Culture: Vietnamese traditional wedding
Posted by Ricky on Sunday, 26 September 2004 (07:49:39) EDT
Contributed by Ricky

Being invited numerous times to Vietnamese friends wedding, I have learned a few points or two. In different countries, there are different ways of thinking. In wedding traditions such as Vietnamese and Chinese, there are some things that we call "limitations" what to do or what not to do. The groom and the bride have so many things to observe and do; of course, today theses are thought of as "false notion". The couple that will be married can't see each other the day before their wedding. False notion or not, seeing each other can bring bad luck and sometimes it shatter the relationship. So most families value this tradition. Today’s, however some choose not to value it.

During the night before, the bride's mom will comb her daughter 's hair. Every comb means something. The most important meaning in that comb legacy is the third comb, and at that time she will. This will bring her luck and happiness in her new home. The groom also has a really important situation when he has to answer difficult questions. The bride's friends ask him the groom some questions which is embarrassing and make him do some difficult physical challenges. After that, the couple is ready for the celebration.

There is a part of tradition that can't be forgotten. The groom must show the bride to his parent. She, the bride, gives a cup of tea to her parents in law. After all that, there is the banquet. During the dinner session groom and bride visit each of the guest tables. The guests begin to play tricks on the couple. Some of them are to see, how well they know each other. The purpose is to have fun without hurting each other. They tie an apple and ask the couple to eat it without using their hands. Most of the time they ended up kissing each other. And surely, there are many other tricks can be take part in depend on individual guest tables creativity. As a notion of a tapping on a glass applied that the guests would like the couple to engage into a kiss. I participate in tapping with along my colleague as I have learned something new.

Beyond all that tradition, there is one thing in common everywhere: the Foods. There are at least twenty dishes at Vietnamese wedding such as fish and egg rolls. Each egg rolls are made of a third vegetable and two third of meat, depending on what you like. The egg rolls should come in pairs because they are like the couple; they should be in pair, always together. There is more kind of food. Then the bride and the groom have time to enjoy themselves. The wedding continues with dancing and celebrating.

Weddings are the most memorable and unforgettable celebrations of your life. The past can be forgotten, but not in a Vietnamese wedding. As a wedding is once a lifetime celebration, you should celebrate it with your own traditions and culture.

-Ricky

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pretty cool eh? I've been to a lot that are exaclty like how they explain it in here..

hmm this is more chinese

you mean.... you never seen a vietnamese wedding before?? i've been to alot... they do everything he explains plus more he didnt explain.

oooh... wedding....... sooo, are you planning a wedding anytime soon, huh Tam Ca? ...yus sounds pretty excited about it!! ...wellies, yeah, ima also thinking Vietnamese weddings are fun...hic, there are so many dishes on weddings that everybody gets reeally stuffed... especially somee people who liikees to eat a lot ......... Me liikees the part where we get to dance on the dance floor....aahaha .

haha not anytime soon.... not even close lol.. the best thing about these weddings are that we all get drunk during the celebration lol..

everyone gets to sing if they want too!

== I don't think this is what happen in a Viet wedding.. I'm actually new to the first few paragraph.. and the groom + bride give a cup of wine to the other side.. I wonder if he attended a Viet-Chinese wedding??


Btw, in a Tieu Chau wedding, the groom+bride give cup of tea to the parents, brothers, sisters.. the bigger the family, the longer it'll be

This is definitely Chinese.

hmm thats weird.. i saw two weddings that did that...! maybe we just don't do it aas much anymore. but i've seen some of my relatives do that.

Have you guys got pictures of a Vietnamese wedding.

Like the traditional clothes the bride and groom wear and ceremonies, stuff like that.

Thanks in Advance

tam_ca i don't get why you posted this up? Are you planning to get marry Vietnamese style or something? haha

u know i saw vietnamese wedding before.. they are so similar to fuzhou ren's wedding

why does everyone say that lol.... no i posted this because this is like part of our culture so i thought it would be nice to post it up.

not completely chinese.

In chinese weddings the couple are supposed to top the ceremony with 3 bows:

first bow honoring "heave and earth": 一拜天地

2nd bow honoring the parents: 二拜父母

3rd bow honoring each other: 夫妻对拜

And also in the old days, the bride is supposed to cover her face with a veil, and groom uncovers it before they go to bed. But I've never seen any bride cover her face nowadays.

The party part is Vietnamese, but the ceremony isn't.. same with the day before the wedding and stuff


Rei: Just picture this one bigger for the brides: usually in red; and the groom wear a more losen ao dai, nowaday more wear suit though.

This is deffinately Chinese, and you've been watching too much phim tau. Turn that $hit off.

I agree with you Dai_Viet,

and tam_ca,

It is people like you that cast an impression that Vietnamese wanna be chinese. I think you need to do some deep studying of your country and you'll realize that Vietnamese culture, values and beliefs are no where near to be influenced by the chinese.

You should read the Hong Duc law by King Le Thanh Tong and you'll realize that Vietnamese culture goes against every fundamental teaching of the confucious culture. You'll also realize that Vietnam already had democracy in the feudal eras.

And please, give your VCR a break man.

It's some of these half Viet/chinese that give other the impression that Vietnam is a replica of china.

I personally don't like inter-racial marriage, but chinese is the last race of people I will think of when it comes to survival.

What the? Every comb means something? Just comb the freaking hair already!

I'm having trouble controlling my laughter when i read that passage

Sometimes I wished that we'd break off from the rest of Asia and form our own island or continent. That way, we'd have nothing related to the chinese or anything with that respect.

The chinese way is too slow and the process is just terrible when it comes to death, marriage, funeral.

I know that my grandma's house in Vietnam has a picture of some chinese characters, and none of us know what those stand for. So when I get back to Vietnam. I am going to take off everything and anything that has to do with chinese or chinese related.

^ LOL, there wouldn't be much left then.

just joking.

Btw. Get rid of your username while your at it, because it has a han-viet word in it.

well i just went to a wedding like a year ago
and my cousin is vietnamese
but like most of the things u said they did
except the apple thing
or maybe i wasnt watching
but when they came around the tables first they were talking and stuff
then they had this bowl and had like 50 bags of like 8 pieces of rolled up paper inside and then they would open one of the bags then put the pieces of paper in the bowl then everyone at the table would choose one and who every got the blue one or something got a prize
wait
i think this might be like a party a week before chinese new year
hahaha
but i remember they went around the tables and starting talking
haha

Hahhahaha... if by that, then the American people should create a new language for themselves huh?

And if all Viets were to take off every part of chinese in their houses, what's left will be pure and true. The remainder will be in the trash.

then go back to the stone age

No, because they don't want to get rid of everything that British. Unlike the viets who want to get rid of everything Chinese.



What's left will be French.

You made me laugh, Mister three-square box

We'll see you there.


You need to learn more about geography. Or, what's left will be 1 billion heads.

care to prove me wrong? take Chinese culture out of vietnam and what you have left? stone age plus some french influences

How much do you know about Vietnamese culture, values, and beliefs beside the stuff that you influence us?

Such a centered chinese. Let's say that if you take everything out of china, what's left will a pot and a chopstick.

Take the aspects that they learned from India instead.

What does "taking off everything Chinese" have to do with geography?

all we got from India was Buddhism and the Swaztika symbol. the swaztika symbol currently is only used by falun gong and buddhism hasn't been popular in China for 1000 years. yes, take Indian influences out, we still have 4000 plus years of culture and civilization

vietnam on the other hand, transitioned out of the stone age 2000 years after it ended for everyone else

Indian influenced on chinese culture is more than just buddhism

http://www.atributetohinduism.com/India_and_China.htm

wow, you're dense and gullible. half that article deals with buddhist related issues. the non-buddhist stuff is mentioned regarding India only as a route from the middle east to China

that link also lists "Western Origins of Chinese Civilization" which was discredited over 50 years ago 2

Are you ashamed that your culture was deeply influenced by the Indian?

you're one stubborn kid.

Can you name some other things beside Buddism, the swastika, tea...?

Use your chinese brain to read that link please

I'm not going to read the whole article. As far as I can see, it's mainly about buddism. And beside that, there are not much traces of "Indian culture" to be found in China.

If you want to make yourself somewhat more convincing, you'll have to name a few things.

Music, Architecture, Language, Painting, Sculpture, Literature, Mythology, Philosophy and Science.

Are those good enough for you mister Emperor? Spend the time and read the link please.

you're quite dense, i've already explained to you that your link lists discredited literature as sources

Music=the indian system of music is far from the Chinese system. Hindus rely on a melodic scale system which uses alot of semi-tones while Chinese uses a harmonic system with WIDE intervals. Chinese music also uses quarter-tones which Indian music does not use

Language=LOL Indo-Aryan languages have no influence on Sino-Tibetan languages, they couldn't be further apart

Painting=Tang dynsaty paintings depicted alot of buddhist INSPIRED imagery but the techniques themselves(go to a muesum) are quite far apart

Literature=once again, this information comes from "Western Origins of Chinese civilization" which has been discredited for 50 years

Mythology=i don't remember any Huang Di, Yan Di, Yi the archer, Fu Xi-esque figures when i read Indian mythology

see thing is mr. ngyuen, you can't just list random sources, you have to take the information in your head and interpret them which you can't do because all you can do is google

rofl, I rather not waste my time on that.

How did indian influence the Chinese language except for the swastika word? Chinese and Indian don't even have similar words as far as I know (unlike Viet-Chinese).

Painting - Styles are totally different. See for yourself: 1 2

tqt, don't even bother. you know very well that Indian culture didn't have a great impact on Chinese culture. While Chinese did have a great impact on Vietnamese.

The one who do not know about chinese culture being influenced by the Indian are you Mr. Emperor. And yes, the chinese have a great impact on our culture, values, and beliefs that's why we marry our cousin, bind our women's feet, jump off a cliff if your superior told us to.

i didn't know that either.. 2

tgt, read that ^, you're arguing with me, so read and rebut my points

I wonder why you ignored 浪淘音 post and a great part of my post.

Like I said, I'm not going to read the article. 浪淘音 and I already stated how Chinese and Indian culture are different on various aspects (Music, Architecture, Language, Painting, Sculpture, Literature, Mythology, Philosophy and Science).

How about some counter arguments?



Good.

Just ignore tqt he is an extreme Anti-Chinese nationalist. As for Chinese influence on Vietnam, I have to admit we did kinda force it on them no denial there but either way influence is still influence coerced or not.

The last time I went to a du ma wedding was back in du ma city. It was great. Everyone ate fur. Everyone had to cough out 10 hairballs.

And you joined them huh? Was that your mom's wedding? Yuck! Even dogs wouldn't do that. Still, you people disgust me.

Back when I was visiting Vietnam, I saw some dumaese in du ma city. I don't think they eat dogs tho.

you spell con cac wrong, thus proving you're not vietnamese