中西方婚礼习俗的文化差异毕业论文.doc

【标题】中西方婚礼习俗的文化差异 【作者】谭丽娟 【关键词】婚礼习俗；中国；西方国家；文化差异 【指导老师】张亚军 黄凤菊 【专业】英语 【正文】I. IntroductionWedding customs in both China and western countries has affected by their different culture. As a most grand thing in peoples life, it has always attracted a high degree of attention. Wedding is very important to ones life, not only to the couple involved but also for both families. Wedding is a celebration in which couples begin their married life. Due to the different cultural origins, religions, geographical locations and marriage concepts there are many differences existing in the two kinds of wedding customs. China is a country with an ancient civilization and a long history, Therefore, the Chinese wedding is elaborate and with many implicit meanings. It is deeply influenced by the complex traditional cultures and etiquettes. Different from Chinese wedding, in western countries, the whole wedding is romantic and blessed. The differences existing in Chinese and western marriage custom are inevitable. Although wedding customs mutually penetrate between China and western countries with the society's progress and the transformation of people's thinking, there are some cultural differences on wedding customs between China and western countries.Although many wedding customs have experienced various changes as time goes by, as the basic pattern, “six etiquettes” in China has not changed much. Thats to say proposing, asking the name, asking for fortune, sending betrothal presents to the girls family, discussing the date of marriage and meeting the bride are still essential and core in wedding custom, while a valid marriage should experience proposal, surnames, choosing the day and holding the wedding in western countries. However, both eastern and western wedding have their own importance. In this paper, the author would like to make a comparative study of the two different kinds of wedding customs in China and western countries, such as illustrating some cultural differences between some western countries and China, and analyzing the reasons for those differences in deep inside.II. The Two Kinds of Wedding CustomsEach country in the world has its own traditional customs because of differences in culture. Wedding customs is one of the customs which influenced by culture. Wedding customs also is an interesting topic. It attracts much care of young people. China and western countries both have their own wedding customs. However, the procedures of wedding customs are completely different in detail. A. The Major Procedures of Chinese Wedding Customs As a most grand etiquette, wedding customs has always been a high degree of attention. The traditional Chinese marriage comply with six procedures, which are the so-called "six etiquettes."1 As time goes by, although many wedding customs have experienced some changes, "Six etiquettes" as the basic pattern have not changed much in the modern Chinese wedding. It is still essential and core in todays Chinese wedding custom as well as the traditional Chinese wedding customs. Therefore, the author will explain the "six etiquettes" in the following part.In Chinese wedding customs, The six procedures are proposing, asking the name, asking for fortune, betrothal gift presenting, discussing the date of marriage and meeting the bride.2Proposing is the first etiquette in marriage and is the first meeting between the members in the two families. Both China and western countries have this procedure, but they are totally different in details. In feudal society of China, a marriage would be decided not by the youths love, but by their parents' desires. Only after a matchmaker's introduction and when parents believed that the family conditions of the two matched, would the marriage procedures went forward. Conditions that should be taken into consideration included wealth and social status as well. After the proposing, it comes to the second procedures, that is asking the name, which means the matchmakers inquiring about the girl's name. In ancient times the girls name would not be known by other people until the girl was in an age of marriage. So one must have the matchmaker and inform of the mans family through a card. And the mans family would know the girls name. After asking the name, the bridegrooms side had got the womans birthday and eight-characters and they went to consult a fortune-teller, which was called asking for fortune. If the birthday and eight-characters were not harmful to the man, the mans family would agree the marriage. When everything was almost ready for the marriage, the man's family would present gift-money and various gifts to the girl's family. The variety and quantity of the gifts and gift-money were all clearly listed in a “Gift Book” document. This is the forth producer which we called betrothal gift presenting. After received the betrothal gift, it means that both sides agreed to the marriage, so the following step is discussing the date of marriage. In the past, the bridegrooms side decided the lucky day and sent the matchmaker to inform the womans family. People paid much attention to the wedding time. They usually had a person asking for fortune. Nowadays, choosing a lucky day is also an important event. The last step is meeting the bride. In the past, the bridegroom wore wedding suit, road on a horse, and guided the bridal sedan chair to marry the bride on the day. And the bride wore a red cheongsam to wait for the bridegroom. Now, the bridegroom wears western suit, and the bride wears wedding dress.These six steps form a completely Chinese wedding. Essential to the marriage process are the commonly recognized “six etiquettes”. In addition, a typical Chinese wedding nowadays goes like this: when a new couple is engaged, they would chose a bank holiday or special Chinese festival for their relatives and friends to attend the wedding. However, quite a few others, especially those in the countryside, would probably ask a fortune-teller for a lucky date so that their marriage would have "Double Happiness". B. The Major Procedures of Western Wedding CustomsIn the west, wedding also plays an important role in ones life. So does the wedding customs formed in those countries depending on their cultures in the long history. Different from Chinese marriage there are four procedures in western countries. They are proposal, changing surnames, choosing the day and holding the wedding.Proposal is also the first procedure of the wedding in the western countries, but they are not the same in the details. In the West, if the man and woman want to get married, the groom's family must propose to the bride's side. In contrast to China, they do not need a matchmaker to propose. When proposing the groom's family should bestow the betrothal ring, which sometimes we call an engagement ring to the bride's side,. Therefore, when people say “He gave her a ring”, its significance usually is that he proposed to her. If she accepted, then they were engaged. After the first step, it comes to changing surnames. After the girl decide to marry a man, she should change her surname with the mans. The bride should not practice writing her new name before the wedding. This is thought to bring bad luck by tempting fate. Like people in China, westerners also pay attention to the marriage time. So the third procedure is choosing the day. This one is more like the people in China, but westerners call it discussing the day of marriage. However, there are some differences. The way they choose the day is completely different between China and western countries. Fridays are considered unlucky particularly Friday the 13th. The famous old rhyme advised a wedding in the first half of the week: Monday for wealth, Tuesday for health, Wednesday the best day of all, Thursday for losses, Friday for funerals, Saturday for no luck at all. 3After the three steps, the wedding ceremony will finally be held and it comes to the last one-holding the wedding. The key element utilized in most western wedding ceremonies, in their most common order, are introduction, opening, or invocation, main body, introduction to the vows, vows, exchange of rings, and announcement of the couple. 4 The two different wedding customs reflect the two different cultures in china and western countries. Chinese wedding is more complicated than the wedding in the western countries. In the following part, the author will analyze some differences between the wedding in china and western countries.III. Differences on the Two Wedding CustomsWedding custom and tradition varies a lot from place to place. People from different countries have some of their own way to arrange a wedding. From the aspects of wedding preparation, wedding dress, wedding ceremonies, wedding gifts and rituals after wedding ceremonies, we can find some cultural differences on wedding customs between China and western countries. A. Wedding PreparationWedding is a very complex and systematic procedure. Not only the wedding itself, people who decide to marry must do many preparations for their wedding. The elaborate preparations are much more complicated than wedding ceremony itself. However, different countries have different preparation for the wedding depends on their different cultures.In china, there are some unique customs in traditional wedding. First, the traditional Chinese wedding needs the bridal sedan chair. Before the wedding, the groom will bring the bridal sedan chair, an equivalent of a limousine nowadays, and a group of relatives and friends to go to fetch his bride. Thus, people in china must prepare a sedan china before the wedding. But this is different from the wedding in the west. In western countries, most of them choose car as the sedan chair to fetch bride.Bed making is another one of the special customs needed in China while the western countries have no such customs. Chinese take marriage as “joint the two families together for the ancestor and for the offspring.” 5 Bed making, spilling some Chinese dates, peanuts, longans, lotus on the bed, means having a boy as soon as possible. Therefore, bed making is a necessary step and play an essential part in Chinese wedding. This customs still exist in some region in China.While the west-style wedding has other special things to prepare. Western wedding have their own unique symbol and the connotation like wedding bouquet, wedding rings, the idea of having bridesmaids, pages, a batsman and ushers. All these customs can date back to the old times and have gone through a long history in the western countries. Wedding things needed in the wedding should be carefully prepared. Wedding rings are one of the indispensable things of the wedding. "Bible" said that in ancient times, men used to propose to the woman with a ring. 6 In the western countries, the groom must prepare the wedding ring before the wedding. While in China, ring is not an indispensable thing in the wedding. Especially for those who live in poverty. Besides the wedding rings, wedding bouquet also needs to be prepared before the wedding in western countries. Bouquet plays an important role in ritual of wedding in western culture. Wedding flower can be seen everywhere on the western wedding, from the church to the hotel, They enjoy using fresh flowers, and fake ones will not be used. Flowers can be seen everywhere. Thus, a large number of flowers must be prepared before the wedding. But in china, wedding bouquet have no such important role in the wedding. So they do not need spend time preparing plenty of flowers before the wedding.From the differences on the wedding preparation between China and western countries we can see that those differences are partly caused by the different cultures. For instance, Chinese traditional culture of five thousand years formed a complicated and unique wedding customs, while affected by the Bible, people in the west treat the wedding ring and bouquet as the necessary things in wedding. However, with a blend of Chinese and western cultures, the wedding customs are also mutual penetration.B. Wedding DressWedding dress is given the utmost importance so as to impart the most unique appearance to the couple. So people pay more attention to their dress on the wedding day. Because of the different cultures, costumes are also different in China and western countries. In a Chinese wedding, the common color is red. The color red is considered as good luck. It is a strong color that can drive away evil spirits. While white plays an important role in ritual of wedding in western culture. It means chasteness, beauty, loftiness, and civility, so white is the main color of the west wedding.In China, brides and grooms often wear special costumes. The traditional Chinese wedding dress in northern China is usually one-piece frock named Qi Pao, embroidered with elaborate gold and silver designs. Brides from southern China usually wear two-piece dress named Qun Gua, Kwa or Cheongsam, also elaborately adorned with golden phoenix and dragon. It is a tradition to wear Cheongsam with red dragon and phoenix design at the wedding day because dragon and phoenix design symbolizes the balance of male and female power. While in the western countries, there are white dress, white posy, white veil, as well as the white cream cake, and everything is so romantic. In the western countries, the traditional white wedding gown symbolizes the innocence of the bride in her preparation for her new husband. Thus, the west wedding dress is often white not red.Moreover, In the old days of China, a piece of red veil is part of the brides costume to cover her face during the wedding ceremony. Newlyweds would see each others face for the first time on their wedding night. While wearing a white wedding veil is highly popular in the western countries, the function of the veil is different. The tradition is originated in an effort to fend off evil spirits for the bride before the wedding. The thought is that the evil spirits will see the veil and will not be able to get to the person inside, preserving the bride for the husband. While the groom often wears black clothes and boiled shirts, appearing noble and elegant.As time have changed so fast and the door of our country has been widely open, nowadays a lot of western customs and culture have come into some Chinese peoples minds. Also take brides for example. They wear the western traditional white gown in the daytime for taking photos or taking part in the ceremony, and the Chinese traditional red frock at night for the wedding banquet. While some metropolis people have been tired of those troublesome rules and they pursue some special or exciting forms. More and more modern youths want their weddings to be simple, so does their costume. C. Wedding CeremoniesAs it is known to us all, a wedding ceremony is the beginning of a marriage. It can change a