中西婚礼差异英文版.docx

1、中西婚礼差异英文版中西婚礼差异英文版Differences Between Chinese Marriage Custom and Western Marriage CustomAbstractThere are many procedures in Chinese marriage custom. The book propriety and ceremony, which records earliest wedding ceremony, says that marriage includes six etiquettes, namely, proposing, asking the n

2、ame, asking for fortune, sending betrothal presents to the girls family, discussing the date of marriage and meeting the bride. In western marriage, there are four procedures. They are proposal, changing surnames, choosing the day and holding the wedding. As the different religions, cultural origins

3、, marriage concepts and geographies, there are many differences existing in the two kinds of marriage customs. In Chinese marriage custom, the matchmaker functions almost all the time and youths have no right to choose and women are not on an equal footing with men. By contrast, in western marriage

4、custom, the priest functions and the youths have legal right to choose whom they want to marry and men and women are equal. There also exist common things in the two sides. They have been maintained for thousands of years. But in recent years (especially after the founding of modern China), people h

5、ave tended to discard some of the details and advocate simplified marriage procedures and wedding ceremonies.Key Words：Marriage custom; differences; reasons摘要中国婚俗有着许多的仪式。最早记载婚礼习俗的仪礼云：“婚有六礼，纳采、问名、 纳吉、纳征、请期、亲迎。”而在西方国家主要有4个程序，即建议，改姓，选期和举行婚礼。由于宗教、文化根源、婚姻观念以及地理环境的不同在一定程度上导致了中西方婚俗的不同。在中国婚俗中，媒人起着决定性的作用，而作为

6、婚姻当事人的青年男女却没有选择的自由和权力，而且男女在婚姻中的不平等现象也屡有出现。 在西方，是牧师在婚姻中起作用，并且青年男女有合法的权力去选择自己的夫婿或妻子。当然中西方的婚俗也存在相同的地方。它们存在了上千年之久。近年来（特别是新中国成立之后），中西结合的婚姻屡有出现。关键词婚俗；差异；原因IntroductionMarriage is formed in a long historical evolution of the marriage custom in a nation. It is the regularity of the activities that restrains

7、 peoples awareness of marriage and marriage. Marriage customs binding does not depend on the law, and it can not rely on science tests neither, but on the force of habit, traditional culture and national psychology. During the development of human history, the institution of marriage and family syst

8、em has experienced different processes of development. Human have experienced group marriage, the dual system of marriage and individual marriage system (monogamy).As a union of a man and a woman and a family formation stage, marriage includes not only marriage, but also the preparation phase for th

9、e marriage and the performance stage after the festivities. It runs through the whole process of life. These customs, as a national symbol and cultural development, plays a very important role in ethnic studies and the history of mankind.China is a country with an ancient civilization and a long his

10、tory, and many customs. Among so many customs, there is a particular marriage custom. This custom goes through various and long stages of development from ancient simple wedding ceremony to later complex ceremony, from feudal marriage custom to the modern free marriage custom. During these courses,

11、peoples ideas are progressing, though we can not say that their ideas are up to the top of mankinds ideas in all over the world atall over the time because there are still backward ideas existing in many places, in many peoples mind and they maybe will still exist for a long time. However, they are

12、up to the top of mankinds ideas in a certain stage of the uninterrupted development of ideas.Greek civilization is the base of western culture. Britain plays an important role in western history and western culture, and of course marriage custom.Comparing with each other, they are different in many

13、aspects such as in right aspect and in freedom aspect and there are many reasons that result in these differences such as cultural reason and geographical reason. I. Chinese Marriage CustomLike other folk, marriage custom has the same development and evolving process. In the early days of humanity,

14、the human relationship in a very long period of time still carried the irregular relations like the animal world. There was no marriage at all, if suggest some, the only arbitrary marriage. In China, marriage has gone through for a long time. As a most grand etiquette, it has always been a high degr

15、ee of attention. To control the marriage, the family and the whole society, since the beginning of Zhou Dynasty, Chinese marriage should comply with six procedures, which is the so-called six etiquettes. And Later in Tang and Ming Dynasty in China, marriage also complied with the six etiquettes. As

16、time goes by, although many wedding customs experienced various changes Six etiquettes as the basic pattern has not changed much. It is still essential and core in marriage custom.Marriage has changed much today, but in many places, there still remains traditional marriage custom.In feudal society,

17、a marriage would be decided not by the youths love, but by their parents desires. Only after a matchmakers introduction and when parents considered the two family conditions were similar and could be matched, would the marriage procedures went forward. Conditions that should be taken into considerat

18、ion included wealth and social status. If a boys family was well-off or an official family, his parents would never permit him to marry a girl from a poor family. Essential to the marriage process were the commonly recognized three Letters and six etiquettes. The three letters were the betrothal let

19、ter, the gift letter with a gifts list and the wedding letter used on the day the bridegroom met his bride at her home. The book propriety and ceremony, which records earliest wedding ceremony, says that marriage, usually, involves six necessary procedures, namely, proposing, asking the name, asking

20、 for fortune, sending betrothal present to girls family, discussing date of marriage and meeting the bride.A. Proposing:Proposing is the first etiquette in marriage and is the first meet between the members in the two families. Thus, it is very important. Using a common expression, it is making an o

21、ffer of marriage to another family on behalf of the son or daughter.If the parents thought that the girl could be the daughter-in-law in old times, they would ask a matchmaker for sending the gifts and bring the son and the girl together. If the girls parents also agreed on the marriage, they would

22、accept the gifts. People usually used a wild goose when sending the gifts. Because the wild gooses could fly to the south or the north according to the seasons and they would never change it which implied the woman would be punctual and also because when the wild gooses flied they were in a row and

23、when they stopped they were in a line which implied that woman should comply with the marriage rules and arrange in order that one should not breach it.B. Asking the NameIt aims to ask for girls name and pray.In ancient times the girls name would not be known by other people until the girl was in an

24、 age of marriage. First, one must have the matchmaker and inform of the mans family through a card. And the mans family would lastly receipt for postal remittance. Thus it can be seen that “asking the name” not only meant that the mans family wanted to know the girls name, but also wrote down the wo

25、mans birthday and Eight-characters (in four pairs denoting the time, date, month and year of a persons birth, each pair consisting of one Heavenly Stem and one Earthly Branch, used in fortune-telling). If the birthday and Eight-characters were not harm the man, the mans family would lastly receipt f

26、or postal remittance. Sometimes the womans parents also wrote down the official position of the womans great-grandpa, grandpa and father and the dowry that could be supplied. Whats interesting is that during this progress it was the matchmaker that functioned, not the mans family or the womans famil

27、y. Matchmaker was also important in the other procedures. In traditional Chinese marriage, people believed “behest of the parents and proposal of a matchmaker”. Thats why many marriages in the past were arranged by parents and matchmakers. Matchmakers proposal was the marriages valid basis in Tang d

28、ynasty.It has been simplified today. Many marriage does not need this process.C. Asking for Fortune After asking the name, the bridegrooms side had got the womans birthday and Eight-Characters and they went to consult a fortune-teller then which was called “asking for fortune”. It included two aspec

29、ts of contents. One was consult the female virtues. Ancient people regarded female virtues as the most important one in the gospel of three obedience that were obedience to ones father before marriage, to ones husband after marriage, and to ones son after ones husbands death and four virtues that wa

30、s morality, proper speech, modest manner, and diligent work for a woman according to Confucian ethics.Zhong lichun, Zhuge Liangs wife (Zhuge Liang was a statesman and strategist in the period of the Three Kingdoms, now a symbol of wisdom in Chinese folklore) was famous for her ugliness, wisdom and h

31、igh female virtues. A man in old times always had many wives. In order to solidifying and stead in the family, people paid much attention to female virtues. Hence there was the saw “Marry wife is marrying virtues and take a concubine is marrying appearance”.The other one was consult good or bad luck

32、. If they were not fit for each other in Eight-Characters according to the birthday and whats more, the woman would harm the man, the result was that this marriage would not be held and would be cancelled. If the result was fit for each other and moreover the woman would make the man prosperous, the mans side would inform the womans side through the matchmaker and send the betrothal gifts and exchange cards. Thus the marriage was actually decided to be held.D. Sending Betrothal Presents to the Girls FamilyThe book propriety and ceremony wrote by the scholars in Han d