Sunday, February 06, 2005

Chinese Wedding Traditions

The Double Happiness

I am making my own invitation cards and feel compelled to inject some Chinese essence into the whole wedding. Hence, the double happiness character will probably be featured over and over in our wedding.



Each half of the symbol is the standard character for happiness, written "hsi" or "xi," and pronounced "she" in Mandarin. Therefore, two "hsi" characters together represents the wish for the two young newlyweds to have happiness together. The double happiness (pronounced "shuang-hsi" in Mandarin) is a special Chinese character used for marital happiness

Being in charge of this wedding has been an adventure in itself and has made me research chinese customs to enrich the experience. Instead of a (western) rehearsal dinner, I will be having a traditional chinese wedding dinner/banquet with the added feature of the customary tea ceremony, which I am sure will thrill my family and David's to no end...but those are things for another post :)

Sometimes I feel lost, though, and wish my mommy was here...

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Aww sweetie!!! Don't worry, as long as you don't do the whole Cantonese TV wedding stuff you'll be fine.

You know, the bits where the groom has to go through the tests set by the family, and then they get to decide if he passes and gets the girl. I've heard of some real atrocities being performed on the poor gentlemen! :)

So much for modern Malaysia eh? :) lol!

-anna

Anonymous said...

I can't remember my blogger account blah!

Awww I missed my mum too when she went to LA at christmas and she's going there for good in a year. Maybe you should mail her bit's of info you picked up for the wedding, material samples etc so she is kept involved. I think everyone likes getting mail.

I find the chinese traditions so lovely...

Starry

Sarah said...

It is hard work planning a wedding and getting everything just right but believe me it is definately worth it. Hugs

birdwoman said...

Hey, you do what you want for a wedding. Something beautiful, by the sounds of it, that you've investigated and has meaning to you, is something you'll treasure forever.

(*)>

makuahine said...

oooh Letti that is so cool!!! :-)
We ordered our invitations but I made our programs myself. I also did flowers myself, but that's another issue. ;-) So kudos to making those invites yourself!! I'll bet they'll be beautiful!!

Monica said...

WOW , I went to my Friend Lynns wedding and there was some Chinese traditions in it, it was mixed,

she changed outfits a bunch of times, pink & red, I have a picture of every outfit! and she told us about some thing with the tea where they have to hide her and the groom has to find her? Im not sure what thats all about.....