China is a historical country, she has her special culture. so under this circumstance, she produces unique gift too. Therefore, If you were invited to attend a Chinese wedding，you mighty be an Alice who was in Wonderland. Please don’t be so surprise. Here is something you need to know.

1.  Everything is in red

In China,The color red plays an important part in a wedding, which is the symbol of joy and happiness- and what is happier than a wedding? Your clothing, your car, sheets on the bed, candles on the tables……Everything you can imagine could be in red except your skin, teeth, eyes and hair. You might experience most Chromostereopsis in your life time on that day. Oh my eyes!!!

2. Mysterious 8-characters

Actually, 8 characters is the date of birth calculated by way of a special algorithm in ancient china. It’s a kind of horoscopes which shows whether the couple is a good match for each other or not. Also, by this algorithm, the actual date of the wedding is discussed as to avoid unlucky days. Pretty funny~

3. Money-earning wedding

There is a old Chinese saying, it does hurt feelings, when it comes to money, which I don’t think so. But it indeed damn costs money when it comes to feelings. We always need to determine how much we have to spend, based on our families’ contributions and our own and how many guests we would invite. However in China, The groom’s family is fully responsible for all cost of the wedding. Also every guests will give you money as wedding gift. So the more guests comes, the more money you can get. It’s very normal to have more than 500 guests in China. Some couples may earn a lot from their wedding.

 

4. No bachelor party

Maybe it’s not so shocking that Chinese men have no bachelor party, but they got a bunch of weird traditional culture at the night before the wedding day. For example, Unmarried ladies can put their hair down, then a female elderly in the bride’s family combs the bride’s hair as a symbol of passing over the goodness. In addition, the groom and the bride are not allowed to see each other because it will bring bad luck to their after-marriage life, And he is not allow to sleep alone.

5. Good morning, my bride

It’s the very beginning of the whole wedding. First mission, meet your bride. In China, It's so difficult to meet your bride. Cuz people will try their best to stop you from taking your bride to the wedding site. In fact, it’s a means of representing that bride will miss her family and reluctant to leave home(In ancient China, bride couldn’t come back home once she had married to groom)and making sure the groom will take good care of her. So it was show time! The most interesting part for friends and relations of the bride. They can ask any questions or pose problems to the groom and hide the shoes of the bride. Most groom can’t solve them in the end, so at last he will use money as a gift to please the people who stop him. Incidentally, according to news reports, a groom was tied to a tree for stopping him meeting his bride.

6.Weird ceremony

Let’s come straight to the point and see what they have. Instead of walking down the aisle, the Chinese bride need to jump over a burning brazier (sounds familiar), which was said that the fire can burn down all the bad luck. And then she should smash the tile on the ground (again?) which means cleaning away the dirt and the old of the past year and usher in the new. Straight after walking down these difficulties, they bow to the heaven and earth, their parents, and then to each other. Even at wedding night, people put dates, peanuts, longyan, lotus seeds underneath the couple’s bed sheet as an implication of having a lot of children. In short, the whole wedding ceremony is like The Twelve Labors of Hercules to newlyweds or...... a platform game of Nintendo.

7. Vows

Chinese weddings are not the place where vows take place, as this is done at a local government office beforehand when the paperwork is signed. Therefore if you attend a Chinese wedding you will not be watching the legalization of the marriage, but just be attending the celebration of the union between two people, generally through many courses of delicious food.

8. Food is the paramount necessity of the Chinese people-Wedding banquet

The couple will invite all relatives and friends to their wedding banquet. The banquet is considered even more important than the ceremony itself. A great deal of attention is placed on the food offered during the banquet. You'll be hard pressed to find a wedding banquet without fish, which is a symbol for abundance.

9.Alcohol issue

At wedding banquet, The groom will walk around the tables greeting guests and taking shots of Baijiu, traditional Chinese rice-wine, with the guests. At many weddings, however, he will sometimes sneakily switch to water after a few shots as Baijiu is very strong. The men attending the wedding will have to take a drink with the groom. And Chinese people always use alcohol to express their happiness, so many people will be totally messed up after the wedding banquet. 

10. Mythical Creatures

There are many animal images in Chinese traditional culture representing a special meaning, and some of them will appear at wedding. Long and Feng (dragon and phoenix) are usually carved on candle symbolizing a good, auspicious union. And you may see a image of a couple of duck (Mandarin duck, Aix galericulata) were stitched on pillow sheet and quilt which called Yuanyang. In traditional Chinese culture, mandarin ducks are believed to be lifelong couples, unlike other species of ducks. Hence they are regarded as a symbol of conjugal affection and fidelity, and are frequently featured in Chinese art.

This post was originally posted at GemGrace Blog: Top 10 Most Surprising Things In Chinese Wedding.