As we have more and more weddings of different cultures in our company, we thought it would be fun to do a series on Ethnic Weddings. Hopefully this series will not only give ideas on what has been done recently by brides and grooms who are planning on having one of these types of ceremonies, but also to educate our readers on different cultures and their customs.
To start off our Ethnic Wedding Series, we present to you, The Asian Tea Ceremony. This is something I found really interesting and I hope you all will as well.
A tea ceremony is much like the western tradition of exchanging vows. In Asian culture, tea is a way of unifying the body and mind. In the Tao religion, tea is a vessel to attain harmony, respect, purity, and tranquility. The tea ceremony was created to show respect for the family and is considered to be the most significant event in a modern Chinese wedding.
So, how does it work? Well, in traditional times the bride and groom would go to the groom’s house and she would serve tea to the groom’s family only, having already served her family earlier in the morning. Today in modern times, after the exchange of vows, the bride and groom serve their families together. Typically, the bride stands to the left of the groom, they then kneel or bow to serve their elders. The bride will face the male elder and the groom, the female. It is customary to serve all of the groom’s elders first in in order of seniority and then the bride’s starting first with paternal elders, then maternal elders. Usually, all the tea is poured out first and then served; tea is not poured for deceased elders. As the tea is offered to the elders, they drink the tea and then give the bride and groom lucky red bags, usually containing money or jewelery.
And of course, you can’t have a tea ceremony without a tea set! It used to be that tea sets would come from the bride’s dowry. Now-a-days, mother’s will buy their daughters a tea set to keep and pass on, or pass on the tea set from their own ceremony. 
In addition to tea sets, it is also common to have a candle at the ceremony, much like a unity candle in western tradition. Some ceremonies use one candle, some two, depending on the preference of the bride and groom. They symbolize the two families and the joining together of them. Popular symbols are the Double Happiness Symbol, the Phoenix, and the Dragon motifs.
We actually have a tea ceremony coming up in July at The Hall of Springs, keep an eye out for that Real Wedding post to see how it goes!
