Cantonese wedding door games

The bride would be required to step over a saddle or a lit stove to cross the threshold—the fire was thought to cast out evil influences. Although the gate crashing and door games have changed somewhat in modern times, many of the ancient influences still inform this pre-wedding ritual. It's a ceremony where tea is served to the elders of the couple and a chance for the elders to impart well wishes and advice to the soon-to-be newlyweds.

They kneel and serve the parents and in-laws tea. Not only do you serve the parents tea, but you must also serve tea to all of your elders in the family. Although the exact details vary from celebration to celebration, most tea ceremonies involve the wedding couple serving tea to their parents and other extended family members as a sign of respect. The tea is sometimes paired with traditional ingredients such as lotus seeds and red dates, a combination that symbolizes sweetness in the marriage and future heirs.

At my own wedding's tea ceremony, we took the time to thank our family members in groups of twos, starting with my mother and father, and served them tea while thanking them for raising me and providing me with constant guidance through life. It is an intensely emotional ceremony.

Tea, usually with two lotus seeds or two red dates in each cup, would be offered to the groom's parents. Finally, the bride and groom would bow to each other—completing the ceremony. Either following the wedding ceremony or sometimes the next day, the newlyweds would serve tea to the groom's family. The couple would serve tea in order, starting with the groom's parents then proceeding from the oldest family member to the youngest. After the tea was offered and a sip was taken, the couple would receive lucky red envelopes, lai see , filled with money or jewelry.

This was considered the formal introduction of the families. While wedding registries filled with everything from stand mixers to honeymoon funds are common within Western-style weddings, this is typically not the case with most Chinese weddings. Instead, red envelopes, known as hong bao , are typically gifted to couples during their wedding ceremonies.

These small red packets are filled with lucky money and gifted by the older, typically married family members to the younger generation. It totally makes sense to start off a new year or new journey in life with a handful of hong bao!

In addition to exchanging red envelopes, Allen Tsai, wedding photographer and owner of Allen Tsai Photography , explains that oranges are also sometimes touched during this part of the wedding ceremony. Touching the oranges and gifting a red envelope in exchange is supposed to bring good luck and prosperity to the couple. Oranges are more seasonal so often times they are replaced with apples. In Chinese, apples sound like safety and comfort so it's a very welcomed substitute.

Although red envelopes are the main gifts exchanged during Chinese weddings, Tsai explains that traditionally the groom's family also had to prepare 12 gifts. Modern weddings have simplified this and usually just do the essential 6 gifts which include wedding cookies, traditional Chinese cake, candles and firecrackers, money and gold jewelry, head-to-toe apparel clothing, purses, and shoes, and everything has to have a red envelope in it. This is part of the overall exchange of gifts during the wedding, but it's worth noting that gold jewelry is one of the frequent gifts presented during Chinese wedding ceremonies.

Valente shares that one of her "favorite funny bridal jewelr y gifts to see at Chinese weddings is the infamous gold pig necklace. There's no other way to describe this necklace—it's outrageous. Along with other traditionally gifted jewelry pieces, such as gold dragon and phoenix bangles, these pig necklaces represent a very specific set of well wishes from the guests to the wedding couple.

Pigs are quite favored animals in Chinese culture and are associated with happy, lucky and prosperous ideals. So as you can imagine, gifting a bride a karat gold pig necklace with lots of dangling gold baby pigs means you're wishing her a wealthy and abundant marriage, preferably one with many children, as ensuring the longevity of one's family lineage has always been a huge part of Chinese culture. While good food is a staple of most wedding receptions, this is especially true of Chinese wedding receptions, which are all about feasting.

The menus typically include abalone because it is "a sign of good luck and prosperity and status. In addition to serving a big feast, the wedding banquet also generally includes a few other elements. How this is done is specific to each couple. Sometimes there's songs sung also, or a slideshow played. Parents and grandparents are always served dinner first," notes Bishop. Rice balls are also often consumed during the wedding day. In ancient Chinese culture, both the bride's parents and the groom's parents would often host separate wedding feasts.

There might be a single feast for each family, or a series of feasts over several days. The most important feast was considered to be the one given by the groom's family on the day of the wedding.

This banquet was seen as a public recognition of the union. Historically, the more lavish the display and the more food and leftovers, the more wealthy the hosts. Most of the foods commonly served were symbolic—a whole fish would be served because the word for fish, yu, sounds like the word for plenty, meaning a wish for abundance. Serving sweet lotus seeds for dessert symbolized a wish for many children.

Find out what these items are and what you can do with them after you have completed these Chinese wedding traditions. All content from this article, including images, cannot be reproduced without credits or written permission from SingaporeBrides. Follow us on Facebook , Instagram , and Telegram for the latest article and promotion updates!

Share on: Facebook Category: Essentials , Weddings Tagged in: wedding traditions. We speak to a Malay wedding planner who shares some insight on the various Malay wedding customs practiced in Singapore.

Some of them are really meaningful! Weddings are happy occasions…. Ace your Chinese wedding tea ceremony with this essential guide on the meaning behind this age-old tradition and what you need to prepare for your tea ceremony. An essential for…. Share this article on: Facebook A woman of good fortune will light one stick of incense and a pair of red taper candles and start the hair combing ceremony.

While she is combing the hair, she will recite blessings to the bride or groom:. May the first comb bring you a long-lasting union May the second comb bring you a harmonious union May the third comb bring you an abundance of descendants May the fourth comb bring you prosperity and longevity.

Red and gold play a critical role in all Chinese wedding decorations. The former is linked to love, success, happiness, prosperity, luck, fertility, honor, and loyalty, while the latter is a symbol of wealth. The Double Happiness symbol, composed of two identical Chinese characters meaning joy, appears in all Chinese weddings. Other auspicious symbols include dragons, phoenixes, and mandarin ducks as they denote happiness and loyalty.

A 24 karat gold pig necklace pigs are emblems of fertility is often gifted to the bride as part of her wedding jewelry to wear immediately. While Chinese wedding traditions have modernized and no longer involve a large procession, the journey to pick up the bride is still a lively affair. It can involve anything from the use of firecrackers, playing of drums and gongs, or even a lion dance troupe. A child usually walks in front of the procession together with the groom to symbolize fertility.

A red tea set with a Double Happiness symbol is used for the tea ceremony where black tea is sweetened with dried longans, lotus seeds, and red dates. They will repeat the same order for the maternal side of the family. Depending on the couple, the ceremonial exchanging of vows may take place at a local government office, or in an intimate ceremony where the couple stands in front of the family altar to pay respect to ancestors and conclude with a bow to each other.

Some couples also choose to have a Western-style wedding, complete with a white wedding dress and walking down the aisle. The bride visits her family with the groom three days after the wedding. At this point, she is no longer considered part of the family. Your Privacy Rights. To change or withdraw your consent choices for Brides. At any time, you can update your settings through the "EU Privacy" link at the bottom of any page.

These choices will be signaled globally to our partners and will not affect browsing data. This is a game played when the groom picks up his bride on the day of the wedding. According to my uncle, this game was not commonly played during his time for his dialect Teochew or Hokkien. It is more commonly played for Cantonese.

Before the bridesmaids are willing to open the first door, the groom and their brothers have to pass their test. After they finished, we made them do a workout! They need to show us that to marry my sister, the groom has to be in good shape and health. They each had to do sit ups and press ups.