A traditional Chinese wedding ceremony was very elaborate in the preparations, but utterly simple in the actual wedding ceremony. The day of the wedding, the bride went through several preparation rituals including:
- The Hair Dressing Ritual
- The Capping Ritual
- The Ritual Journey to the Groom’s House
- The Arrival Ritual
Chinese wedding ceremony is like a machine that takes a collection of software. It ‘s customs and traditions are carefully prepared and indicates a different meaning. These symbols and concepts passed down from generation to generation and continues to apply in modern China. Some innovations in the area, but the point remains the same.
Chinese wedding tradition is surrounded by old authorities. The authorities were very traditional and desirable. Respect for parents and ancestors, is the basic principle is the strict observance and rituals to ward off evil omens, exchange gifts and innovation of the merger of the bride to the family of her husband. ”
If you are descendants of Chinese and you marry a Chinese woman, be prepared for extensive and elaborate rituals of the proposal a few days after the wedding. For the Chinese people, marriage is an important responsibility that can not be left for the couple to decide. In fact, not involved in the agreements. An average (similar to a seller) to negotiate a marriage between two families. Neither the bride nor the groom will have their say on the matter. All aspects are taken into account: the past of the family, financial status, obligations and reputation, numerology, astrology, and the ability to provide food on the table.
When everything is agreed, the ritual begins. The day before the wedding, the wedding day itself, and 3 days, consists of many rituals. The bride is the subject of the ritual, the hair and combing ritual. The groom is also the experience of being excluded from friends of the bride “and to answer questions or to pay his friends for his wife. The bride from home trip in place of her husband is also rich in ritual. It includes the use of a red veil and a red umbrella to protect us from evil. path is paved with red beans and rice, symbols of fertility.
Each of these rituals was designed to help the bride to be achieving the look of a married woman. Her transition from single daughter to wife was as important to her choice of hairstyles as it was to her bearing and clothing. A good luck woman spent the time of preparation with her and spoke words of wisdom to help prepare her for the transformation. Each ritual served a purpose in leading up to the Chinese wedding ceremony.
The ceremony itself was exceptionally simple. The bride and groom would be conducted to their family altars where they would pay homage to the family ancestors, the Kitchen God and to Heaven and Earth. They would then offer tea to the groom’s parents. After the tea was served, the bride and groom would then bow to each other and thus the wedding ceremony itself was concluded. Following a traditional Chinese wedding ceremony, the bride and groom would retire immediately to the bridal chamber where they would then spend their time together and get to know each other.
If you ever have an opportunity to go to a Chinese wedding don’t let it pass, it’s an incredible experience totally different from everything you’ve experienced before. Chinese women, for instance, wear three different dresses on their wedding day. The first dress is usually a modern western dress, the second a traditional white bridal gown and the third a long red Chinese cheongsam dress embroidered with dragon and phoenix symbols. The animals symbolize the balance of male and female power plus red is a lucky color in China.
Leading US wedding website The Knot launched Ai Jie (www.ijie.com) in China on November 17,2010. The website offers inspiration and advice about weddings, relationships, household planing and pregnancy for couples in China, where 10 million weddings take place annually capturing a slice of China’s $57 billion wedding market.
The website hosts China’s trends, entertainment customs, wedding traditions together with a variety of browsing preference which are changing incredibly fast.
