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Chinese Marriage Ceremony

The evolving traditional wedding can incorporate cultural elements honoring a couple's ancestry. Documents and Designs can create a symbol, monogram or wedding logo that incorporates a couple's family traditions and heritage. Learn more about your specific marriage symbols, customs and wedding ceremony traditions. Incorporate unique and beautiful cultural symbols into your wedding stationery and wedding reception decorations.

Learn More about Chinese Wedding Customs

   


The Proposal

“Marriage was for continuing the ancestral line and creating alliances between families; too important a duty to be left in the rash hands of the young."

Costa, Shu Shu, Wild Geese and Tea: An Asian-American Wedding Planner, NY: Riverhead Books, 1997.

"The matchmaker] must carry the proposal to the girl's family and ask for the young lady's 'eight characters' (the year, month, day of the month and hour of the boy's birth and of the girl's birth) and later conduct the negotiations concerning the gifts. If the girl's family hands out the 'eight chraracters', this is a sign of preliminary consent."
Hsu 1971, 84



The Bethrothal (Na-Cai)

Bargaining
Both sets of parents exchanged family credentials as tokens of intention.

Engagement Tokens
Amount of money and goods that would make up the gift to the girl’s family.

Auspicious Wedding Dates
Auspicious dates and times are usually selected by either consulting a chinese monk, temple official,
fortune teller, chinese calendar or Chinese almanac.The bride's and groom's birthdates and times are required for selecting the dates.

Betrothal Gifts

The betrothal gifts are delivered up to a month and at least three days before the wedding day.
The groom and a friend or a matchmaker will deliver the gifts on the auspicious date chosen.

Dragon
Phoenix
Pairs of Male and Female Poultry
Sweetmeats and Sugar
Wine and Tobacco
Tea Presents - Cha-Li 

Bridal Cakes
A form of announcement and invitation to the wedding feast.

Dowry
The bride’s price "bride's dowry" is usually presented in a red packet or wrapped in a special red cloth.
A portion is expected to be returned to indicate that either the groom’s family is overly generous, the bride’s family is not greedy, and the two families will share their good fortune.




Preparing for the Wedding Day



Retreating to the Cock Loft
The bride-to-be retreated from the ordinary routine and lived in seclusion in a separate part of the house with her closest friends.

Installing the Bridal Bed
A ‘good luck woman’ or ‘good luck man’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. The bed was scattered with red dates, oranges, lotus seeds, peanuts, pomegranates and other fruits.

DAY OF THE WEDDING

The Hair Dressing Ritual (Bride)

The bride bathed in water infused with pumelo, a variety of grapefruit, to cleanse her of evil influences.She put on new underclothes and sat before lit dragon and phoenix candles. A ‘good luck woman’ spoke auspicious words while dressing the bride’s hair in the style of a married woman. After the bride's hair was styled she was dressed in a jacket and skirt and pair of red shoes. The bride’s face was covered with either a red silk veil or a ‘curtain’ of tassels or beads that hung from the bridal Phoenix crown.

Capping Ritual (Groom)
The groom 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 Heaven 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 sedan chair.




The Chinese Marriage Procession



Groom's Journey to Bride's House

The groom led the procession accompanied by a child as an omen of his future sons, The bridal sedan chair was proceeded by attendants with lanterns and banners, musicians, and a ‘dancing’ lion or unicorn. Firecrackers, loud gongs and drums marked the start of the procession from the groom’s home.

When arriving at the bride's house the groom's representative would present the bride's friends with red packets of money, ang pau. This was the occasion of good-natured haggling before the bride could be surrendered. The groom may also take dinner with the bride’s family and receive a pair of chopsticks and two wine goblets wrapped in red paper, symbolic of his receiving the joy of the family in the person of their daughter.

Bride's Journey to Groom's House
The bride was carried to the groom's house on a sedan chair. This journey symbolized  the transfer of the bride from her parent’s family to her husband’s. Firecrackers were set off to frighten away evil spirits as the bride departed in the sedan chair. The sedan chair was heavily curtained to prevent the bride from glimpsing an unlucky sight.  Attendants scattered grain or beans, symbols of fertility, before her.

Arriving at the Groom’s House
Firecrackers were set off just before the procession arrived at the groom's house. A red mat was placed before the sedan chair for the bride so her feet would not touch the bare earth as she dismounted. All the 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" sound the same, ngan, and the fire would cast out of evil influences.
After these rituals took place, the groom could finally raise the red scarf and view the bride’s face.




The Chinese Wedding


The bride and groom approached the family alter where they paid homage to Heaven and Earth, the family ancestors and the Kitchen God.

Tsao-Chün
. Tea, generally with two lotus seeds or two red dates in the cup, was offered to the groom’s parents. Tea us China’s national drink and serving it is a sign of respect. Lotus seeds and two red dates are used in the tea represent sweet relations between the bride and her new family and fertilty.

Then the bride and groom bowed to each other. This completed the marriage ceremony. In some regions the bride and groom also drank wine from the same goblet, ate sugar molded in the form of a rooster, and partook of the wedding dinner together.

The Nuptial Chamber
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 exchanged cups and drank it down. 

The Wedding Banquets
Separate wedding feasts were given by the parents of the bride and the groom for their respective friends and families. Chinese food has special symbolism: mostly wishes of happiness, longevity, or fertility. The number courses is also significant. At a Chinese wedding banquet, eight dishes are usually served – not including the dessert. In Chinese, the word “eight” sounds like “good luck.”

 


     


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