Selecting an auspicious date to tie the knot is very important to a Chinese family.
It is believed that a long lasting and blissful marriage is dependent on the wedding date. The wedding date is selected based on the lunar calendar. Normally, the “Tong Shu”, a red book on auspicious dates for the following year can be used as the reference.
As my parents are quite traditional in nature, they have shared their considerations in selecting the wedding date before my hubby and I pick our desired date. Please allow me to share with you the Dos and Don’ts of selecting the appropriate date to get married
1) There should be no crashes in the Chinese zodiac of the couple and their immediate families.
2) The months that are related to certain Chinese festivals are not favorable to get married. E.g. Qing Ming Festival and Hungary Ghost Festival
3) All time favourite date, 15 August also known as “Ba Yue Shi Wu”, is one of the most auspicious day for union. This day which marks the Chinese Mooncake Festival, symbolizes union due to the fullness of the moon.
4) Certain dates whereby the date, month and year are all of the same numerical digits e.g. 080808, 090909 are quite a hit with the newly wed too. Such dates are so popular and you may need to book your banquet way in advance to ensure you get your desired date.
With the above points in mind, we approach the old lady who works at the Goddess of Mercy Temple (Waterloo Street) to recommend the auspicious dates for our customary wedding.
Thursday, August 6, 2009
Monday, April 14, 2008
Selecting Auspicious Wedding Dates
Wedding Preparation is really time-consuming. From the time of getting my wedding date to currently sending out invitations, all my weekends including Fridays are burned.
Let me share with you my personal experience of selecting the date.
My father has prompted my husband in early 2007 to knot the knots in the year of the Rat. My husband being excited, seek approval from his parents (my in-laws) about having the customary wedding in 2008. This is where the process of date-hunting started.
Before the date-hunting started, my parents-in-law insisted that the auspicious date must be chosen by an old lady who worked in the Goddess of Mercy Temple at Bugis.
Upon receiving all the approval and instructions from our parents in July, it was our turn to start discussing about preferred dates and months for the actual wedding.
Gabriel has given in to accommodate my teaching schedule. In the end, we decided that May or June would be the month of our BIG DAY.
The next thing we did is to drop by the temple during weekends. To our dismay, the lady did not work on Saturday and would only work on Sunday morning. So we made a second trip the next day which resulted in a futile trip. The "tong shu" was not available and we had to get back to her only in September.
Being persistent, we made a third trip to the temple in August to get the dates and still no luck. Furthermore, it was the month of the hungry ghost and our parents advised us not to select the date.
At the fourth attempt, Gabriel had to seek the dates without me as I was running out of patience. This time, we got a couple of dates.
After days of discussing, we finally picked our date "24 May 2008" which is a Saturday.
It was a terrible process trying to get the most auspicious date from the temple. The next most important step is sourcing for banquet.
Let me share with you my personal experience of selecting the date.
My father has prompted my husband in early 2007 to knot the knots in the year of the Rat. My husband being excited, seek approval from his parents (my in-laws) about having the customary wedding in 2008. This is where the process of date-hunting started.
Before the date-hunting started, my parents-in-law insisted that the auspicious date must be chosen by an old lady who worked in the Goddess of Mercy Temple at Bugis.
Upon receiving all the approval and instructions from our parents in July, it was our turn to start discussing about preferred dates and months for the actual wedding.
Gabriel has given in to accommodate my teaching schedule. In the end, we decided that May or June would be the month of our BIG DAY.
The next thing we did is to drop by the temple during weekends. To our dismay, the lady did not work on Saturday and would only work on Sunday morning. So we made a second trip the next day which resulted in a futile trip. The "tong shu" was not available and we had to get back to her only in September.
Being persistent, we made a third trip to the temple in August to get the dates and still no luck. Furthermore, it was the month of the hungry ghost and our parents advised us not to select the date.
At the fourth attempt, Gabriel had to seek the dates without me as I was running out of patience. This time, we got a couple of dates.
After days of discussing, we finally picked our date "24 May 2008" which is a Saturday.
It was a terrible process trying to get the most auspicious date from the temple. The next most important step is sourcing for banquet.
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