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'Red bombs' would raid pockets during the holidays Marriage old and new More than 2,000 years ago, China already had recorded principles for wedding gifts among high-status families. Among the many gifts, two seem very interesting: a a wild goose and tea. The wild goose flies south every autumn and flies back the next spring, so it is considered to be a bird that keeps its promises.
Tea, a very important gift in ancient times, symbolizes long-lasting love and sincerity. Because the tea tree dies if it is removed from its original place, it stands for fidelity, of the kind the new couple should show to each other. The many customary practices and traditions made weddings complicated in ancient China. The families of both groom and bride were required to carefully prepare gifts for each other. After the special day had been decided, the groom's family would prepare cash, pies, snacks, livestock such as pigs or chickens, fruits with auspicious meanings or pronunciations and jewellery for the bride. The bride's family, of course, prepared gifts in return. They were expected to give back gifts worth at least half the value of those received, including such items as men's clothes, articles of daily use and food. Three days after the marriage, the new couple would return to the bride's home, and gifts were an important part of this too. Most of the gifts at this stage were food items, such as wine, meat, pies and vegetables. During the 1930s, modern Shanghai was the vanguard of a revolution in "new living," which aimed to discard old and useless traditions. On April 3, 1935, the city held the country's first group wedding ceremony in the hall of the city government in Jiangwan. According to the record of the China Archives Newspaper, 57 couples in identical dress (men in blue gowns and black top wear, women in pink qipaos) entered the hall accompanied by music. They first bowed to the sculpture of Sun Yat-Sen, then bowed to each other, and finally bowed to the chief witness at the wedding ceremony. Then the new couples walked out of the hall for group photographs in the plaza. This new style of marriage attracted many residents and hundreds of people crowded to the plaza to see the event. Such simple wedding ceremonies became stylish in society, with many film
stars and modern young people applying to marry in the same way. The complicated
process of giving and receiving wedding gifts was neglected by some modern
families.
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