Chinese Weddings

This last weekend I had the opportunity to attend a Chinese wedding.  My reaction to some of the traditions range from full approval to uh… not like.  Let’s get the bad out of the way right now.  Most banquets have an annoying MC that jokes, sings, and narrates through the entire event.  Weddings are no different.  The moment things got rolling to the second the wedding was over, the MC was hollering into a microphone.  Maybe it wouldn’t have been so bad if we weren’t sitting right next to the speaker, but as it stands I spent the majority of the wedding with toilet paper crammed in my ear canals and my hands over my ears.  I don’t see why this guy is necessary; can’t people just enjoy each other’s company during the wedding instead of being overpowered by some obnoxious stranger?  Worse than the MC, though, is the tradition to smoke throughout the entire event.  Every table was given a huge stack of cigarettes that the guests made sure were used.  Which meant I also spent the entirety of the wedding adorned with a face mask.  It seems like a really odd tradition.  It’s like saying “to celebrate our new life, you can smoke away yours!”

One of the more peculiar traditions is that the bride changes three times throughout the course of the day.  She starts out in her wedding dress, then changes to a dinner dress, and finally changes into a departing dress.  Where it seems like in the US we try to get as much mileage out of our wedding clothes as possible, they were eager to parade around in new get-ups.

The tradition that really stood out to me is that everyone gives the bride and groom the same gift; money.  How awesome is that?  Every gift is simply some cash presented in a red envelope.  I can totally get behind that tradition.  It’s way better than getting ten toasters and uh… whatever else you get at a wedding.

Attending a Chinese wedding was certainly an interesting experience, albeit a smokey and noisy one.  At the very least they had some nice wine.