Ｔｒａｄｉｔｉｏｎａｌ Ｗｅｄｄｉｎｇ Ｃｅｒｅｍｏｎｙ Ｒｅｓｔｏｒｅｄ ｉｎ Ｗａｔｅｒ Ｔｏｗｎ

Pingjiang Neighborhood is part of Suzhou， a 2，500-year-old paradise city in southern Jiangsu Province. In ancient times， a bride in this river area would take a special boat journey on her wedding day through a networked river system to reach her new home. The journey would be the most important public part of the wedding ceremony. After the modern traffic system was introduced， brides chose land roads to reach their men’s houses. Nowadays the boat parades have come back again.

The tradition has been around in Suzhou for centuries. A painting of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) describes a fleet of river boats carrying a bride to her husband’s house. The journey depicted in the painting coincides with the emperor’s visit to the town. In the painting is a large boat festooned with red silk ribbons. On the bow is a bride’s sedan chair that needs four men to carry. A guide walks in front of the bridal sedan chair whereas two men peer out from the central cabin of the boat. A band of 11 musicians ride a small boat in front of the bride boat on the right. Another small boat leads in front of the bride boat， loaded with men and women upholding banners and fans inscribed with best wishes to the children to be born. Onlookers gawk from riverside houses and shops.

A wedding ceremony in the water town Suzhou is usually composed of three major parts. The first part concerns the bride’s family saying goodbye to the bride and loading the dowry onto a boat. Boats must be used even if the two in-law families live next to each other or close in the same village. When the dowry is unloaded at the bank near the husband’s house， a fire must be kindled on a pile of straws to bless the newlyweds and wish them prosperity.

The second part is about the bridegroom’s family sending a sedan chair and boats to the bride’s home to welcome the bride. The gifts to the bride’s home include chickens， pork， steamed bread， carps and a bowl of “millennia” rice. When the welcome party arrives， the chickens will be taken into the bride’s house first to drive away inauspiciousness. The door then will be shut. The bridegroom’s family must give away a satisfying amount of gifts such as cash， candies and cigarettes before the welcome party is allowed into the house. The bride’s family must use two short oars and two long oars to row the bride boat. After reaching the village where the bridegroom lives， the boat must travel around the village three times. When the boat reaches the mooring point， the father or the uncle of the bridegroom must carry two buckets of water into the house， expressing a wish for prosperity. A cousin of the bride then carries the bride into the house. It is only then that the bride can touch the ground with her feet. Then the last part begins. The new couple pays homage to ancestors， kowtows to parents and kowtows to each other before all the family sit down to a grand wedding banquet. □