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'Three Letters & Six Etiquettes'
Presenting betrothal gifts: Once the couple's birth dates
were confirmed compatible, the bridegroom's family would then arrange for the
matchmaker to present betrothal gifts, including the betrothal letter, to the
bride's family.
Presenting wedding gifts: After the betrothal letter and betrothal gifts were
accepted, the bridegroom's family would formally send wedding gifts to the
bride's family. Usually, such gifts include tea, lotus seeds, longan, red beans,
green beans, red dates, nutmeg, oranges, pomegranates, lilies, bridal cakes,
coconuts, wine, red hair braids, a money box and other delicacies, depending on
local customs and the family's wealth.
Setting a wedding date: An astrologist would be consulted to select an
auspicious date for the wedding ceremony.
Ceremony: On the selected day, the bridegroom departs with
a troop of escorts and musicians, playing cheerful music all the way to the
bride's home. After the bride is escorted to the bridegroom's home, the wedding
ceremony begins.
Unlike Western tradition, the color red dominates traditional Chinese
weddings. Chinese people wear red to add to the joyful atmosphere of such
festive occasions.
At dawn on the wedding day, after a bath in water mixed with grapefruit
juice, the bride puts on her new clothes and a pair of red shoes to await the
so-called "good luck woman" to arrange her hair in the style of a married woman.
The bride's head would then be covered with a red silk veil with tassels or
beaded strings that hang from the phoenix crown. She waits for her future
husband to escort her home, as married women give her advice on how to be a good
wife.
In the meantime, the groom prepares himself to receive his wife. He dons a
long gown, red shoes and a red silk sash with a silk ball on his chest. The
groom then kneels at the ancestral altar
as his father puts a cap decorated with cypress leaves on his head to declare
his adulthood and family responsibility.
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