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Jin - How was your wedding? Any wedding pictures to post? Congratulations!
Dear Idvfree and members of hyperboard,
Thank you for keeping me in your thoughts, even though I'm not a frequent "poster" here. It is your little gestures of concern that keeps me going in my long hair journey.
My wedding was completed on 10th Sept and I am now officially a married man :). My wife and I had a wonderful honeymoon in Europe. We had a whirlwind trip to 6 countries in 14 days. We went to (in chronological order) Germany, Netherlands (Holland), Belgium, France, Switzerland and Italy. The cities we visited were Frankfurt, Stuttgard, Amsterdam, Brussels, Bruges, Paris, Zurich, Lucern, Milan, Rome and Venice. It was a blessed and joyful trip, Europe's sights (both man-made and natural) were breath-taking, and the people there were generally very nice :).
For my wedding, you may view the pics on the following FTP sites:
ftp://ftp.ihpc.a-star.edu.sg/outgoing/kohsja/My%20Wedding%20Photos/9th%20Sept%202006/
ftp://ftp.ihpc.a-star.edu.sg/outgoing/kohsja/My%20Wedding%20Photos/10th%20Sept%202006/
(Note: If the links were broken, simply copy and paste the entire link address to the top of your explorer page)
You may want to stop here if you simply wished to view the photos, as the following chunk would be some description of what went on during my wedding and some traditional customs of Chinese in Singapore:
According to our local customs and law, we have to legally register our marriage with the government body - Registry of Marriages (ROM) - before proceeding to hold the customary Chinese Marriage ceremony.
Legal registration could be done in two ways. We could either solemnize our marriage at the ROM main office itself, with the Justice of Peace (the Registrar of ROM) as our solemnizer, or alternatively, select a location for solemnization (typically in a Church, Temple, Mosque, Hotel or Home), with an officially designated solemnizer (also known the Deputy Registrar of ROM). An officially designated solemnizer can be a Pastor or Priest of a Church, Reverend of a Temple, Rabbi of a Synagogue or any registered solemnizer. In my case, my marriage was solemnized at my church, with my Head Pastor as the solemnizer (who's the lady found in the pics).
My marriage was held over two days. The first day (9th Sept) saw the church solemnization ceremony and the second day (10th Sept) was our Chinese customary ceremony (usually held over a dinner banquet).
The entire wedding begin with waking up early in the morning (at 6.00am) to prepare and wash up. We Chinese believe in the Bride and Groom not meeting each other the day before our marriage. Hence, me and my wife were not supposed to meet the previous day, and we'll wake up in different places in the morning (I'm at my home and she's in the hotel). The action begins with me making my way to the hotel she's in, together with my accompanying "brothers", to meet my bride, with her accompanying "sisters". The fun part then starts when I arrive at the hotel. Me, together with my brothers, will use our wits and tricks to "get pass" the "sisters", who'll create challenges and obstacles for me and my "brothers". This was in order for me to display my sincerity in taking my bride in as my wife, and would also signify that I'm willing to brave all obstacles to get married with her. Needless to say, the challenges would not be easy. My "brothers" suffered much for me as they had to swallow "specially brewed" drinks and "specially prepared" breads (containing ketchup, chilli sauce, wasabi, coffee powder etc... which doesn't taste good at all). It is typical for brothers to take some load from the groom as they all supposed to be "buddies" of the groom. After the round of eating and drinking, I was wrapped in an adult nappie, and my brothers were asked to kiss me on my buttocks! Finally, all my brothers were asked to remove one of their socks and glove it around one of their hands. They are supposed to use this "gloved" hand to touch my face, and plant a kiss on my face. All the while, I was supposed to sing, shout words of love to my bride, who's still locked inside the hotel room, but was fully aware of what's happening outside :) .
After this round of challenges and upon the satisfaction of the sisters, we were allowed into the hotel room. That's where I was reunited with my bride and, having satisfied with my performance outside, my bride would allow me to kiss her. That's when every one would applause.
We will proceed back to my home, and a traditional tea ceremony will be held there. We Chinese strongly believe in showing respect to our elders during wedding, which was paid by serving tea to our elders and salutating them using terms assigned to them in accordance to our relationship with them. For instance, my father's sister will be called "Ah Gor" which is a respectful term assigned to her, and so on. In turn, they'll show their blessings to us by giving us a few words of advice, or just wish us well, together with a "Red Packet" (which usually contains money inside), as a symbol of well-wishing.
The church solemnization was held in the afternoon. It was there that we sign the official papers for marriage and receive blessings from our Pastor. A dinner reception followed the ceremony, and the day ended at about 6.30pm.
The dinner banquet was held on the next day in Malaysia (Singapore's neighbouring country, and my wife is a Malaysian). The dinner was served in a cruise and we had lots of fun eating, chatting, taking pictures, amid the beautiful scenery during cruising.
Hope you enjoy the pics :) .
Thanks and regards.
Jin
Always interesting to see how things are done in other cultures. Thanks for sharing.
Jim
Boy! I have many Chinese friends who've been married and they didn't tell me about having to go through such an ordeal.
Anyway sounds like fun.
Glad you didn't have to cross a crooked bridge as well to get to the dinner. I'm glad that dumb project was stopped.
Saw any nice longhairs in Europe?
All the best
Charles
I looked through many of the pictures, and I just have to say that your wedding looked like it must have been a truely wonderful day.
Everything looked so beautiful and I thought you and your wife looked both truely amazing.
I'm really glad to hear your trip went well.
Although I don't post very often (and really should, need to get me an avatar pic up soon) I think you are a really down to earth and nice guy.
Thank you for the post, I think your culture is amazing and I love to hear about things such as this, plus you seem like a truely loving and great guy from your posts and these pictures.
Adman