Engagement Customs in Different Regions

Chaoshan area: The process of marriage in the Chaoshan area is generally as follows: proposing marriage, marrying together, betrothal, hiring, inviting a date, and welcoming the bride, commonly known as the "six rites". Engagement, also known as "betrothal", "line fixed", "food fixed", is prepared by the male gifts (usually a pair of gold earrings or a gold ring, as well as cakes, sweets, etc.), to the woman's home under the fixed! Proximity, the female side will have to return the gift. Engagement of the man to the woman's home to go to the "food", usually eat sweet eggs or sweet noodles. Both men and women have to give relatives, friends, neighbors to send cake food, sweet noodle soup, to report that the marriage has been fixed.

The Hakka region: the betrothal is also called "Dazha", that is, once again formalize the marriage. Young men and their parents should go to the woman's home, send pig head, fish, meat, etc., the woman's parents, brother and sister-in-law, uncles, grandparents and so on should appear. After the midday meal, the girls have to come out to meet and call the parents of the man's family as parents, and the parents of the two families call each other in-laws and in-laws' mothers. After the marriage is finalized, the man should ask the fortune-teller to choose the day of the door, including the bride out of the day, the hour and to the male home after returning to the door of the hour, in addition to the female party cut red clothes, the male side of the day of the bed should also be selected at the same time.

The engagement in Guangzhou is called "over the big gift", usually chosen after registration, one month to two weeks before the wedding. The man chooses an auspicious day and carries a gift of money and a variety of gifts to the woman's home, the woman's home to receive the bride price of the man's family is not all accepted, which belongs to the man's family of goods, you need to return the gift. After the "big gift", the male and female families will start to send wedding invitations, and the female family will send the gifts from the male family together with the wedding invitations.

The items included in the "big gift" include: gift cakes, coconuts, three animals, fruits, four types of dried seafood, two pairs of dragon and phoenix candles, and two pairs of couplets. The items in the bride-price symbolize good luck, and the number of items must be in pairs, avoiding the use of odd numbers. After receiving the gift, the woman's family must send the dowry to the man's family no later than the day before the wedding (but also on the day of the wedding).

The custom of betrothal in the South.

Eating dumplings:

One of the most common customs is to eat dumplings, the groom in the wedding before departure, with parents and brothers and girlfriends to eat a few mouthfuls of dumplings, said to be parted from them, and generally there is a mother to feed her daughter to eat dumplings of preoccupations, this time the bride should also be touched to tears.

Happy:

After the groom meets with the woman's family, he should take the ready bouquet to the room to be married to the bride, then, the bride's sisters to deliberately stop the groom, put forward many conditions difficult for the groom, the most common is to red packets of gifts "that is, open the door" to deal with the sisters.

Going out:

The bride should be a blessed high female elders holding a bamboo plaque or black umbrella to protect their walk to the limousine, because the bride can not see sunlight on the top of the head, the other side hope that the female elders like this one, live a happy and prosperous life.

Ceremonial vehicle:

The float specially designed to carry a large gift. The bamboo plaque can be placed on the back cover of the gift car or put into one of the cars specifically used to carry the big gift.

Fan:

Before the bride gets on the limousine, an auspicious boy holds a fan and gives it to the bride (on a tea tray), who returns a red packet in thanks.

No Goodbye:

When everyone leaves the door of the bride's house, they are not allowed to say goodbye to the bride's family.

Throwing the fan:

After the limousine starts, the bride should throw the fan out of the window, which means not to bring bad temperament to her in-laws' house, the boy will pick up the fan and give it to the woman's family, who will give a red packet back to thank her.

Firecrackers:

When the limousine leaves the woman's house, firecrackers are set off.

Touching oranges:

When the limousine arrives at the man's house, a child holding two oranges will greet the new couple, and the bride will touch the oranges lightly and then give a red envelope in thanks.

Holding the bride:

When the bride gets off the bus, a lucky elder of the male party should hold a bamboo tablet on the bride's head and support the bride to enter the hall.

Just step on the threshold:

That is, to cross the threshold. Because the older generation says that stepping on the threshold is bad!

Crossing the fire bowl and stepping on the tiles:

When the bride enters the hall, she has to cross the fire bowl and step on the tiles.

Entering the bridal chamber:

The newlyweds sit together on a bench pre-padded with the groom's pants, saying that the two of them will be united from now on and praying for the birth of a male child in the future. No man is allowed to enter the room.

Korean engagement customs

Engagement

Before the wedding, the groom has to give a bride price to the bride's family. Traditionally, the groom is supposed to deliver the bride price to the bride's family in the evening of the day before the wedding takes place, and he is supposed to wear a tuxedo and blacken his face with dried cuttlefish juice. The groom's friends carry the box full of bride-price and sing hymns as they go. The bride's family would run out to greet the procession that came to deliver the gifts, and treat them to food and give them red envelopes.

Wedding attire

On the day of the wedding, the bride wears a brightly colored traditional Korean dress and a black hat adorned with precious stones. The bride wears white socks and embroidered shoes on her feet. The bride's make-up is simple, with three red circles the size of a five-cent coin painted on her face (traditionally pasted onto her face with red paper), as the North Koreans believe this wards off evil spirits. The groom also wears traditional Korean clothing, which is made of dark green satin and embroidered with gold silk thread representing good luck. The groom also wears a black silk official hat on his head.

Important wedding props - white goose and gourd

In a traditional Joseon wedding, the groom presents his mother-in-law with a live white goose, as geese have only one mate in their lifetime and are a symbol of loyalty. Therefore, the groom gives his mother-in-law a goose as a gift to show that he will be loyal to her daughter for the rest of his life. In contemporary weddings, however, a wooden goose has been used instead of a live goose. The venue for the wedding is circled by a cloth with a peony pattern, and people gather around a table for the wedding ceremony. The highlight of the wedding is the sharing of jung jong, a Korean liquor. Traditionally, the liquor is poured into two dippers cut from a gourd that was supposedly grown by the bride's mother herself. Then the bride and groom each sip the liquor from one dipper.