Posted by In this series of posts, I am going to talk about what would happen on a Chinese wedding day, I would like to introduce you to some of the Chinese wedding rituals, the typical wedding components, and the reasons behind it. There are a lot of activities on the wedding day, typically, the activities will happen in 3 places: the bride’s place, the groom’s place, and the reception/hotel/restaurant. Please follow me to discover some Chinese weddings!
In the old days, until the generation of my grandparents, most probably the marriage is arranged by parents, the couple might only see each other the first time on the wedding day. Of course, nowadays this has changed completely, nevertheless, I think it is interesting to walk through a traditional Chinese wedding and tell the difference between a Chinese wedding and a western wedding.
Before the wedding day, the below steps are usually followed:
nacai (納采) – formal proposal
wenming (問名) – giving of the eight characters of the prospective bride to the groom’s side
naji (納吉) – placement of the eight characters at the ancestral altar to confirm compatibility
nazheng (納徵) – sending of betrothal gifts to the bride and return gifts to the prospective groom
qingqi (請期) – selection of an auspicious wedding date
qinying (親迎) – wedding ceremony
I will write about some interesting traditions about wedding ceremony, more posts will come up with specific topics:
More about Traditional Chinese wedding:
0. Introduction
1. Wedding decorations
2. Gate crash
3. Tea ceremony
4. Chinese wedding outfit and Chinese sedan
5. Formal ceremony – Bai tang(拜堂)
6. Bridal chamber rituals
7. Wedding Proposal
8. Pre-wedding photo shooting(Behind the scenes)
9. Chinese wedding agency
10. Our wedding lunch menu
11. Our wedding program 1: Fetch the bride
12. Our wedding program 2: The lunch ceremony
13. Our final wedding video
14. The hazing of wedding couples – Naohun
Below is a summary video of my sister’s wedding in 2013:
Youtube:
Chinese website 优酷:
http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMTUwNTQ0MDE1Mg==.html
Good website! It is helpful to popularize the Chinese traditional culture and make it well-known all over the world. Support you!
Great to learn about new culture thank you for posting Lin 🙂