Marriage customs in China and western countries.doc

marriage customs in china and western countriesintroductionin almost every kind of social culture, there will be wedding coustom. the form of wedding is changing constantly with the progress of the human society. so it seems that human beings have an innate need: the wedding will be between husband and wife relationships publicly confirmed. since ancient times, marriage is the first human relations. the more important for people is that through the complex and brilliant marriage customs. we can have a clearer understanding of human society is basic law. when talking about traditional chinese wedding, some people will think of the red tape like three baidoa nine call. what about exotic wedding customs? apart frombridal suite, churches, priests, there would not be too much impression. it is cultural differences that make marriage customs all over the world have so many significant differences. then these colorful wedding customs constitute a beautiful scenic route in human society.as china has joined the wto, economic and culture communication with western countries is incresingly frequent. the world cnstantly accelerates pace of globalization economy and culture integrate in high speed, western culture floods into china massivly and chinese traditional etiquette have been impacted by western culture etiquette. how to protect the traditional chinese etiquette and to discard the dross and integrate the western etiquette reasonably and effectively bacomes a topic need to be thought of and discussed, which made establishing a culture system which suits chinese present society more wrgent. so i am trying to have a research on western culture and customs, in order to contribute to the society. chaper1. marriage customs in western countries1.1 before marriage 1.11 engagement ringin western countries, if the lovers want to get married, the boy should have to propose to the girl, and give her an engagement ring. the giving of an engagement ring was first practiced when the groom purchased his bride. by giving a token, such as a ring, he pledged to marry her in return for her dowry and social status, among other things. the tradition of giving a diamond began with the italians. it was believed that diamonds were created from the flames of love and represented everlasting love. if the girl accepts the engagement ring, they are engaged.1.12 tell their parentsas soon as they get engaged, they need to tell their parents. and then the girls parents will announce the engagement and the wedding. traditionally, its the girls parents who take charge of the expense of the wedding mostly, and the boys parents are in charge of rehearsal and some other things. the rehearsal is played one or two days before the wedding ceremony, ang it means to make everyone who will attend the ceremony familiar with the process of it.1.13 invitation and preparing presentseveral weeks before the wedding ceremony, the relatives and friends will receive the invitations, and if you receive one, you must prepare a suit of formal dress. as a lady, you need a gown, and as a gentleman you need a tuxedo. meanwhile, you need prepare some present for the new couple. its no need of high price, something useful will do, such as a vase, a set of teacups, and so on. that will be great if you know what the bride or the groom likes.1.14 the rowdy bachelor partiesthe rowdy bachelor parties were the invention of the spartan soldiers. it became customary for the groom to feast with his friends the night before the wedding, often celebrating his last night of freedom by getting severely drunk (not much has changed it seems). in modern times, women have decided they also want their night of fun, so now it is traditional for women to have stagette or bachelorette parties as well.1.2 on wedding day1.21 dressing of the brideup until the 1400s, the bride usually wore her best dress regardless of the color. it was queen victoria who began the present day fashion of wearing white as the wedding dress. in bible, the combination of the man and woman is considered to be saintly. it means the start of the procreating. so it must use white to decorate it. thus in western countries, the bride wears white dress and take white lily and also with white glove. 1.22 the bridesmaids and ushersthe idea of having bridesmaids, pages, a best man and ushers origins from the belief that evil spirits, envious of the couples happiness that would be out to harm the bride and groom will be confused by so many similarly dressed people. the custom of the best man probably goes back to the days when the groom took a friend with him when he went to kidnap the bride from her home. bells were originally rung at weddings to frighten away the evil spirits, and noisy celebrations were held beforehand to try and drive them from the community. these were the ancestors of our stag and hen parties.1.23 the main process off the wedding dayfirst the groom will take the brides hand from the brides father, and then he will uncover the veil of the bride. later the priest will pray for then and the will follow priest to say like this: i (tom/susan), take thee (susan/tom)to my wedded wife/husband, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and cherish , till death us do apart, according to gods holy ordinance; and thereto i plight thee my troth.(quote)then they will wear the ring for each other, and the groom will kiss the bride, the wedding kiss dates back to roman times. the kiss was to seal the marriage legally between the couple and must be witnessed by another person. after the kiss, they will go out of the church and have a party. usually the new couples will go to have a honeymoon later that day.chaper2. marriage customs in chinachinese marriage was systemized into custom during the warring states period. due to the vast expansion and long history, there are different customs that are followed in different places, although they are generally the same. we can still get chances to witness traditional marriages in the countryside. (quote)compare to the western marriage customs, here will display the old chinese ones and the difference between them. chapter3. the reason of the impactchinese marriage customs have changed in many aspects, and its more and more similar to the western ones. there are many elements which made western marriage customs have impact on chinese marriage customs.chapter4. the changes western wedding brings to china4.1 western weddingwestern wedding is romantic. the entire wedding is full of romantic from the beginning to the end. the brides dress is generally white, and the grooms is black, which make the whole wedding serious and solemn. holding the wedding ceremony in the church is the most important link in the entire wedding. first, the bride comes to the groom holding her fathers hand to the wedding march rhythm. then her father delivered her to the hands of the groom, and pastor will ask the bride and groom make a lifelong promise to each other, which is the climax of the whole wedding. then they will exchange the wedding rings and kiss each other in the blessing of the priests and guests. the flowers ball in the brides hands is not an ordinary furnishing. at the end of the wedding, the bride would throw it to the female guests arrived at the scene, the one who received the flowers is the next person to get married. then the wedding comes to the end in the laugh of the guests. conclusionthe differences between chinese and western marriage relates directly to the differences of ideology and thinking. chinese people are more conservative, and they like liveness, so therere not many changes on the wedding customs through a period of housands of years of time. after the introduction of modern western culture, chinas traditional culture began to transform to the west. but to a large extent chinas wedding customs are still maintained a traditional style. wedding stress ostentation and a series of premarital courtesy is most dazzling. but the western wedding customs is romantic, and the wedding ceremony lays stress on the courtesy rather