Sunday, July 13, 2008

My Betrothal Gifts...

Yeah yeah. Today was an auspicious date for Guo Da Li, so Junneng and Shanmei came over with the gifts on behalf of Junwei. The groom is missing in action! Keke. Anyway, guo da li means the exchange of gifts between the groom's family and the bride's family before the traditional wedding. Wahaha. Dun ask me much details bout it, cos I only just learnt about all these things. Oh, and my bride's price was included too. I'm worth $999, but mummy returned back $299 as a token, so I'm worth $700. Haha.

We had two huge baskets of gifts. Hee. But whatever the groom's family gave us, we had to return half to symbolize yi ren yi ban, I guess. Every gift has a significance, for example: Longan means feng yi zu shi (be well fed and well clothed), bing tang (rock sugar) means tian tian mi mi (sweetly in love always) , oranges means ji li (good fortune) etc. Oh yeah I dunno about all this till my mum in law taught me. Haha. So didn't my mum. We are suagus about all this. Waha.

The most worth-it gift, as described by my mum, is the exchange of two orange syrup for two bottles of martell. Woho. Lalala. That's my dad in the pic.

Oh yar. We also had the Long Feng candles, that need to be lit on the day of our wedding. My mum keeps the pair of Long candles (the dragon) cos' it means she has another son in the family, and we return the Feng candles (the pheonix) to my in laws. So cool. I wonder where we can place it in our house though, no altar and no urn. But we'll figure it out. =)

My mum and the ang pows she received. She also had to bao 6 ang pows in all. For Ah Ma, for Shanmei, for my mum-in-law, for dad-in-law, for junwei to buy shoes (yeah practically, it says for junwei's shoes), and for the Dai Lu Ji (ie the chickens which lead the path, dun ask me whad is it, i dunno wad, but it sounds interesting to me. Wahaha)

I love the ang pows. Hehe. All very sweet. Guess will only receive them once in a lifetime wad. Wahaha. So nice right, the pic of the couple kissing.

Right. And here's what my parents had to give my in laws, as what they call the bride's dowry. The orange syrup, a pair of lamps to be lit the night before our wedding beside our new bed (they say cannot let the fire be extinguished or else it means bad luck, so guess wad, we upgraded from oil to battery operated lamps. Keke), a sewing basket with needles and thread and scissors tied with red string, a toothbrush mug and a toothbrush for jw, a comb, a tea set for the wedding tea ceremony, a blue potty, a pink baby bathtub, some red pieces of paper called Yuan Qian, which needs to be placed under the new bed to symbolize I will get along well with my new family.

Hee. Cool? Interesting to learn bout Chinese customs. Bet jw doesn't know anything bout all this too. Well well. Less than 2 weeks to the wedding. Kinda excited and nervous all at once. =)

Be back soon for more updates. Tata!