Of Weddings, Rain, and other things...

Continuing on with some fun culture posts....

Mother's Day:

First off, Happy belated Mother's Day to any mothers reading my blog. I was very sad not be able to be with my mother this Mother's Day, but I think she had a nice day with my Dad none the less.

Mother's Day in Taiwan falls on the same day as Mother's Day in the United States (Father's Day does not).  However, what we do for Mother's Day is slightly different than what they do in Taiwan.  In the US, I feel that Mother's Day is more of a give your mother a present, and then it becomes a "we do what Mom wants to do today" type of day.  In Taiwan, Mother's Day traditions consist of giving a present (like we do in the United States) in addition to a cake and carnations.  Specifically carnations.  All the Mother's Day cards I found here had carnations on them, and I was really confused as to why until someone told me that you give your mother carnations on Mother's Day in Taiwan.  Why is this? It seems that no one really knows.  A friend of mine here thought it was a western tradition, but I had never heard of it being significant in the United States.  Am I crazy? (if it really is a Western tradition, I'm about to be really embarrassed...)

Weddings:

Bride's first dress

So as some of you know who have been following my blog since at least October know, I have been to a very elaborate Taiwanese wedding before.  However, recently I was invited to go to another one that was a little more traditional.  This time around, I learned a lot more about the significance of the wedding practices here in Taiwan.  So in the United States, the more traditional Western style wedding is based on Christian traditions of pronouncing your union to God, family, and friends.  In Taiwan/more traditional Eastern style weddings, the traditions are based on the fact that the bride is literally leaving her family completely and becoming a part of her husband's family.  If I remember from my Chinese culture classes, back in the old days, sometimes the bride would never see her family again after the wedding, especially if her own family lived far enough away from her new husband's family.  That is definitely not the case now, but the customs and wedding practices are based on this concept.  So from what I learned, there are 2 major parts to a Taiwanese wedding.  The first is the engagement party which is completely put on and paid for by the bride's family (we did not get to go to this part because the bride's family lives in Taipei).  The engagement party is essentially them announcing their intention to get married.  The second part is the actual wedding ceremony and banquet.  This is all put on and paid for by the groom's family.  We unfortunately did not get to attend the ceremony because that is reserved for family and very close friends.  From what I understood though it is not like a Western wedding with an aisle and stuff.  It consists of the bride and groom paying respects to the ancestors and elders, asking for blessings from them, and being wished lots of happiness and luck.

Bride and Groom walking in (2nd dress) 

Bride and groom being presented on stage

Then comes the wedding banquet which we attended.  During the banquet the bride changes dresses anywhere from 2-4 times.  This is possible because the Taiwanese rent their wedding dresses, which honestly makes a lot more economical sense.  I was wondering as to why more Americans don't do this as we only wear our dress once, but the thought of wearing a dress I just rented and was worn "who knows how many" times before.... well I was horrified at the thought.  I suppose it's just engrained in our culture.  We also discussed how in Western culture the bride will then pass her dress down to her daughter to wear, but since that never happens anymore, I wonder why we didn't switch to renting dresses more often.  

The food is also very elaborate with almost 10 courses served family style on big plates.  In Taiwan, wedding food is traditionally seafood based being an island.  Oh, and did I mention there is lotsssss of alcohol? The main alcohol is beer that gets poured into little tiny shot glasses.  But with all the toasting that happens, after taking 20+ shots of beer.... well it's gonna be a party.  However, this type of partying is expected and even encouraged.

There is always some sort of entertainment during the dinner, and for us it was a live band (piano/vocals, saxophone, and violinist).

The wedding banquet was held outside under a huge tent in a small city on the outskirts of Taichung (hence why we were invited).  And the whole village was invited.  Like I said, the groom's family paid for everything, and out of respect for this, the bride's family will traditionally keep their "tables"/family members down to 1-2 tables to help with the cost of the banquet.

Some mussels with the salad and sashimi dish

Tiny dried fish with peanuts...
why did they have to ruin the peanuts?

During the banquet, the bride made her main entrance with the groom with a tiny flower girl throwing petals in front of them.  She started off with a white dress.  After eating for a bit, she changed and appeared again in a red dress at which point she and the groom got on stage with their parents.

I have no idea what type of fish this was,
but I have seen all its internal organs

Now, after this lots of Taiwanese was spoken (which consists of a mix of words I don't know and Chinese), so I only had a vague idea of what they were talking about.  I believe lots of it was related to presenting their son and daughter to the guests (in olden days this was probably presenting their newest family member (the bride) to the village as part of their family.....wishing them happiness, etc.  This "presenting the bride now as part of the groom's family" I was told is actually very important because now, to the eyes of the Chinese community, the groom's family is fully responsible for her... health, happiness, food, shelter, clothes, etc.  Granted, this had a lot more significance many years ago, but the traditions still hold true.

After this the bride and groom along with their parents visited each table and made toasts with everyone thanking them for coming.  And in return we made them toasts for happiness.

Overall it was a very nice wedding.  Compared to the other wedding I attended, it had a lot less air conditioning and a lot more bugs, but it was more traditional and I really appreciated that about the whole thing.  It felt more like what I expected from a wedding.  The other one had felt more like a "show" than a wedding, and I appreciated all the cultural knowledge I gained at this one.

Side notes:

• At one point, I was also told about a tradition where the brother of the bride has to go inspect the wedding bed to make sure there's nothing weird about it and that the conditions are acceptable for her.  Apparently, if there is no brother or if the brother is too young to perform the duties, then there is a very well established list as to who comes next in line to do the inspection.  
• There really isn't a dance floor or opportunities to dance to the music like there are at Western weddings, but that doesn't mean people don't a little after the alcohol has kicked in.
• The engagement party and wedding banquet dates are all chosen by a fortune teller who can tell you which days are the most advantageous and will create the must luck/happiness for the new couple.  Now this means that the dates can fall anywhere between a year apart to a day apart.  It all depends on what the starts and other signs say.

Weather:

You know "April showers bring May flowers..."?  Well in Taiwan it's "May showers bring lots and lots more rain."  Recently it has been pouring on and off between sunshine and torrential 30 minute downpours with lightning and thunder for about a week now.  Apparently May is the rainy month in Taiwan and it is living up to it's reputation.  I haven't seen rain this intense since the typhoons I experienced back in August.  Granted, it only lasts for short periods, but when it pours, it pours some more.  In fact, it has been raining so much that a friend of mine posted a picture on Facebook of a fish out of water.  Literally, it has been raining so much that fish can come out of the water and be alright on land for a bit.  One of my co-teachers told that when she was young, during the typhoons, the streets would become like rivers with all the water and there would be fish.  And they would catch the fish "in the streets" and eat them.  Yes, the below fish is edible as well.

The land fish... (not my photo)

Swimming:

Also, I now get to go with my students to swim class every Monday morning.  They don't really need my help, but I am enjoying swimming in a pool again, and it's been fun trying to use my Chinese to ease the fears of first time swimmers.  A surprising number of people in Taiwan don't know how to swim.  Almost half the Grade 4 students who I go to swim class with on Monday mornings can't swim.  At first I was really surprised, but if you think about it, most Americans know how to swim because of summer league swim team.  They don't have summer league swim team here, so I think it's really great that the schools organize swimming classes for them since it is such an important skill to have.

*******

And as promised from many posts back, here are a couple pictures with literally "the whole family" on the scooter...

Baby in scooter high-chair, father, and mother holding a baby to her chest in the beige cloth... so scary...

It might be hard to see, but there is a baby in front of the Dad in the leg area in a scooter high-chair.