I went to a Chinese Wedding.
One of our Quality Engineers got married today. He was kind enough to invite me and I was
honored to accept.
Actually, the “wedding” was over when we arrived.
Obviously, this wasn’t any Judeo-Christian wedding, so the bride and groom had already visited the government office, signed the papers, paid their fees, and received their marriage licenses (looks somewhat like a passport). Apparenytly, that takes about 5 minutes.
We arrived at the celebration around noon and the atmosphere is very casual and relaxed. The bride and groom have already arrived and greet everyone as they enter. There are about 120 – 150 in attendance and we are all seated in a large restaurant for lunch. Our group was seated at the front next to the wedding family. At the front of the room was a small elevated stage holding four chairs.
Once everyone is seated, the bride and groom’s parents are seated in the four chairs and the newlyweds stand in front of them. There is a man functioning as MC who introduces the new husband and wife to the guests. The groom thanks his wife, thanks the parents, and thanks the guests for their coming and support. The guests reply with three “Thank You’s” as well. Then someone brings in four cups of tea and the groom bows to and offers a cup to each parent who takes a drink. Then bride and groom talk to each other basically acknowledging their union and bow slightly to each other and tap their foreheads together. They do this three times. Then they kiss…three times. I couldn’t see the bride’s face from where I was standing, but the groom was blushing pretty hard. I thought it interesting that though the celebration may be devoid of religious overtones, the trinity kept sneaking in.
When all of this was over; lunch time. The bride slipped out and returned in a change of clothes more suitable for lunch. As we ate, they visited each table to toast the guests. Hopefully, they got to eat something during this time (at least that part was familiar).
When lunch was over, those guests that remained will spend the rest of the afternoon playing Mahjong (traditional Chinese “dominos” of sorts) with the newlyweds. She, of course will change yet again into street clothes. We said our congratulations and left.
It was fun. I really didn’t know what to expect and was quietly
hoping for some sort of ancient Chinese ritual full of ancient ceremonial trappings, but what I got was a relaxed modern event that was fun, simple, and quick; but still possessed the giddy excitement everyone experiences on their wedding day.
One of our Quality Engineers got married today. He was kind enough to invite me and I was
honored to accept.Actually, the “wedding” was over when we arrived.
Obviously, this wasn’t any Judeo-Christian wedding, so the bride and groom had already visited the government office, signed the papers, paid their fees, and received their marriage licenses (looks somewhat like a passport). Apparenytly, that takes about 5 minutes.
We arrived at the celebration around noon and the atmosphere is very casual and relaxed. The bride and groom have already arrived and greet everyone as they enter. There are about 120 – 150 in attendance and we are all seated in a large restaurant for lunch. Our group was seated at the front next to the wedding family. At the front of the room was a small elevated stage holding four chairs.
Once everyone is seated, the bride and groom’s parents are seated in the four chairs and the newlyweds stand in front of them. There is a man functioning as MC who introduces the new husband and wife to the guests. The groom thanks his wife, thanks the parents, and thanks the guests for their coming and support. The guests reply with three “Thank You’s” as well. Then someone brings in four cups of tea and the groom bows to and offers a cup to each parent who takes a drink. Then bride and groom talk to each other basically acknowledging their union and bow slightly to each other and tap their foreheads together. They do this three times. Then they kiss…three times. I couldn’t see the bride’s face from where I was standing, but the groom was blushing pretty hard. I thought it interesting that though the celebration may be devoid of religious overtones, the trinity kept sneaking in.
When all of this was over; lunch time. The bride slipped out and returned in a change of clothes more suitable for lunch. As we ate, they visited each table to toast the guests. Hopefully, they got to eat something during this time (at least that part was familiar).
When lunch was over, those guests that remained will spend the rest of the afternoon playing Mahjong (traditional Chinese “dominos” of sorts) with the newlyweds. She, of course will change yet again into street clothes. We said our congratulations and left.
It was fun. I really didn’t know what to expect and was quietly
hoping for some sort of ancient Chinese ritual full of ancient ceremonial trappings, but what I got was a relaxed modern event that was fun, simple, and quick; but still possessed the giddy excitement everyone experiences on their wedding day.
Oh, yeah. And remember those "good luck"cigarettes that I told you about?
I knew those things would kill you ...
1 comment:
you are killing me with the fish picture "too funny"
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