中西方婚俗文化差异 --毕业论文

【标题】中西方婚俗文化差异

【作者】

【关键词】

【指导老师】

【专业】英语

【正文】

I. Introduction

Marriage is the basic system and form that both sexes combine in society. The marriage culture is produced with the development of marriage, which reflects a certain marriage conception. Marriage custom not only incarnates the social appearance in some times, but also shows values, ways of thinking, and religious beliefs of one nation.1

In ancient China, people thought highly of marriage culture. Ancient people regarded marriage as the primary and incipience of all decorum. Chinese long history and abundance culture have penetrated into marriage culture, so it is the cohesion of Chinese culture. While because of geography, nationality, history, religious beliefs and other aspects, the marriage culture in western countries is different from Chinese. Therefore, this paper has discussed the differences of marriage culture among Chinese, British and American. Firstly, it has introduced some similarities of marriage culture between China and Western Countries. Secondly, it has described ancient and modern Chinese marriage culture, the British and American marriage culture. Besides, it has introduced some main differences, such as the wedding process, the wedding dress, the wedding car and other details. Finally, it analyzed the causes of differences, including religious beliefs, the ways of thinking.

II. Similarities of Marriage Culture between China and Western Countries Every country has her nationality, but they have some similarities. No matter in China or Western Countries, marriage is a great turning point in life. Both of people all pay great attention on it, and they always choose a nice day, which is sunny and propitious time, so wedding date is very important in every country. In ancient China, people would like to choose an auspicious day based on lunar calendar, which meant the couple would love each other and live a good life in the future. Similarly, the foreigners also choose a perfect day to hold wedding. For example, in England men hate to hold wedding in May. Because May has been considered an unlucky month to marry in. In addition, Fridays were considered unlucky particularly Friday the 13th. There has a famous old rhyme advises a wedding of the week. “Monday for wealth, Tuesda y for health, Wednesday the best day of all, Thursday for losses, Friday for crosses, Saturday for no luck at all.2

At present, western cultures have made great influences on Chinese wedding, so they also have some similarities. We can see that many young people would like to hold their weddings in church. Moreover, in wedding, the bride wears wedding veil, the groom dresses suit and necktie, their relatives and friends are all sit there to make bless for them. After the wedding, the bride will stand back the other people and then throw a red ball to the unmarried female. As the story says, no matter who got the ball, she would be married soon or later. So all the unmarried females stand together and try their best to gain it. Besides, many newlyweds would like to take their honeymoon, a one-to-two week vacation trip, to celebrate their new marriage. III. Differences of Marriage Culture between China and Western Countries

A. Marriage Culture of China

1. Traditional Marriage Culture

In ancient China, the model of traditional marriage culture including six etiquettes. The first step was proposing, which was very important in ancient China. Because it was the first time to meet with each other for the two families. If a male’s parents liked someone’s daughter and thought she had some qualities to become their daughter-in-law, they would appoint a matchmaker carried with some presents to the identified girl’s family. If the girl’s parents would like to agree this proposal, they would send someone who carried wit h some presents to the boy’s family in return. The second step was asking name. In ancient times, the girl’s name did not tell others until she chosen husband. In fact, it was not only to know the girl’s name, but also to write down the girl’s birthday and birth-hour on paper, which used to make a divination. In this step, matchmaker played an important role in communication. We knew in Chinese traditional marriage, people qualified a validity marriage for parents and matchmaker. In ancient, a boy wanted to make a proposal with a girl, and the girl also enjoyed him, but she refused his requirement. She said that she could not accept his mind because he not had matchmaker.3 Today we will be confused for her words. While in ancient times, without a matchmaker, their marriage would be immorality.

The next step was birthday matching. After asking the name, male’s parents would appoint the matchmaker to ask for the girl’s birthday and birth hour to assure the compatibility of the potential bride and groom. The divination included two aspects: the first was asking women’s quality. In ancients’ view, a man always had several wives. In order to let them get well with each other, he always considered his wife’s quality as an important factor. The second was to see whether the girl could match up with her husband. If her birthday and birth hour did not conflict with her husband according to astrology, the marriage would step into the next stage.