Chapter 627 Xue Pan Welcomes His Bride
Jia Zheng, standing by, remained silent, even rubbing his hands. He decided to find out how Wang Ziteng did it, and if he could learn a thing or two from him, that would be the best.
At least, for now, it seems that Wang Ziteng's method is much more effective than his own whip.
After all the rituals at home were completed, the auspicious time arrived and the wedding procession left the Xue family and headed straight for the Xia family.
A wedding is a wedding ceremony. The ancients believed that dusk was the time when yin and yang interacted, and that a woman changed her surname the moment she got married. Therefore, most weddings were held at dusk when day and night changed.
Generally speaking, the time is calculated according to the distance of the bride and the rituals required for different social status and rank, and then an auspicious time is set for welcoming the bride. The bride returns at the auspicious time of dusk and the wedding is held.
This is the origin of welcoming the bride in the morning and worshipping in the hall in the evening.
Of course, the wedding and marriage practices in different regions are very different. For example, in some tribes in southern Xinjiang, the bride and groom have to travel a long distance to visit relatives, so they need to set off many days in advance. Therefore, the rules are naturally different.
The festive sedan chair carried by eight people was in the center of the procession, and Xue Pan followed on horseback.
Although the grade of sedan chairs is extremely strict for officials, weddings are an exception. Therefore, even for ordinary people to get married, they can use a large sedan chair carried by eight people. However, ordinary people would not be so extravagant and wasteful, so most of them use sedan chairs carried by four people.
Although a sedan chair carried by eight people can be used, there are still differences depending on one's social status.
For example, when princes and princesses get married, they use a sedan chair decorated with auspicious patterns such as dragons and phoenixes; nobles can use a sedan chair decorated with a red house; ordinary officials can use a sedan chair decorated with stars; and ordinary commoners can use a sedan chair decorated with the pattern of richness and nobility such as the peony.
Just like this sedan chair carried by eight people, on which is the rich and noble peony.
Xue Pan's attire was a round-necked green robe, which was a fake ninth-rank official uniform, that is, the official uniform of a ninth-rank official, with a bright red drape on his shoulders.
The gongs and drums beat, the music blared, the firecrackers exploded, and the bridesmaids sang along...
The servants of the Xue family carried baskets of copper coins and scattered them all over the sky, causing the surrounding children to run after the wedding sedan in great joy.
Although the Xia family was wealthy, their status was not high. Therefore, the Xia family's house was not very close to the Xue family. The wedding procession moved forward slowly . It took them half an hour to finally arrive outside the Xia family's house.
The Xia family was also busy. They had specially invited a "lucky person" to personally dress up the bride, insert hairpins, cover her veil, etc. in the middle of the night.
Afterwards, the bride will offer sacrifices to "the God of Heaven, the God of the Three Realms, and the Ancestors", and after the sacrifices she will serve tea to her parents.
After drinking tea, the bride's parents also have to worship the God of Heaven, praying that their daughter can marry a good husband.
Outside the gate of the Xia family, the drummers and musicians who came with the welcoming team showed off their best skills. The drummers and musicians invited by the Xia family were also not willing to be outdone. They all started playing as if they were competing to see who was better.
The servants of the Xue family threw handfuls of copper coins at everyone they saw, until a minor official specially invited by the Xia family from the Ministry of Rites came out, stood outside the door, and shouted loudly.
"Wedding ceremony, stand at attention!"
"It is the seventeenth year of Longxing. The auspicious time for the wedding of the groom Xue Pan and the bride Xia has arrived!"
"Today, I sincerely invite you all to gather in the precious land of Shenjing to enjoy fine wine and delicious food. I congratulate the Xue and Xia families on their happy marriage and the harmonious relationship between them! The hall is overflowing with splendor, and the guests are all here to enjoy the harmonious marriage of the couple!"
"The sun shines brightly, heaven and earth bear witness, the clouds are light in the sky, and mandarin ducks fly side by side. Respectfully invite the groom in..."
When all the festive words were finished, the bridesmaids came forward with laughter and scrambled to tear the colorful silk hanging on the Xia family's door plaque into pieces.
This is called "lucky money, lucky money, lucky money", which is considered as a good start.
The Xia family had already prepared a grand banquet to entertain the people who came to welcome them, and the Xia family's housekeeper also had someone bring red envelopes and distribute them to everyone present.
The protagonist Xue Pan was directly invited into the inner hall and sat down on a chair placed on the bed. He drank three cups of wine. The matchmaker then asked someone to invite Xue Pan down. This happened three times. This is called "sitting on a high seat."
This ceremony was lively and complicated, and took more than an hour before it was finally completed.
Then, Xue Pan could finally go to welcome his bride.
Outside the back hall, the bride 's aunts and uncles, along with other female relatives, gathered together, laughing and joking, clearly trying to embarrass the "bridegroom." A little girl, about six or seven years old, dressed in festive attire, came bounding out, bowed to Xue Pan, and then sang, "The bride is being led out, and gifts are most appreciated. This isn't an ordinary transaction, where hundreds of thousands or even millions are needed..."
Xue Pan didn't need to step forward; the people behind him had already thrown the wrapped red envelope directly over. Some unscrupulous person even used a piece of candy to lure the little girl away...
Then, the bridesmaids beside Xue Pan also shouted in unison, "If a thief comes, we must beat him; if a guest comes, we must watch him. Open the door quickly, the son-in-law is here to pick up the bride."
However, at this moment, the door was blocked again by several matchmakers, "My daughter said that the son-in-law should recite a poem to urge her to get ready!"
This had naturally been prepared in advance. Although Xue Pan could not recognize many words, he had memorized the poem urging him to get ready several nights in advance, so there would be no mistakes at this moment.
"It is said that you should apply rouge by candlelight, and not act like a prostitute in front of a mirror; you don't need to cover your face with makeup, but leave your eyebrows for someone to paint you."
According to the agreement between the two families, Xue Pan could go in and look for his bride. However, a matchmaker came out and said with a smile, "My daughter said that the poem urging the bride to get ready was not written by her. You should write your own poem and make her happy for it to count."
This section was Xia Jingui's deliberate harassment. Her wedding gifts had always been inferior to others', so could it be that she didn't even have a poem to urge her to get married? Therefore, she had just specifically instructed the maid not to enter the house without a new poem to urge her to get married.
Uncle Xue scratched his head. He had never mentioned this to him before. Could it be that he remembered it wrong?
Xue Ke, standing by, hurried forward and bowed, "Mister, the bridesmaid has already read the poem urging the wedding ceremony. Now is the auspicious time. If you were to think about the poem, wouldn't that delay you?"
As he spoke, he waved to the back, and the bridesmaids threw a large wave of red envelopes towards him.
"Please do me a favor, matchmaker." Xue Ke said with a smile.
However, the bridesmaid refused to give in. "This is inappropriate. This is something our young lady specifically instructed us to do. Otherwise, you wouldn't be able to enter this door today."
At this point, Xue Pan knew that the other party was making things difficult for him, so he immediately got angry, rolled up his sleeves, stepped forward and kicked the matchmaker aside.
"Brothers, break down the door for Master Xue! I'm going to get married!"
