Sunday, June 26, 2005
Wedding morning
A short note here. The Chinese families over here have this odd ritual to collect the bride and I've been drafted into the gang, a motley crew comprising my younger cousins and myself - oh yeah, the groom of course. What we do is storm the castle, deal with their ridiculous demands ( from waxing our legs to singing a stupid love song ) and break down the door to get the bride. I already warned the groom ( my cousin ) that if she doesn't agree to our offers, we're leaving. Am not going to wait more than half an hour unless it's Brad Pitt. :)
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4 comments:
Paul, you should be proud -- you've participated in an age-old wedding custom which is widely distributed over the world and a source of great gobs of cheerful academic discussion over the years.
Here's a thought: I think you could mine that for your stories. I can just see one of your bad-boy lovers co-opting the event to capture one of your straight-laced protagonists -- and the confusion that would arise, not to mention the sparks that would fly.
What? No, I'm writing other things.
Well, going a-courting is the wedding ceremony itself so it doesn't matter.
Lucy! Seriously is it done every else? I thought it's one of the olde Chinese eccentricities.
Paul
No, it's not done everywhere else, but it's done in many places scattered around. Probably it's different in all the details, though. There are places where the people tend to forget that it's supposed to be a pretend kidnapping and it's supposed to be more fun than not, and they get nasty. So count yourself fortunate on that account.
Other people have other weird wedding customs. One of them -- I think it's Scottish, or from some parts of England, and they do it or did it until recently in some parts of the US (southern midwest, I think, but I do not know)-- is that one side of the family takes the other side's furniture and arranges it on top of their house the night before the wedding. Go figure on that one.
Me, I got married in my mother-in-law's back yard with a handful of people, a little cake, and an unbleached muslin dress made by my mother-in-law, with little pearly beads sewn on it. Hardly any ritual at all. "Do you?" "I do."
I love rituals... but not too much, of course.. But I'd love the idea of rearranging your furniture!
Paul
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