Tradition: Symbolic Food for Chinese Wedding

The following lists the food that are symbolic to a Chinese wedding.

Suckling pig at Chinese wedding [via Flickr]

Roast pig - In Guangdong and Hubei Province , a succulent offering of roast pig (suckling pig) was sent to the bride’s family on the third day after a wedding as a sign of the groom’s family acceptance and pleasure with their new daughter-in-law.

Mandarin duck couple [via Flickr]

Wild goose - A wild goose (mandarin duck) is the quintessential symbol of marital harmony and fidelity. Because geese mate for life and migrate together from season to season, they are considered dependable, reliable creatures. Pictures of wild geese flying in pairs make very appropriate wedding presents. If wild geese cannot be obtained for a betrothal gift, domestic geese are permissible or even, as a last resort, humble chicken will do.

Egg soup - On the day of the wedding, the groom is cordially served a bowl of soup upon his arrival at the bride’s home. It contains an unbroken soft-boiled egg which he is expected to break to symbolize the bride’s leave-taking from her family. Sometimes the groom’s mother-in-law will put a hard-boiled egg in the soup, making him try a little harder to break the yolk in order to gain his bride.

Pig’s heart - The bride packages together a pig’s heart along with other ingredients to make a soup for her in-laws on the day of the wedding to suggest that they are “all of one heart”.

Fruits and Nuts - Because a wealth of puns can be made from Chinese names for fruits and nuts, they are symbolically used during the wedding ceremony to imply many children and good fortune. For example, folded inside the marriage quilt, one might find peanuts, dates and nuts - the second syllable in the word for peanut is “sheng”, which is homophonous with the word “birth” and the word for date (”zaozi”) sounds the same as the “early arrival of a male son”. For the same reason, when the bride is presented in the main hall to her mother-in-law, she may be offered a plate of dates and chestnuts with a cup of fragrant tea.

Tea ceremoney for Chinese Wedding [via Flickr]

Tea - A gift of tea (once an expensive commodity) was highly regarded in China ’s past, this it was often used as an engagement present for the bride-to-be. Today, accepting the “gift of tea” is synonymous with the term for engagement.

What are the other symbolic food used during a Chinese wedding?

[Sources: Chinese Food Recipes, Bei Fan]

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This entry was posted on Monday, February 4th, 2008 and is filed under Guides, Marriage, Wedding. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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Paying Attention to Each Other

One of the greatest gifts you can give to anyone is the gift of attention. ~ Jim Rohn ~ [Source]

Have you paid attention to your family or spouse lately? As the sole breadwinner of the family, you have been busy with work and returning home late. You haven’t been paying attention to your spouse who could be faced by your family.

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Other times, you could be focusing on giving good impressions so much that you neglect the part about listening. Over the years, you get comfortable with one another and forget to pay attention. Your child just needs you to look at them and say it’s ok that they didn’t get that full marks because they have tried their best.

Your spouse just needs a shoulder to cry on when they had a bad day or received bad news. Just like you do. Any relationship needs to be nurtured just like plants. Have you paid attention to each other yet?

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