A wedding
on Tina's Journal (China), 23/Apr/2009 11:10, 34 days ago
On Tuesday evening I was invited to my first Chinese wedding. Shao Mei, one of the teachers in the English department was getting married. I had already been forewarned not to expect anything too exciting, but I went along with some colleagues, carrying my little red envelope containing my wedding gift. This I happily deposited into a red box at the restaurant entrance with all the other red envelopes! I was then offered a selection of sweets and nuts quite elegantly displayed on a tray and was asked to take one of the peanuts as this would bring good luck to the happy couple. I kindly accepted, went inside where we sat down around prepared tables with the food laid out. There were so many guests that two venues were needed and I was at the least important one. However, there were at least 200 people in our restaurant so there was lots of chatter. But, we were there to simply eat the food and leave! All over within an hour. We didn't even see the Bride and Groom, they were celebrating at the other venue. However, we were graced with the presence of the groom's parents, they politely made an appearance, as the mother (Madame DU) is the College President. Apparently, not to see the Bride and Groom is rather unusual but the rest of the procedure is pretty standard for weddings over here. We didn't have to dress up either, instead we wore our everyday normal working clothes! I have attached one of the only two photos I have of the ceremony! Oh well, maybe simple is best..