From the end of the Qing Dynasty to the end of the Republic of China, our Chinese society has always been in a very contradictory and wonderful state.

Due to the national crisis caused by industrial backwardness, national self-confidence is declining day by day. It is difficult to believe that our five thousand years of cultural inheritance is valuable. Some people even go so far as to completely deny everything about us.

But in terms of daily life and life etiquette, people have a certain stubborn persistence in traditions and habits, otherwise they will become at a loss.

In general, it means that while new trends have emerged, old habits have not receded, the old and the new have alternated, and they have mixed and tolerated each other.

Therefore, in the real social environment of the Republic of China for decades, those who dared to be the first in the world and fully westernized, and those who were content to stay behind others and still persist in tradition, were only a minority.

This is the mystery of social psychology.

So when it comes to the specific projection of the wedding ceremony, which is one of the major events in life, the same is actually true - it is too trendy and I dare not try it. It is too outdated and I am afraid of people laughing at it.

Therefore, the wedding form that combines the old and the new, neither new nor old, came into being.

Even celebrities are not exempt from this wedding style that combines old and new.

Despite the fact that the famous ladies in those days turned to pursue the Western lifestyle, many people also wore trendy white wedding dresses when they got married.

However, just as the Japanese still cannot completely give up on shrine weddings, they still have a deep-rooted obsession with "Fengguanxiapei".

Just like the wedding between Mr. Sun of the Ma family, the richest man in the capital, and the daughter of the mayor of Peking.

Although the banquet was held at a hotel in Beijing, the wedding ceremony was still in Western style.

However, the bride who took the car to wear a wedding dress still took off her white wedding dress after completing the ceremony at the Beijing Hotel, put on a bright red traditional Kyrgyzstan dress, and covered her head with a hijab.

Witnessed by almost all the respectable people in the capital at that time, he was carried away in public by eight sedans. Starting from the capital hotel, with drums and music playing, he was swaggeringly carried through the city into Ma's Garden.

Another example is the famous lady Lin Huiyin. When she married Liang Sicheng, she insisted on wearing traditional Chinese clothes even though she was in a foreign land.

The Xialei can be omitted, but the phoenix crown must be included!

Lin Huiyin thought about it and decided that if foreign countries did not have the conditions, he would design it himself.

Although the final phoenix crown has long lost half of the "shadow" of the ancient phoenix crown, it was paired with Liang Sicheng's Western-style dress and became one of the most unique and elegant Chinese wedding dresses of that era.

Therefore, in fact, since the Republic of China, we have learned to adapt etiquette to the situation.

The so-called traditional Chinese wedding has experienced a collision with Western culture. Just like the changes in customs in the past dynasties, it has gradually changed into a different look since the Republic of China.

Even if the Chinese bride's phoenix crown is matched with the Western-style groom's Western-style dress, it will not be inconsistent.

Even this situation is the same in today's Chinese society.

In the era of reform and opening up in our country, after the door to the outside world was liberally opened.

In fact, the cultural mentality of young people in the mid-1980s is quite similar to that of people during the Republic of China to some extent.

Specific to the wedding ceremony, people have consciously started the process of simplifying and complex and restoring traditional values.

Often, brides in Beijing not only have to wear a wedding dress to take a wedding photo, but also wear red clothes to entertain guests when they get married.

On the other hand, the groom is much more relaxed and often only needs to wear a suit from beginning to end.

As for Ning Weimin and Matsumoto Keiko's wedding today, it is almost the same.

In order not to appear depressed, but to be happy.

Not only in terms of clothing, today Ning Weimin did not wear a long robe or mandarin jacket, but only wore a black Chinese tunic suit to match Matsumoto Keiko's traditional Chinese Jifu.

Even when it came to the wedding procedures, they also sized up the situation and didn't have to keep things as they were. They acted completely according to the old etiquette of the past.

For example, according to pure old etiquette, a standard traditional wedding is actually such a process.

First of all, the bride must be picked up in a sedan chair.

Early in the morning, when the sedan was brought, it had to be unveiled at the door of the master's house.

Two yellow-painted benches were set up, and the sedan chair was propped up and placed on top for people to look at.

And there is more than one sedan chair.

For example, when a movie shows a wife getting married in the old days, there is often only one sedan. In fact, that is not right. Just one sedan is not enough!

Needless to say, the bride must have an eight-carat or four-carat red sedan chair, and the marrying wife and the bride-to-be wife must also have a four-carat or two-carat green sedan chair.

Along with the sedan chair were various deacons.

There are two umbrella players, two fans each, four flag players, gong players, drum players, suona players, and several trumpet players.

Therefore, the eight drums, ten flags, a pair of lamps, a pair of umbrellas, a pair of dragons, a pair of phoenixes, golden-clawed axes and stirrups, avoidance cards, and gongs for clearing the way were all placed at the door of the husband's house.

After almost all the guests had arrived, they started to ring in the room and send out sedan chairs.

It is carried by the head of the sedan chair, and when the sedan chair is sent out, drums and music are played together, and they are beaten in the wedding room.

After getting ready, the man then finds Quanheren, that is, a wife to marry, and then sends the sedan off after ringing in the house.

Usually the departure time is no later than ten o'clock, and the pick-up of the bride cannot be later than twelve noon.

Also, when the sedan arrives, the woman has to call the door. When the woman knows that the sedan is coming, she closes the door. This implies that the man is proposing.

At this time, as the married man, he has to "please" others, saying whatever is pleasant.

You also have to stuff the "red seals" one by one into the door. Inside the door, dozens of people think that the red seals are satisfied and will open the door when they have given enough.

After opening the door, the wedding wife and the bride-to-be wife met first.

There is only one place where snacks and tea are provided to entertain people who are welcoming relatives, but they usually just don’t eat.

After that, the newlyweds get on the sedan.

At this time, in addition to the trumpeter starting to play "A Hundred Birds Pay Attendance to the Phoenix", the bride should cover her head and hold a porcelain vase filled with five-color grain in her arms to show peace and prosperity.

The sedan still had to be carried into the yard, the curtains of the sedan were opened, and the door of the bride's house was directly closed to prevent the bride from seeing a ray of skylight outside.

When the bride was helped by the bride to sit on the sedan, the bride herself got into the green sedan, and the groom also got on the horse. He also had to ask the bride's two brothers to follow him, one on the left and one on the right of the sedan.

The so-called "pressing the sedan chair" means to prevent the sedan chair from going too fast and to allow the bride to sit firmly in the sedan chair.

There are also specialties in carrying a sedan chair.

In addition to everyone knowing that you have to walk in the middle of the road even if you play and beat, there also needs to be a conductor among the bearers at the front - the head of the sedan chair.

The head of the sedan is the first one. For example, if there is a pit on the left, it is called the left pit, and later on, you will know that there is a pit on the left.

You have to shout in your head, but you will know later that the steps of the bearers in front and behind are the same.

It definitely won't work if you step forward with your left leg and behind you with your right leg.

For example, in the movie "Red Sorghum" that Jiang Wen will be filming next year, he plays the role of Yu Zhan'ao, who is the head of the sedan chair.

He deliberately teased the bride by rocking the sedan chair, causing Jiuerhuang, played by Gong Li, to vomit. He was using his "authority" to cause trouble.

Of course, it was also because Jiuer had no brothers from her mother's family to accompany the sedan chair that she was bullied by the bearers.

Otherwise, my brothers would have to follow the sedan chair and lend ten courage to the sedan bearers, but they would not dare to do this.

And when the group of people arrived at the groom's house, the sedan fell flat, and after entering the courtyard, the sedan curtain did not open. The groom drew his bow and shot an arrow at the sedan to shoot away the demons and ghosts, and then he opened the curtain to let the bride in.

Come down.

However, after the bride came out, she was still covered with a veil. With the support of the bride and groom, she passed over the brazier and the saddle.

The brazier means red and hot, and the saddle means safe and sound, both of which are homophonic.

After entering, there is also the custom of sitting in the tent, sitting on the bed or Kang, drinking a cup of wine first, and then eating the descendants' cakes and longevity noodles.

There must be a child outside shouting, "Is there a baby or not?" and then the hijab can be removed.

After that, the newlyweds worship heaven and earth, relatives and friends, which is the so-called worship hall.

First, worship the ancestors, then worship the parents, then worship the matchmaker, they have all been worshiped, and now the ceremony is complete.

This is the process for the wedding day.

As shown in some movies and TV shows, the bride's hijab has to wait until the wedding at night before the husband can take it off.

That is probably an extremely long-standing feudal society, let alone modern society, and cannot be used in modern society at all.

Because as long as you think about it, you will realize how anti-human and unscientific it is.

Not to mention whether the groom can suppress his anxiety, nor whether the bride is depressed.

Let's just say that marriage was originally a marriage between two families, and the purpose of all the complicated ceremonies was to tell the world in a serious way that the man had married an innocent wife.

How could the bride not be allowed to meet her relatives and friends?

Don't let the servants in the house recognize your appearance?

If this is the case, and there is no need to strictly behave in front of relatives and friends in court, how many troubles will be caused?

All the relatives and friends who came to congratulate the bride couldn't even see her face, so wasn't the wedding ceremony all in vain?

How does everyone know who you married? Is it a man or a woman? Is it a human or a ghost?

Even the concubine's room is not so shameless.

So otherwise, just because of the changes of the times, the social situation is very different from the past.

Even with sufficient financial support, these old etiquette and rules must be changed according to the actual situation.

How can those vulgar customs that are feudal, inelegant, undignified, and unrealistic remain conservative?
To be continued...