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China’s marriage ceremony is very different from the western wedding. Moreover, even within China, the ceremonies are different from north to south.Because of influence from the west more young Chinese couples want to get married in a church or just simply take a honeymoon instead of holding the traditional Chinese wedding ceremony. In the rural areas in China, however, they still maintain the traditional way of holding the marriage ceremony. I still remember clearly how complicated and time-consuming my brother’s wedding was last summer back in my hometown, a small village in the Northeast China. The typical marriage ceremony in the countryside is carefully prepared by the bride and the groom and their families months in advance. Meetings are held to discuss the details such as the wedding date, type of gifts and the amount of money the groom should give to the bride’s family. (Traditionally women were considered as property of the family, mothers who receive more money are very proud of their daughters and gain a lot of face in the village. Nowadays this money gift is no less than 10,000RMB, but this custom is becoming less popular these days.) Other issues to be determined are the ceremonial procedures as well as the quantities of food as well as what type of foods that should be prepared and served. Normally, both the bride and groom or their parents will go to the fortuneteller to see what dates and the times are best for the marriage ceremony.After the wedding date is agreed upon, the families will call all of the relatives and friends about the wedding months in advance. One or two days before the wedding, both the bride’s family and the bride-groom’s family will build a nice wooden frame in front of their homes that will be painted red. Words of best wishes and the names of the bride and groom will be written on the top of the gate of the wooden frame. Whoever sees the sign will know who is getting married. They usually hire the local folk music band to play at the wedding (Although I personally prefer the world’s awesome rock and roll band named KISS with Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons.) The ceremony at the bride’s home is usually short and simple. It starts very early in the morning.The bride wakes up around 3 or 4 in the morning to get dressed up and then wait for the groom to come to her home and go over to the groom’s house.The bride’s parents cannot accompany their daughter to the groom’s house. Tradition says that having the parents go to the groom’s home with their daughter will bring bad luck to the new couple. The bride also picks up a few of her best friends (usually single girls, but the smart bride won’t take girls that are prettier than she. That’s why none of my female friends ever asked me to be their maid of honor) to accompany her to go to the groom’s house. Once the bride leaves her parent’s house, all of her relatives and the invited guests will be hosted by her parents for a big feast( usually a pig weighing about 200kg will be killed for the feast) The ceremony at the groom’s house is very arduous. The ceremony starts after the bride arrives after the groom’s home. The bride will exit the car with a red cloth covering on her head so that nobody can see what she looks like. One of her best friends will guide the bride into the groom’s home. However, before the bride enters the house, the groom’s mother has to come out to welcome her with a pot full of different gifts such as red envelopes containing money, jewelry, etc. The red cloth will be lifted from the bride’s head before she enters into the house. After that the party begins. The party/banquet is celebrated at the groom’s home. However, some wedding banquets are celebrated in a restaurant. The wedding feast sometimes lasts half a day. During the banquet/party, the newlyweds will go to each table to give wishes and each table will have one person who stands up and gives a short speech to congratulate the bride and the groom. Usually there will be a small party held by the newlyweds’ close friends at the couple’s new home after all the relatives leave. The party won’t end until very late at night. There will be very funny games between the bride and groom such as putting an egg or apple into the groom’s left trouser leg and then the bride has to take it out from the groom’s right leg’s trouser leg. A cocktail wiener is put into an empty beer bottle and the couple uses their mouths to pick it out. A banana is tied to a piece of elastic rope and hung from the ceiling. The bridegroom jumps on his bride to catch the banana with his mouth and pull it down and let the bride to peal off the skin of the banana and eat it . These games have a lot of sexual innuendo that keeps everyone laughing So the weddings in rural Chinaare filled with family, fun, and tradition.
abhijeet
jim
