In the two weeks we were in Taiwan, not only did we attend Uncle Dedo and Aunt Holly’s wedding in Taipei, we also attended Calvin’s cousin’s wedding in ZhongLi. The wedding were quite different in style so it was interesting to see the dichotomy.
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Uncle Dedo & Aunt Holly’s Wedding
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Uncle Dedo & Aunt Holly’s wedding was a mix of American- and Taiwanese-style wedding traditions. American traditions are: Western-style wedding ceremony, speeches made by both sides of the wedding party, first dance, tossing of the bouquet, cutting of the wedding cake, and dancing. Taiwanese traditions are: “fetching” of the bride, huge banquet feast, toasting at each table, and parents of the groom and bride appearing on stage to thank the guests.
My big role during the wedding was welcoming Aunt Holly into the Liang Family. To get ready for my big role, I got a haircut ($80 NT which is about $3 USD) and wore my tuxedo.
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Even though I am technically not a “Liang,” Aunt Holly requested that I be the honorary boy who will present her with oranges once she arrives at the Liang Family “home” (Grand Hyatt Hotel). Apparently, oranges are a sign of fertility and the bride needs to rub her hands on them upon arrival. PoPo and Mommy found two of the prettiest-looking oranges and GongGong tried to secure them onto a red plate withe velcro so that they wouldn’t fall off. Unfortunately, I became extremely interested in the velcro and started to peel them off the oranges. Needless to say, the velcro didn’t do much.
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Unfortunately, I was only awake for the wedding ceremony and then I fell asleep in my stroller. It’s too bad because I think I could have had a great time with the other kids at the wedding banquet.
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(Photo taken by Uncle Wade)
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(Photo taken by Aunt Ellie)
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Aunt XinJe’s Wedding
Calvin’s cousin’s wedding was an entirely traditional Taiwanese wedding with presentation of gifts to the bride and groom’s families, “fetching” of the bride, tea ceremony, thanking of the parents and large banquet. The bride was sent off with her suitcases and bedding for her new bed and was also not permitted to return to her parent’s home for several nights. It’s interesting to see a traditional wedding because it’s probably a dying art, but Mommy can’t help but wonder how sad the occasion must be for the bride to have to “leave” her family, especially with all of the traditional formalities that make it even more difficult.
As you can see, I really liked my YiPo:
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I didn’t have a role at this wedding, but I had to the chance to meet PoPo’s entire side of the family, including A-Tai (PoPo’s father).
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