The Chinese Wedding Day

Chinese Marriage Custom 1. The Proposal. The process exposits with an elaborate marriage and acceptance. This process was determined in the hand of go-between, who acted as a buffer between devil parties. The important parties in proposal and betrothal negotiations were the parents of the bride and garment, rather than the bride and the gear up. When the male childs parents identify a future bride, they would send the go-between to present gifts to the female childs parents and to express their feelings ab emerge the match. If the proposal was well-received, the go-between would obtain the date and hour of the lighttle girls birth recorded on a formal document.The grooms family would place this document on the ancestral altar for tether days. If no suspicious omens, e. g. quarrels between the parents or a loss of property, took place within that time, the parents would give the information to an astrological expert to confirm that the young charr and their watchword would make a good match. If the boys family found the horoscope to be favourable, they gave the boys birth date and birth hour to the go-between to withdraw to the girls family, who would go through the same process. Only after both outcomes were favourable, the two families will arrange to meet.Finally after discussion, each family evaluated the other in terms of appearance, education, character, and cordial status. If both were satisfied they would proceed to the betrothal. 2. The Betrothal. First both parents exchanged family c passingentials as tokens of intention. Then, after extensive bargaining, the two families would arrive at the amount of money and goods that would make up the gift to the girls family. After presenting engagement tokens, the go-between would ask the brides family to choose among several wedlock dates suggested by the boys family and also set a date for presenting betrothal gifts.The boys family presented betrothal gifts of money and significant items such as tea, Dragon (male) and Phoenix (female) bridal cakes, pairs of male and female poultry, sweetmeats and sugar, wine and tobacco, accompanied by an itemized statement of these gifts. Tea was such a primary part of these gifts in some areas that they were known collectively as cha-li, that is, tea presents. The girls family reciprocated with gifts of food and clothing. It was customary for the girls family to distribute the bridal cakes they received from the boys family to friends and relatives as a form of announcement and invitation to the wedding feast.The boys familys gifts acknowledged the parents efforts in accepting the girl, and by accepting the gifts, the girls family pledged her to the boys family. Several days after the presentation of the betrothal gifts, the girls family sent porters with an inventoried dowry to the boys house. The dowry consisted of practical items, including a chamber pot, filled for the occasion with fruit and strings of coins. This rising gave the girls family the opportunity to display both their social status and their love for their daughter, and wealthy parents often included serving girls to attend their daughter in her new home.The betrothal generally lasted for a year or two, although the betrothal would last until the children had grown to marriageable age. 3. Before The Wedding. In preparation for her departure, the future bride retreated from the ordinary routine and lived in seclusion in a separate part of the house with her closest friends. During this moment, the young women sang and mourning the brides separation from her family and vowing in front of the go-between and as well as the grooms family and the girls parents.Since this sleep-over often took place in the cock loft, the brides emergence on her wedding day is sometimes refer redness to as coming of the cock loft. The preparation on the part of the groom involving the installation the bed on the day before the wedding. A man or women with many children and living mates, were selected to install a newly purchased bed. After the bed was in place, children were invited onto the bed as an omen of fertility. For the same reason, the bed was scattered with red dates, oranges, lotus seeds, peanuts, pomegranates and other fruits. 4. The Wedding Day.At dawn on her wedding day (or the night before), the bride bathed in water infused with pumelo, a variety of grapefruit, to cleanse her of unrighteous influences. A good luck woman attended the bridal preparations. She spoke auspicious words while dressing the brides hair in the style of a married woman. After the hair is styled, the bride emerged from her retreat. She was carried to the main hall on the back of the good luck woman or her closely senior sister-in-law. There she donned a jacket and skirt and stepped into a pair of red shoes, placed in the center of a sieve.The brides face was covered with either a red silk veil or a curtain of tassels or beads that hung from the bridal Phoeni x crown. (The photo below was taken at the mock wedding at a prior years Chinese Summer Festival. After completing her wedding preparations, the bride bow down to her parents and to the ancestral tablets and awaited the arrival of the bridal procession from the grooms house. Dressed in a long gown, red shoes and a red silk sash with a silk ball on his shoulder, the groom knelt at the family altar while his father placed a cap decorated with cypress leaves on his head.The groom bowed first before the tablets of enlightenment and Earth and his ancestors, then to his parents and the assembled family members. His father removed the silk ball from the sash and placed it on top of the bridal pub chair. Next is the process to obtain the bride. The firecrackers start to play, the loud gong and also drums marked the starting process. The groom starts the procession led by the kids as a sign of his future kid. The groom would to the brides house to fetch her, taking with him the bridal cha ir, which was completely covered with red satin and fresh flowers.On arriving at the brides house, the grooms party was met by the brides friends, who would not surrender the bride until they were satisfied by red packets of money, ang pau from the grooms representative. This was the occasion of much good-natured haggling before the two parties could reach an agreement. In some cases, the groom would take dinner with the brides family, and receive a pair of chopsticks and two wine goblets wrapped in red paper, symbolic of his receiving the gladden of the family in the person of their daughter. In some regions, he would be offered sweet longan tea, two hard-boiled eggs in syrup and transparent noodles.Another chromosomal mutation was the grooms partaking of soup with a soft-boiled egg, the yolk of which he was expected to break, arguably symbolic of breaking the brides ties with her family. The good luck woman or a dajin, employed by the brides family to look after the bride, carri ed the bride on her back to the chair. Another bridesmaid might shield the bride with a sunshade while a third tossed rice at the sedan chair. Sometimes the bride was borne out in a wooden cage with her feet padlocked presumably a closing from rougher times with extremely reluctant brides.A sieve, shai-tse, which would strain out evil, and a metallic mirror, king, which would reflect light, were suspended at the rear of the brides sedan to protect her from evil influence. The bride might also attach a special mirror to her garment, which she would not remove until she was safely seated upon the marriage bed. Firecrackers were set off to frighten external evil spirits as the bride departed in the sedan chair. The physical movement symbolized the transfer of the bride from her parents family to her husbands. Great care was taken to ensure that no inauspicious influence would affect the marriage.The female attendants who escorted the bride to her new home were chosen with particula r care that the horoscope animals of their birth years were compatible with that of the bridegroom. The sedan chair itself was heavily curtained to prevent the bride from inadvertently glimpsing an unlucky sight, e. g. a widow, a well, or even a cat. Attendants scattered grain or beans, symbols of fertility, before her. Once again, firecrackers were set off just before the procession arrived. A red mat was placed before the sedan chair for the bride lest her feet touch the publicise earth as she dismounted.The entire household would be waiting to receive her. The bride was required to step over a saddle or a lit stove to cross the threshold, since the words for saddle and tranquillity sounds the same and the fire would cast out of evil influences. An attendant might immediately place a heap of rice in a sieve over or near the bride. If the bride did not wear a lucky mirror, one might be used at this time to flash light upon the bride. In some regions, a grain measure and a string o f of copper coins were laid out as talismans of prosperity.After these rituals took place, the groom could finally raise the red scarf and view the brides face. 5. The Wedding Day. In contrast to the elaborate preparations, the wedding ceremony itself was simple. The bride and groom were conducted to the family altar, where they paid homage to Heaven and Earth, the family ancestors and the Kitchen God, Tsao-Chun. Tea, generally with two lotus seeds or two red dates in the cup, was offered to the grooms parents. Then the bride and groom bowed to each other. This completed the marriage eremony, except in some regions, where both also drank wine from the same goblet, ate sugar moulded in the form of a rooster, and partook of the wedding dinner together. Immediately after the ceremony, the couple were led to the bridal chamber, where both sat on the bed. In some areas, honey and wine were poured into two goblets linked by a red thread. The bride and groom took a few sips and then exchan ged cups and drank it down. On the day of the wedding (and sometimes for the next three days), the bed chamber was open to visitors, who were given to teasing the young couple with ribald remarks.Generally, separate wedding feasts were given by the parents of the bride and the groom for their respective friends and families. heretofore at the feast, men and women sat separately. There could be a single feast for each or a series of feasts over several days. However, the most important feast was that given the grooms family on the day of the wedding. It was generally considered as public recognition of the union. On the day after the wedding,the bride awoke proterozoic to attend honor the ancestors at dawn. It was only then that she was then formally introduced to the grooms relatives and friends.As she knelt before each of the older relatives, she received a handsome gift. The brides parents-in-law gave her a title according to her husbands seniority in the family hierarchy. On t he day after the wedding,the bride awoke early to attend honor the ancestors at dawn. It was only then that she was then formally introduced to the grooms relatives and friends. As she knelt before each of the older relatives, she received a small gift. The brides parents-in-law gave her a title according to her husbands seniority in the family hierarchy.