Our Wedding Traditions: Celebrating Our Customs

Chinese: Cantonese, Hainanese, Hakka, Hokkien, and Teochew

Wherever you go, weddings are chock-full of traditions. Of course, some of these customs have evolved along with the changing times, but they mostly remain as they were as a way for us to connect with our roots and honor our heritage.

Whether you feel a sense of duty or are simply fascinated about the world of traditional wedding customs, it’s always good to familiarise yourself with some of the most common Chinese, Malay, and Indian wedding traditions in our beautifully diverse cultural melting pot.

Many of the customs related to Chinese marriage were formulated during the Han dynasty (206 BC–220 AD), including the exchanging of betrothal gifts and dowry. These traditional customs were initially guided by the Book of Rites, Book of Etiquette and Ceremonial, and the Bai Hu Tong – a Confucian text said to be on the true meanings of the classics.

These rituals were then further condensed into the Three Letters and Six Etiquettes (San Shu Liu Li), and only a wedding that has incorporated these six rites was considered a completed one: The Proposal (Nà Cii), Matching of Names and Birth Dates (Hé Duì Ba Zì), Presenting Betrothal Gifts (Nà Jí), Presenting Wedding Gifts (Nà Zheng), Selection of an Auspicious Wedding Date (Qing Qi), and the Wedding Ceremony (Qin Yíng).

1. The Betrothal

The betrothal ceremony for Chinese weddings consists of two parts – the gifting of betrothal gifts and dowry money (Pin Jin) from the groom to the bride’s family, also known as Guo Da Li, and the returning of a portion of the gifts from the bride’s family to the groom’s family, which is also known as Hui Li.