Taboos in Wedding
Wedding day is the most important occasion in our life. On that day, we hope everything can go through smoothly and receive the best wishes from our others. To hold a perfect and dream wedding, you should do lot of preparations in advance and ask advices from the elder in your family.
As a tradition, we Chinese incline to select an auspicious date to have some celebrations, such as birthday, opening ceremony and of course wedding. We don’t want to offend the gods to incur thsos unfortunate things. So do you know the usual taboos in our daily life especially in wedding? Do you know how to avoid the taboos? There are many aespects to note. Affected by both religions and traditions,taboos evolved gradually as society develops. But it still holds evident distinction from culture to culture and society to society. Here are I’d like to pick out some to share with you.
In English, thirteen is the image ofthe vicious or the evil. It’s widely known that in most English-speaking countries, they don’t have the 13th floor and the room 13. By doing so they can avoid disasters mentally. In the theatre, they don’t set row 13, and seat 13 either, because for good luck no one would prefer to sit those seats. So, you can never find a couple to have their wedding on date 13. That’s a big taboo in western countries.
And as for the oriental countries, especially in China, we don’t like the number 4 for it is the homonym of death. Different from the westerns, we Chinese like to use red in wedding. Red means good luck and propitious, while white represents something unlucky. So in ancient China, the brides always wear red gowns instead of the white wedding dress. Taboos in English and Chinese differentiate from each other not simply because of superstitions or religions, but deeper— the distinction of culture. In considering all those similarities and differences in Chinese and English taboos, we understand that forming a generalview on the taboos is of significance. Hope all of us can get rid of the bad things and lead a happy life.
Processing your request, Please wait....
