Does “Golden Week” sound familiar to you? From 1. to 7. October it is the longest Chinese national holiday. Some people use this chance for a long journey. Other people, on the other hand, prefer stay at home to avoid the crowd. Many of newly engaged, have their wedding ceremony in the Golden Week. To have a perfect wedding, family members, who takes in charge, will be sitting together and discussing the details of everything related. It can take 6 months to settle down.
Good Date:First step is to pick out a good day, which should be an even number both according to Gregorian calendar and Chinese Lunar calendar. For instance, 22nd September according to Gregorian calendar this year is 24th August in Chinese Lunar calendar. The most popular months are around the Chinese New Year, May, September and October.
Decoration:Before the big day, families and bridesmaid and best men would help decorating the boudoir and the new house for the newly married couple. 囍 “Xǐ“, the double joy character will usually be put on the doors and windows of the venue to give the couple the best wishes. And a young boy or an unmarried teenager will sleep on the new bed of the future couple’s, and they will put dates枣 (zǎo), peanuts花生 (shēng), longan桂 (guì) 圆, lotus seed 莲子 (zǐ) on the new bed, too. These four characters have the same pronunciation of 早生贵子（“zǎo shēng guì zǐ”）, meaning “to wish the married couple to have a baby soon.”
The color:The traditional dress is red and gold, means love, loyalty, honor, fertility, wealth and fortune. Although in many areas, western rituals are well adapted and white dress and black suit are common to be seen on couples, as a guest, it is still recommended not to wear white and other dark colors. These are considered as unlucky.
Arrival of the bridegroom：After a short ceremony, with all the best wishes from parents, relatives and friend, the groom ride on his horse, or a more common way nowadays, in his car with a big delegation of family members and friends, and head to the bride’s home to pick her up. If the family of the bride lives rather far, accommodation in a nearby hotel will be arranged in advance. He leaves at certain time which, of course, must be a lucky number. In rural areas, firecrackers will be lit and thrown during the ride, a dangerous yet indispensable ritual to acknowledge the wedding and disperse the back lucks.
Games:In order to finally win over the heart of the bride, the bridegroom must pass the challenges set by the bride and bridemaids. The very first one is normally try to persuade the bride and bridemaids to open the boudoir. The groom needs to answer questions like “ten reasons why you love her”, or to sing a love song for her. Sometimes, a “bribery” to the bridemaids in form of a red envelope with some cash in it helps. When the groom is in, together with his buddies, who often form a group themselves like the braidmaids, they will face more challenges. One of the most common ones is to find the hidden shoe of the bride. They are hidden somewhere in the room. The groom will put the found shoes on the bride. After this, a love manifesto will be made before the groom carries the bride into the car. In many areas, the bride is not allowed to touch the ground from this moment on until they arrive in their room at the bride’s home. The groom, or sometime, a brother or male cousin must carry her. The bride touching the ground is believed to lead to loss of wealth. Also here, firecrackers are important.Heading to the groom’s home The groom and bride, together with her parents and friends will be welcomed by the parents of the groom, accompanied by the relatives, friends and neighbors. A traditional ceremony will be held, where the couple change their addressing to their mother-and father-in-law as “mother” and “father”. There are other rituals which differs significantly from region to region. They all serve the purpose of giving the best wish to the new founded family best lucks and of building a closer relationship between the couple and their new parents.
Western Ceremony:Nowadays many couples integrate or even marry solely according to the western rituals. Instead of the Father, a moderator will host the whole wedding process. This also give the couple more chance to show their love, which is not a focus in a traditional Chinese wedding. Stories of how they met and fell in love with each other will be shared. Performances are made, just like in other countries.Gifts from guest:Being a guest to the wedding, you usually will bring a red envelope with money inside it. Even number is strongly suggested. The reception will count the money in front of you and write down the number on a book. This tradition comes from the time where living standards were low and a newly founded family needed all the financial support possible to start their new life. The reason the keep the numbers down is to make sure you return their favor when they or when their children get married. How long this practice will sustain is unknown, since we live in a totally different era and it could be a heavy burden for some who are invited multiple times per year.
Share your experiences of your wedding ceremony and tradition to us. We are glad hearing from you!
