination of western and eastern cultures and both traditions and fashions. Usually, a wedding process includes 6 steps, selecting an Auspicious Wedding Date, choosing wedding dress, taking photos, booking wedding car, arranging wedding dinner and inviting the guests. After the wedding ceremony, the newlyweds will enjoy their honeymoon as the finishing of the whole wedding thing.
Selecting an Auspicious Wedding Date:
Almanacs
Auspicious days are subject to interpretation by fortune tellers that perform the analysis based on one’s birth date (year, month, day and hour) after consultation with the Chinese almanac. Almanacs containing predictions for the entire year are sold at the beginning of the Lunar New Year by street vendors and in book stores. These paperback books are approximately two inches thick with a wealth of information about Chinese beliefs. It is said to be the oldest continuous publication known. Different versions are published in Taiwan, Hong Kong and mainland China, but unfortunately an English version is not available.
Chinese fashion
Shooting wedding photos:
Western fashion
Shooting wedding photos has become indispensable to each wedding in modern times. Usually, the bridegroom is dressed in trim suits while the bride in gorgeous wedding dress with beautiful jewelries. There are a large variety of wedding dresses, which are mainly categorized into the Chinese and western styles. The bright red of Qipao among all Chinese wedding dresses is the most festive and commonly chosen color, while in a western wedding, the while color symbolizing purity and loyalty has always been the first choice. The wedding pictures are usually hung on the wall after the wedding as a decoration of happiness and sweet marriage.
Picking up the bride:
Wedding car
In ancient times, brides are usually sent to the groom’s house in carriage, sedan chair or rickshaw, which are now replaced by cars. The cars or “wedding cars” driven on the wedding day are luxury cars richly decorated with flowers around and red letters of “Double Happiness” (see below) on windows. Some are ornamented with mascot or dolls on the front hood.
Xi
Each half of the symbol is the standard character for happiness, written “xi,” and pronounced something like “she” in Mandarin (the third tone). Therefore, two “xi “graphs together represents the wish for the new couple to have happiness together. The double happiness graph (pronounced “shuang-xi” in Mandarin) is a special Chinese character used for marital happiness. It’s not used in daily Chinese writing or printing.
Wedding Dinner:
Wedding dinner
The wedding dinner is a banquet held for celebration of marriage. Friends and relatives are invited to share the happy moment and congratulate the newlyweds with blessings of eternal love. We usually give red envelopes with money inside to the newlyweds. Guests in the wedding dinner will be treated with wine and cigarettes and wedding candies. The gifts and money received by the couple are recorded on a red-cover book for later reference of requital. The Chinese value highly the wedding banquet and regard it the ritual of marriage life. In some places, the wedding dinner is even held for three days and nights.
Very charming article. Seems the wedding celebration is quite similar to western style as you say and so gaciously provide in the pictures. The red gown in traditional Chinese Wedding is so woman and almost mystical, just as your beautiful people, wherever they are.
Is their a cake to be cut? We in the west use it to indicate that as the bride and groom feed each other a piece of the cake, it symbolizes the “cake” or most cherished gift, their intimacy of each other. so is usually demonstrated at the wedding in a solemn, and happy way.
We also send thank you cards to wedding gift givers and sometimes of course celebrate anniversaries with guests.
The honeymoon location is sometimes kept secret and related after, or said in general terms.
We used to tie old shoes and tin cans to the back bumper of the honeymoon car and they drag and make noise along the way. The bride and groom are sometimes showered with uncooked rice on their way out to the honeymoon trip, much to the amusement of the guests. Fancy carriages drawn by horses are sometimes rented to bring the bride andgroom to a nearby departure location as a hotel, with buglers sound heralding notes. It used to be said that an accredited Captain of ship out at sea can perform a wedding that is legally binding. They are so much fun.
Everyone is in such a festive and warm mood, I myself have been invited to several styles of wedding cultures, each with its’ own special magic.
Gan Bei!!
Sounds like Benjamin Wey is a very iilgltneent guy. He seems to know what he’s talking about and understands the cultural barrier in China that we don’t know much about being in the United States.