Chinese Traditional Wedding

Traditional Chinese weddings use the colour red everywhere. Red represents happiness and luck. The red sedan chair and marriage honour guard are also important elements in a traditional wedding. The couples and their parents all dress in traditional red costumes for the ceremony. The groom removes the bride’s veil at the end of the ceremony.

The whole wedding is divided into several steps:

First, the groom and marriage honour guard take the red sedan chair to pick up the bride. The bride waits in her own home. When the groom arrives at the bride’s home, a member of the bride’s family sends her to the groom.

Second, when the groom picks up the bride, she sits in the red sedan chair. They return to the groom’s home or another place to hold the ceremony.

Third, they then begin the ceremony. There are some important ceremonies at the wedding. For example, the groom and bride kneel to worship three times. They worship the sky and the ground, then they worship the groom’s parents, and then they worship each other. After this, the groom removes the bride’s veil. They serve tea to the groom’s parents, and then the groom’s mother gives a red envelope to the bride.