Culture of Marriage in Taiwan

Taiwanese Marriage Culture ♥

Taiwanese Marriage Culture ♥

Traditional wedding dress Western wedding gown

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Culture of Marriage

1. History

2. The Proposal

3. The Betrothal

4. Preparation for the Wedding Day

5. Day of the Wedding

6. Post-wedding Ritual

7. Contemporary Chinese Wedding Customs

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History 1.The majority of the population in Taiwan is

Chinese

2.The marriage in Taiwan still follow some Chinese wedding traditions.

3. Chief objectives of marriage:

* Joint family and succession endurance

* Reverence to parents and ancestors

* Fertility and wealth encouragement

* Financial and social obligations

* Giving giving etiquette

* Bride’s incorporation into the groom’s family

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Ancient Marriage Customs

1. The proposal

2. The Betrothal

3. Preparing for the Wedding Day

4. Day of The Wedding

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The Proposal1. The go-between was sent by the boy’s parents to present gifts

to the girl’s parents and to sound out their feelings about the match. If the proposal was well-received, the go-between would obtain the date and hour of the girl’s birth recorded on a formal document.

2. The document would be placed on the ancestral altar for three days. If no bad omens, the boy’s parents would give the information to a astrological expert to confirm that the young woman and their son would make a good match.

3. If the boy’s family found the horoscope to be favorable, they would give the boy’s date and hour to the go-between to the girl’s family so they can go through the same process.

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The Betrothal1. Both sets of parents exchanged family

credentials as tokens of intention. After extensive bargaining, the two families would arrive at the amount of money and goods that would make up the gift to the girl’s family.

2.After presenting engagement tokens, the go-between would ask the brides’s family to chose among several auspicious wedding dates suggested by the boy’s family and set a date for presenting betrothal gifts.

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Betrothal GiftsBoy’s family:

1. Money

2. Tea

3. Dragon and Phoenix bridal cakes

4. Pairs of male and female poultry

5. Sweetmeats and sugar

6. Wine and tobacoo

Girl’s family:Food and clothing

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Invitation to the Wedding

*It was customary for the girl’s family to distribute the bridal cakes they received from the boy’s family to friends and relatives as a form of announcement and invitation to the wedding feast.

*Those who received the bridal cakes, were expected to present congratulatory gifts to the girl’s parents.

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Betrothal Gifts

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The Meaning of the Betrothal1. The boy’s family gifts acknowledged the

parents’ efforts in raising the girl.

2. By accepting the gifts, the girl’s family pledged her to the boy’s.

3. The bride was given to the family rather than the groom alone.

4. Betrothal was considered binding unless both families agreed to annul the contract.

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After the Betrothal Gifts Presentation

1. The girl’s family sent porters with an inventoried dowry to the boy’s house.

2. Dowry items: a chamber pot, filled for the occasion with fruit and strings of coins.

3. The procession gave the girl’s family the opportunity to display both social status and their love for their daughter.

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Dowry

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Preparation for the Wedding Day

1. Retreating to the bride’s room(bride’s part):

In preparation for her impending departure, the bride-to-be retreated from the ordinary routine and lived in seclusion in a separation part of the house with her closest friends.

2. Installing the bridal bed(groom’s part):preparation involved the installation of the bridal bed on the day before the wedding. Kids were invited onto the bed as an omen of fertility.

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Day of the Wedding

1. Hair dressing ritual: the initiation into adulthood; cleanse her of evil influences

2. Red, symbolic of joy, featured prominently in the clothing and other ritual objects pertaining the wedding.

3. Procession from the groom’s house to obtain the bride

4. Bride’s journey to the groom’s house

5. Arriving at the groom’s house

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Procession from the Groom’s House to Obtain the Bride:

The dim of firecrackers, loud gongs and drums marked the start of the procession from the groom’s house. The groom led the procession accompanied by a child as an omen of his future sons, and the bridal sedan chair was proceeded by the attendants with lanterns and banners, musicians and a ‘dancing’ lion or unicorn.

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The Bride’s Journey to the Groom’s House

Modern styleTraditional style

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Arriving at the Groom’s House

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The Wedding

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2020

The Wedding Banquets

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Post-Wedding Ritual

1. the bride awoke early to attend honor the ancestors at dawn.

2. As she knelt before each of the older relatives, she received a small gift.

3. Three days after the wedding, the couple paid a visit to hte bride’s family home, where the bride is now received as a guest.

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Taboos

1. A marriage in proximity of blood is not allowed because recessive gene may contain various genetic problems. And then, the offspring will have a higher likelihood of genetic diseases.

2. Gay marriage cannot be generally accepted in Taiwan yet.

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1. The bride has to kneel in front of the bride’s parents before groom and bride leave from the bride’s home.

2. Throw out a fan from the limo window before the bride leaves her parents for the groom’s house.

2. The bride’s parents splash water onto the limo when the bride enters the limo.

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Parents splash water onto the Parents splash water onto the vehicle before it heads to the vehicle before it heads to the groom's house. groom's house.

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1. Tread on the roof tiles or go across the braziers to symbolize the bride’s bad luck disappearing from now on

2. Prepare 12 betrothal gifts to send each other

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Three main things among 12 betrothal gifts:

A.Money: number 9 such as NT$99 or NT$999...etc

B.Jewelries--gold dragon-phoenix bangle

C.Three poultries--two pairs of raw chicken, two makes and two females, meaning “double fly” 2

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There are many things you can replace the traditional betrothal gifts now.

Each half of the symbol is the standard character for happiness, written “hsi” or

“xi” and pronounced something like “she” in Mandarin Chinese. Therefore, two

“hsi” graphs together represents the wish for the two young newlyweds to have

happiness together. The double happiness graph is a special Chinese character

used for marital happiness. It’s not used in regular Chinese writing or printing.

References: http://english.people.com.cn/200505/16/eng20050516_185202.html

exchanges bows with his bride

lifts the red silk veil for his bride

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