At about 6 in the morning, I was woken up by the din of firecrackers from a few buildings away. It was a wedding ceremony being held there. This is their customs.

I am living in a flat in this living block named “ZJ New Village” which was really a village on the east skirt of Linzi around 10 years ago. As the city was spreading to its four sides, the village was surrounded by construction sites, and finally became part of the city. The villagers caught the chance to develop estate and just renamed it by adding the word “new”.

I still remember I once walked through the village’s muddy lanes.

Now it is in the centre of the city. And many Qilu Company’s employees bought their houses here.

The living block with great greenness is run under a very good daily management.

How fast the city is developing!

City citizens always hold their wedding ceremonies at hotel. But the villagers prefer to have it under trees just in front of their buildings. They paste congratulatory couplets and large red “Happiness” on the doorframe and wall. And also they lay out red blanket on the ground. When lucky time comes, two guys will light two strings of firecrackers (already bound on long bamboo poles) to celebrate the important moment. And the person in charge of the ceremony will start to preside over the ceremony with the wedding music played on. The bride and bridegroom will be led across the red blanket, and the colorful paper strips and one kind of spray stuff will be let go above the new couple’s heads. They walk shoulder by shoulder to the front of their parents who have already sat in a row of chairs at the end the blanket. They bow down before their parents three times and then they bow to each other three times too.

There are more details and tricks connected with the ceremony.  

I think this kind of ceremony is better and more romantic than ones held in the hotel. Just a little noisy to the people who are still sleeping in the early morning.

But never mind. Congratulations!