Print  Font Size: 

Symbolic Food for a Traditional Chinese Wedding

Certain types of food are commonly served at the Chinese wedding banquet, which include fish, roast suckling pig, pigeon, chicken cooked with red oil, lobster and desert bun with lotus seeds stuffed inside and so on.

Fish –The pronunciation of fish is the same as "abundance", meaning the newlyweds will have plentiful of wealth.

Roast pig - In Guangdong and Hubei Province, a succulent offering of roast pig was sent to the bride's family on the third day after a wedding as a sign of the groom's family acceptance and pleasure with their new daughter-in-law. Roast suckling pig is usually served whole, a symbol of the bride's purity (virginity). Pigeon implies peaceful future.

Chicken and Lobster - Chicken also means phoenix, cooked in red oil to symbolize the wish for a prosperous life ahead for the newlyweds. Lobster is literally called "dragon shrimp" in Chinese. Having lobster and chicken together at wedding banquet indicates that the dragon and the phoenix are hormones together, and the Yin and Yang elements in this family is balanced.

Wild goose - A wild goose is the quintessential symbol of marital harmony and fidelity. Because geese mate for life and migrate together from season to season, they are considered dependable, reliable creatures. Pictures of wild geese flying in pairs make very appropriate wedding presents. If wild geese cannot be obtained for a betrothal gift, domestic geese are permissible or even, as a last resort, humble chicken will do.

Egg soup - On the day of the wedding, the groom is cordially served a bowl of soup upon his arrival at the bride's home. It contains an unbroken soft-boiled egg which he is expected to break to symbolize the bride's leave-taking from her family. Sometimes the groom's mother-in-law will put a hard-boiled egg in the soup, making him try a little harder to break the yolk in order to gain his bride.

Pig's heart - The bride packages together a pig's heart along with other ingredients to make a soup for her in-laws on the day of the wedding to suggest that they are "all of one heart".

Fruits and Nuts - Because a wealth of puns can be made from Chinese names for fruits and nuts, they are symbolically used during the wedding ceremony to imply many children and good fortune. For example, folded inside the marriage quilt, one might find peanuts, dates and nuts - the second syllable in the word for peanut is "sheng", which is homophonous with the word "birth" and the word for date ("zaozi") sounds the same as the "early arrival of a male son". For the same reason, when the bride is presented in the main hall to her mother-in-law, she may be offered a plate of dates and chestnuts with a cup of fragrant tea.

Tea - A gift of tea (once an expensive commodity) was highly regarded in China 's past, this it was often used as an engagement present for the bride-to-be. Today, accepting the "gift of tea" is synonymous with the term for engagement.

Chinese Wedding Cakes-Chinese wedding cakes are called "Happiness Cakes", also known as "Dragon & Phoenix Cakes". These are baked cake with dragon and phoenix imprint on the surface. Some styles have fillings made of lotus seed paste, red bean paste or green bean paste. The wedding cakes are usually presented to the bride's family by the groom's family as part of the proposal gift. Bride's family will then present some of the cakes to worship their ancestors and send the rest of cakes to friends and relatives along with wedding invitations. Quantity of cakes to be sent depends on seniority of guest or relationship with the family. Nowadays, the wedding cakes are usually served to the guests at the wedding instead of the western style wedding cakes.

To do a quick search, highlighting any word(s) then click Help!