Posts Tagged wedding custom
Ancient Chinese Wedding Custom – The Wedding
Posted by sharon in Wedding Traditions on February 4th, 2010
Compared with the complicated preparations, the wedding ceremony was quite simple. The newlyweds were conducted to the family altar, where they had to kneel three times. First, they would kneel to the heaven and the earth, then to the ancestral tablets and their parents and at last they would kneel to each other. This official ritual was equal to the wedding vow in western wedding.
In some regions, the bride and the groom would be conducted to their bridal chamber. However, in some regions, the bride would present tea to the groom’s parents and relatives in sequence of seniority. The newlyweds would receive money which was wrapped in red envelopes from people who received the tea.
Ancient Chinese Wedding Custom – Obtaining the Bride
Posted by sharon in Wedding Traditions on September 22nd, 2009
Firecrackers, loud gongs and drums meant the start of the procession from the groom’s home to the bride’s home. It was believed that doing this could ward off evil spirits. Accompany with a child (as an omen of his future sons), the groom would lead the procession. The bridal sedan chair, attendants, musicians, and sometimes a dancing lion would follow him.
When the groom arrived at the bride’s home, they would meet the bride’s friends first. The bridesmaids would play door game with the groom and his attendants. They would ask the groom’s party to perform stunts until they are satisfied with the red packets of money the groom had given.
In some regions, the groom would receive a pair of chopsticks and two wine goblets wrapped in red paper from the bride’s family, symbolizing his receiving the joy of the family in the person of their daughter.
Ancient Chinese Wedding Custom – Preparing for the Wedding Day
Posted by sharon in Wedding Traditions on August 21st, 2009
As marriage also meant that the bride would leave her former life behind, she had to live for a while in seclusion, always in the family’s cock loft, with only her closest friends. During this period, they would mourn, or curse, the loss of the former life. For this reason, the bride’s emergence on the wedding day also referred to coming out of the cock loft.
For the part of the groom, he was charged with installing the bridal bed on the day before the wedding. The time was carefully selected to influence fertility and a‘good luck woman’ man or ‘good luck man’, the person who have been someone with many children and many living husbands or wives, would preside over the installation.
After that, children would be invited onto the bed as an omen of fertility. Fruit that represented abundance and fertility,such as red dates, oranges, lotus seeds, peanuts, pomegranates, were strewn across the bed.
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