In past agrarian communities, weddings were usually held at the end of the year when farming activities had ceased. On the eve of the wedding, the couple would each conduct a "hair-combing" ceremony that symbolized their passage into adulthood.
The groom's family would engage a "good-life woman" (a woman who had enjoyed a long, prolific marriage) to perform a "bed-installing" fertility rite in the nuptial chamber.
As the wedding day drew close, the bride-to-be would live secluded in the loft of her parents' house and express her pre-marital anxieties through traditional songs.
On the wedding day, the bride would be carried to the groom's house in a decorated bridal sedan chair. During the wedding ceremony, the couple would kneel and bow first to heaven and earth, and then the groom's ancestors and parents.
A banquet would be held in the evening and the invited guests would become witnesses to the marriage.
Credit : History Museum of HK.
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