- Ring Ring. Would you like to go to a wedding?
- Yeah, OK, we'd love to.
- OK, someone will meet you at the gate at 8:30 on Monday.
- Alright, see you there.
So at the gate we met, and piled 9 people into a 7 passenger van. After driving for about an hour, we arrived at the countryside, which we met in full swing of the corn harvest. Streets were filled with ears, shucks, kernels, and everything else corn related. Small tractors played a balancing act while overflowing with corn stalks. After swinging by a Wheat mill, owned by the brother of someone in the car, we arrived at the wedding venue.
The wedding was to be held right outside of the bride and groom's newly build and beautifully furnished house. By the way, a tradition here is that the parents of the groom are supposed to provide a house for the couple, and the parents of the bride are supposed to provide furniture or a car or something, and loads of money from all angles! So the wedding was set up in the street outside, and there was a red carpet leading to a stage, lined with fireworks and confetti all along the street.
After some traditional traditions, eg. painting the faces of the grooms parents to make fun of them, and them pretending to pull the Mercedes containing the couple to the wedding, and rolling on the floor and getting fake whipped and other explainable things, the bride and groom finally appeared on the stage, accompanied by the Host.
After a few Chinese conversations and presentations that we don't understand (presumably the ceremony), the grandfather of the groom was presented to the audience and he got on the stage and offered some wishes and council. Then the parents of the groom were invited to speak. Oh, I missed someone... US. We were invited by the host to go on the stage and offer our wishes to the happy couple. Sandwiched between the grandparents and the parents! It was funny. One of the best parts of it was the music. As someone walked on the stage, they played a music clip, anything from Aladdin to Chinese music. What was playing when we walked down the catwalk you ask? Star Wars - Imperial March. Quite intimidating, but I laughed all the way up there!
After the wedding, we sat down for a 24 dish meal, anything from vegetables, cold meats, steamy soups, hot pork, hot chicken, and a hot turtle soup! Yes. Hot turtle soup. The food was great, and with 24 dishes to choose from, something for everyone.
After the meal, which was a good few hours long, the chauffeur took us to some famous sites in the area, the home of the famous teacher of the "Monkey King." He then drove us home, waited on us, and drove us out to go shopping in Old Town Luoyang, where Lain's search for pants reached a conclusion. What a great day. We also were given gifts from Mr. Li, the man who organized everything for us and was so good to us all day. He gave us two huge sacks of flour, two huge boxes of grapes, and 4 bottles of grape juice! Guan xi at it's finest!