The Difference Between a Chinese and Western Wedding Ceremony

Since the cultures of China and Western countries are very different from each other, weddings are also very different. With the development of technology, people know more about each other. And the world becomes smaller than usual. People have been influenced by each other. And they have to change their habits day by day. But there are still some differences between Eastern and Western peoples.

The traditional Chinese wedding ceremony is quite complex. There are several important things that need to be done before the wedding. A matchmaker is needed to help the marriage. After the parents of the boy and the girl reached an agreement, the man must send the gift of the bride price to the girl’s family. The bride price is something like money or gold jewelry.

Before the wedding, the bride and groom could not see each other. Or there is something unhappy about to happen. Both families have to prepare a lot for the wedding. And they would choose a lucky day to celebrate the wedding ceremony. The groom should invite relatives and friends to participate in her wedding ceremony. And the bride’s family must prepare lots of things as the bride’s dowry. In the past, parents would prepare some daily necessities for the new couple to start their new life. Now they would like to give the new couple money or a house as a dowry.

On the day of the wedding, the groom must go to greet the bride with a traditional band. The groom is charming enough to ride a horse. He must wear a red robe and a red hat. Unlike the western wedding, the bride wears black suits. Red in China shows happiness and good luck to the new couple. Then the bride leaves her parents to go to the groom’s house in a sedan that was driven by men. The bride wears a red Chinese-style wedding dress and a phoenix crown. And there are several people who take her dowry with her.

So the wedding ceremony should be held at the lucky moment. The couple knelt down to give thanks to God. They then kneel to thank their parents. And they would ask their parents to drink their lucky tea. And the parents would give them some gifts in red envelopes to show their blessings. Finally, they knelt down to thank each other. They will then be sent to your wedding hall.

Chinese wedding is quite different from the traditional one now. Only some ethnic minorities will hold such a traditional wedding. Most of them would like one between Chinese and Western style. They use the car to carry the bridle instead of the sedan. They do not kneel at the wedding ceremony. Even some Chinese would choose the Western-style wedding ceremony. Most of them no longer wear the traditional wedding dress.

They maintain the tradition of sending the gifts to the new couple in a red envelope to show their blessing. Most of them like to take some wedding photos like Westerners. There is another difference and that is that the new couple would prepare some gifts for the next guests. Such as sugars, cigarettes, towels, etc. It is quite different from western customs to give some gifts to the next guests as a thank you.

And there are still some parents who would put nuts on the bed to make a good wish. They hope that the new couple will have a beautiful baby very soon. And all the things on the bed would be brand new. It means that the couple is starting a new life. Although the Chinese wedding is different from the western one, both of them mean a lot for the new couple to start a new happy life.