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Chinese Traditional Wedding Accessories & Services
HAPPILY EVER AFTER TRADING
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Chinese Traditional Wedding
Posted on April 14th, 2009 No comments
Chinese Traditional Wedding as from the ancient China until now especially in Malaysia has been evolved according to time. Customs and rituals are countless back then. Even in Malaysia, people with different dialects also practicing it according to their own beliefs. Nowadays in Malaysia, people are still practicing some simplified customs and rituals that they think what are still important to them especially for those who still pray for their ancestors. Well, those customs and rituals are believed in bringing good luck and fortune once the couples got married. Not only to their live time but also to the next generation and after.
Before the Wedding, an Auspicious Wedding date will be selected. Date selection will have to based on the New Couples’ and their Parents date of births and the time. By counter checking with the Chinese Almanac, a date will be pluck from there. Some of them even included the dates of Betrothal Ceremony and the Hair Dressing Ceremony.
In Malaysia, we can actually break it down to the few categories of the customs and rituals that most of the people are still practicing as listed below.
- Betrothal Ceremony & Gifts.
- Bride’s Returned Gifts.
- Bride’s Dowry.
- Hair Dressing Ceremony.
- Chinese Wedding Accessories for Sales
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Chinese Lantern Festival
Posted on October 2nd, 2009 No commentsExactly a month passes by,from the Hungry Ghost Festival, now the Chinese will be celebrating the Lantern Festival. It will be on the October 3rd, 2009. As for the lunar calendar, it will be the 15th day or the full moon day. This is actually a very important event for the Chinese all around the world. People will get married on this date caused it is an Auspicious Date. Restaurants will be very busy. Other than getting married, the most important occasion for this date is actually for the whole family members to gather together for a dinner at home or at the restaurant. For the Chinese, gathering together to have dinner together means a lot to them and very important. After the dinner, the kids will be having fun with their own Lantern. The whole house usually will be lit by the lanterns hanging around. Some people like in Malaysia will usually have the “Mooncakes” as the desert together with Chinese Tea that will perfectly match for each other. While having the dessert, the parents or the elderly will be watching the kids running around with the lanterns and having fun is really a great pleasure for them.
Below will be a short video that I have picked from You Tube as an example for the Chinese Lantern Festival with the lantern for hope or the Sky Lanterns.
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Hungry Ghost Festival
Posted on August 27th, 2009 3 commentsThe time passes by so fast that with just a blink of an eye, the 7th Month of the Chinese Lunar Calendar has arrived. Today is actually the 8th day already. The very first day was started on the 20th of August, 2009. The last day of it will end on the 30th day which falls on the 18th of September, 2009. For the Chinese, this will be the month with most of the “Don’ts” which are things that totally cannot be carried out during this time of the year. Chinese Wedding is one of the ceremonies that is totally prohibited on this 7th month cause it is too inauspicious.
The Hungry Ghost Festival which fall on this month will start from the 14th day until the 30th of the 7th month. In the Gregorian calendar wise, which is from the 2nd of September until the 18th of September, for the year 2009.
Since this is a very inauspicious month, why the people still named it the Hungry Ghost Festival and celebrate for it? Well, the story came from the ancient Chinese from China and it sound like this. The Gate of Hell is supposed to be opened once a year on the 14th day till the 30th day of the 7th month. Once the gate is opened, souls of the dead will be out wondering the earth for that particular 2 weeks time. For this 2 weeks, most of the Chinese people will have a festival. Well, diferent people have different celebrations. There are countless of Chinese in their dialects alone. Just take this as one of the example that I have found very interesting in Malaysia. Just about a week before the arrival of the 14th day, people will start building lots of stages across the country or in a heavily populated are by Chinese. Usually these stages are set up by the Chinese Association nearby and bared by some donations around the people who live around there. Those stages are for the performers that are from around the country to perform with songs and dances at night. The chairs will be arranged row by row in a neat manner for the audience. The first and the second row of chairs or sets will be emptied as there are not meant for normal people to seat. These two rows are actually meant for the souls that are wondering around to have a sit and enjoy the show. Besides the stage, a few tables will be opened also for the people to dine in for the night. Some places can get really crowded and people seam to be enjoying it and maybe because of this, people start to call it a festival instead. You will also see the big, i mean huge (about 2 persons in height) joss-tick will be burning throughout the night.
People will also be burning josstick and candles at their house front porch at night. They will also present some biscuits and candies for the souls that are passing by their house just in case in order for them not to come inside to their house. The will just pray for them to continue their wondering instead of dropping by their house. Well, these are all the beliefs that you still can find until today and it is very interesting and colorful especially during the night bazaar for the 2 weeks in a row.
A You Tube video clip of the singing stage:
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3 LETTERS AND 6 ETIQUETTES
Posted on August 4th, 2009 14 commentsChinese Traditional Wedding has a long history that goes back thousands of years in China. The rituals like the “3 Letters and 6 Etiquette s“. Well, before this, I have only heard about it. What is the 3 letter means? Nowadays, I really don’t think any of the Chinese people are practicing this in Malaysia. I don’t know whether there are any in China right now? Let us just have a little more understanding about it before we move on.
The 3 Letters consist of the following: The Request Letter, Betrothal Letter and Wedding Letter.
The 6 Etiquette s consist of the followings: Proposal, Dates of Birth, Betrothal Gifts, Wedding Gifts, Wedding Dates and Wedding Ceremonies.
First, the Proposal, is one of the 6 Etiquettes. Back in those days in China, when a gentlemen needs to get married or their parents have somebody they know and wanted to have her as daughter in laws, they will send a matchmaker to girls house to propose for their intentions to seek the chances of succeeding. Once they agreed, a formal letter will be sent by the Groom’s parent to the Bride’s parent as we called it the Request Letter. This is only one of the 3 Letters. Then, the Chaperon will get both of the Groom and Bride’s Dates of Birth to check whether they are match in terms of their dates of birth for luck and prosperity once they are married. Once confirm okay, the Groom’s parent will send another letter which called the Betrothal Letter. The Betrothal Letter will go together with the Betrothal Gifts, the second Etiquette. The third Etiquette will be the Wedding Gifts, which also be sent to the Bride’s family. Then for the fourth Etiquettes, both of their families will have to look for the Wedding Date or the Auspicious Date. On the Wedding day itself, the final letter which is the Wedding Letter will be given by the Groom’s parent to the Bride’s family confirming their acceptance of the Bride as their daughter in law. Finally, we get to the 6th Etiquettes, the Wedding Ceremony. In Wedding Ceremony, there are a few more rules that needed to perform. The first one is the Receiving the Bride’s ceremony. The Bride will be carried in a chair and they will be a band playing Chinese Wedding Traditional tunes or music as they march along until they reach the Groom’s house. The Bride will also bring along her Dowry. Once they reach the front door, the Groom will have to come out to kick the sedan chair’s door in order for the Bride to come out. The chaperon then will carry the Bride on her back to get into the Groom’s house. She is forbid to step on the ground when she got out of the sedan chair. According to their belief, the ground is not clean enough or the evil spirits are all over the places. This is also why that had somebody throwing out rice all along the path form the Bride’s house until they reach the Groom’s house. The rice was to use to spell off evil spirits. Once she is being lifted inside to Groom’s house, the Wedding Ceremonies will begin upon reaches the Auspicious time. Both of the Groom and the Bride will have to start serving the Tea Ceremony for paying respect to all the elderly and people in the Groom’s house. Hierarchy otherwise, will be from the oldest family member. Once completed, the Bride will have to wait inside the New Room, means the newly wedded couple’s room by herself while the Groom will be entertaining in the Wedding Banquets with all the relatives and friends that his parent has invited. Once the banquet is over, then only the Groom will go in the New Room and have a drink with the Bride and have dinner with her inside the room. The next and the most important task for the couple to achieve are to try to get a son soonest possible to inherit the family’s Last Name.
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Procedures of Hair Dressing Ceremony
Posted on July 1st, 2009 No comments
Procedures of the hair dressing ceremony. A specific time will be determine earlier on the day before the big day, the “Wedding Day”. The groom will have to start this ceremony first. He will have to take a bath and clean himself up thoroughly or some will even use the pamelo leafs and put inside the water for bathing. Some also can use the flowers, usually carnations with at least 5 colours mixing together for bathing. It is believed that it will clean and remove all the evil spirit from the body. After bathing, the groom should change and wear a new set of pajamas. Next, he will have to pay respect to the ancestors by burning the “Dragon and Phoenix” candles and incense and telling them he is going do the hair dressing ceremony and by doing that he is going to be and adult and going to get married tomorrow morning. After this only the hair dressing ceremony can only begins. The groom will have to sit down and a Chaperon usually will do the rest. The first comb, will be combing until the end of the hair. The second comb will be combing for the groom’s hair until the hair turned gray or for longevity. The third come will be for the groom to have lots of children and grand children. The chaperon will speak as he or her when they are doing the combing. After finishing on the groom side, about half and hour later, the bride side will have to start doing the same thing again at her own home. -
Auspicious date selection
Posted on June 9th, 2009 No commentsAuspicious Date selection is another must in the contemporary Chinese wedding today. Dates will be selected by using both of the bride’s and groom’s date and the exact time of births. By combining the dates above and the information from the Chinese Almanac, few auspicious wedding dates will be pluck out. These dates are belief to be auspicious for the couple to get married on or we can called it the “Wedding Date” and must be suggested by the groom’s parents to the bride’s parents. The decision wise will solely depends on the bride’s parent side. The primary reason is to join up the two families and share the succession and bringing all the good omens to them. Some of them even need to select another auspicious date for the betrothal ceremony also. Well, auspicious dates are actually numbered in a year according to the Chinese Lunar Calendar because some of the month are considered inauspicious like the 7th month of the Hungry Ghost Festival.
