Chinese Wedding Traditions 2: ‘Fun and Games’ with the Bride and Groom 鬧洞房

Last weekend we helped out in our friend’s wedding 朋友的婚禮. It was fairly elaborate with more than 200 people participating and more than 12 courses of food at the restaurant afterward. Our daughter was a flower girl 花筒 in the ceremony, walking up the aisle with the son of another friend of ours. That left me free to roam and take photos, testing the limits of this low light, high speed telephoto lens. As you can see by this photo of our younger son demonstrating a “bottoms up” toast 乾杯 with his glass for us, it works quite well.

At this wedding there was quite a demonstration of fun and games played with the bride and groom 新郎和新娘. The bride had to roll an egg 生雞蛋 up and down the groom without breaking it. Then she had to rub the hands of men lined up to determine which one was the groom. There were others, including the bride and the groom singing together and seeing how long the groom could stand on his hands 倒立. 鬧洞房 is an interesting tradition whereby the more intrepid members of the wedding party follow the bride and groom to their room. A group surprised this couple at their hotel room 大飯店的房間. There, in a wedding version of trick or treat, they pick out a certain number of further games and challenges, some of which can be downloaded 可以下載 on the web (email me if you want the link to 30 different types) for the newlyweds to complete before they will finally leave them to enjoy a peaceful evening. …or more likely fall asleep. This couple’s evening was over at midnight.