中西方婚俗的差異(編輯修改稿)

　

【文章內容簡介】 some correct things that will be used in church。 second, correct means to go to church especially correct reading prayer book。 third, correct motive to go to church which emphasizes action by church’s order. It can be seen that church is important in western people’s eyes, so the priest is necessary when holding a marriage. And marriage is tinged with mystery because of these conditions. C. Different Wedding Dresses 1. Chinese Wedding Dress: Red Bridal Gown In china, the red color symbolizes joyousness and happiness, so in Chinese traditional wedding ceremony, bride and groom wear the red color dresses, what the bride wears is called red bridal gown. And their dresses must have the dragon and phoenix patterns, which play very important role in Chinese traditional wedding dresses. In ancient China tale, the dragon stands for male and the phoenix stands for female, and both dragon and phoenix indicate lucky. Because of the dragon is the emperor’s individual symbol, so only bride wears the phoenix red dress, and the groom wear a big red flower on his left chest. 2. Western Wedding Dress: White Wedding Gown In western traditional wedding dresses, the white color is mon used in wedding dresses. From the roman emperors, the white color symbolized pleasure and joyousness. Between the years 18501900, the white color was the symbol of richness. Until the beginning of last century, the most important and typical meaning of the white color symbolized purity and the western people believed that the white color is related to chastity. In early times, only the nobles had the right to wear the white wedding dress. And in Victorian times, only the higher rank can wear the white wedding dress, because, at that time, the white color symbolized the right and status, the other lower rank including the bride can not wear. Until the aristocracy disappear, the white wedding dresses was mon used by the bride. Except the white wedding dresses, in ancient western society, the bride can prepare some specialties: they are “something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue”. “Something old” refers to the white mantilla which her mother used. This expresses her gratitude for her mother’s nurturance. “Something new” means the wedding dress must be new, it is the symbol of virginity and this is also indicates the bride will have new life. “Something borrowed refers to the handkerchief of the bride must be borrowed from her best female friends, which stands for the unfettable friendship. “Something blue”, the ribbon of the bride must be blue, which indicates loyalty to her husband. And the groom usually wear suit. D. Different Preparations before Getting Married 1. The Preparations before Marriage Agreement in China Like other folk, marriage custom has the same development and evolving process. In the early days of humanity, the human relationship in a very long period of time still carried the irregular relations like the animal world. There was no marriage at all, if suggest some, the only “arbitra ry marriage.” In China, marriage has gone through a long time. As a most grand etiquette, it has always been a high degree of attention to. Since the beginning of Zhou, to control the marriage, Dynasty the family and the whole society regulated that Chinese marriage should ply with the six procedures, they are socalled the “six etiquettes.” And later in Tang and Ming Dynasty in China, marriage also plied with the “six etiquettes”. As time goes by, although many wedding customs experienced various changes, “Six etiquettes” as the basic pattern has not changed much. It is still essential and core in marriage custom. Marriage has changed much today, but in many places there still remains traditional marriage custom. In feudal society, marriage would be decided not by the youths’ love, but by the desires of their parents. Only after a matchmaker’s introduction and when parents considered the two family conditions were similar and could be matched, would the marriage procedures went forward. Conditions that should be taken into consideration included wealth and social status. If a boy’s family was well off or an official family, his parents would never permit him to marry a girl from a poor family. Essential to the marriage process were the monly recognized “three Letters and six etiquettes”. The three letters were the betrothal letter, the gift letter with a gifts list and the wedding letter used on the day when the bridegroom met his bride at her home. The book propriety and ceremony, which records earliest wedding ceremony, says that marriage, usually, involves six necessary procedures, namely, proposing, asking the name, asking for fortune, sending betrothal present to girl’s family, discussing date of marriage and meeting the bride. First, Proposing is the first etiquette in marriage and is the first meet between the members in the two families. Thus, it is very important. Using a mon expression, it is making an offer of marriage to another family on behalf of the son or daughter. Second, asking the name aims to ask for girl’s name and pray. In ancient times the girl’s name would not be known by other people until the girl was in an age of marriage. First of all, one must have the matchmaker and inform of the man’s family through a card. And the man’s family would lastly receipt for postal remittance. Thus it can be seen that “asking the name” not only meant that the man’s family wanted to know the girl’s name, but also wrote down the woman’s birthday and Eight characters (in four pairs denoting the time, date, month and year of a person’s birth, each pair consisting of one Heavenly Stem and one Earthly Branch, used in fortunetelling). If the birthday and Eightcharacters were not harm the man, the m