On Saturday we attended a traditional Chinese wedding.

In China, there are 2 predominant types of weddings – traditional and western. A western wedding is very similar to a Catholic wedding in the United States and there are some big differences between traditional weddings and western weddings. The first major difference was that the wedding ceremony took place in a hotel. When we all gathered to leave our hotel, everyone was looking pretty good. We got dressed up and some of the guys were even wearing full tuxedos. We then took the bus to the hotel that the wedding took place in. When we arrived, the bride greeted us as we walked in. We took the elevator to the third floor and sat down around tables, about 12 people per table. There was already food at the table when we arrived. Almost immediately wine was opened and poured. Soon after that we started eating. There was a lot of seafood and local food such as fatty pork and spicy dishes.

Halfway through eating, the bride and groom gathered at the back of the room to start the ceremony. A woman came over to the bride and put a cloth over her face, so she was not able to see anything until the groom removed it 10 minutes later. The ceremony started with a boy running across the stage, which was set up in a T shape. The bride and groom were standing at the very bottom of the T behind curtains, but my table was right beside them so I could things that I guess I wasn’t supposed to be able to see. The stage was elevated at the top where the T was horizontal. The boy ran down the stage singing along to a song and beating a drum. Then a girl ran out and was singing along to a song as well. The boy and girl then went with the bride and groom and carried lanterns as all 4 of them walked up the catwalk towards the stage.

Once on stage, there was almost an MC like man narrating the wedding. He had a lot of inflection as he talked and it seemed like it could have been a game show based on the way he was talking. He talked for 5 minutes and then the groom unveiled the bride. She was wearing a crown underneath this veil type cloth. They then bowed to each other 3 times as three separate wishes were read. I only understood 2 of them but they were wishes for good health and safety, I am assuming the last one was for happiness. Then their parents walked up the catwalk and sat down on chairs. They each went to their respective parent and bowed 3 times again and then came back together and bowed to each other 3 times.

After bowing, they approached the bride’s parents together and the MC asked if this was a suitable husband for her. They then did the same with the groom’s parents. Then there seemed to be a blessing and they were married. They walked back down the catwalk holding hands and the little boy and girl ran after them throwing candy to the crowd. The entire ceremony only took 20 minutes total. It was relatively short compared to a lot of the American weddings I have attended.

After the ceremony more food was brought to our table and there was a lot of eating and drinking. There were probably 16 tables in the room we were seated in and the bride and groom had to go around and toast every table. They thanked us for coming to their wedding and were so glad we were there. I would have thought they would have been reluctant to have 40 random college kids attending their wedding but they were more than welcome to have us there and showed us great hospitality.

While we were eating there were a few performances. An opera singer sang for about 30 minutes and then another man came on stage and sang a couple more songs. I think these songs may have been more mainstream songs that the families picked, because some of the Chinese students with us were singing along to them. After the “real” performers were done, some of us went on stage to perform. Jack sang an Italian song from Stepbrothers on stage and a group of students did a dance. People loved it and they were laughing and recording videos on their phones.

Shortly after that, a lot of people started to leave. They were only at the wedding for about an hour and a half total, something that’s pretty different than any of the weddings I have been to. There also wasn’t any dancing. There was no stage meant for dancing or a DJ, which was also different. The last major difference was the way people dressed. Most people were dressed extremely casually. A lot of people were wearing jeans. Hardly anyone was wearing a dress. They just wore pants and a nice shirt, something that might be considered rude in America.

It was very interesting to experience a different type of wedding and see how different cultures and traditions affect the way a wedding ceremony is performed. We were all very lucky to have been invited to attend the wedding.