According to traditional Vietnamese customs, each region will have different wedding procedures. So what is special about the Northern engagement ceremony procedure? Let’s find out with 25thstudio!
What is a question ceremony?
The engagement ceremony, also known as the engagement ceremony, is one of three important rituals in marriage including the engagement ceremony –, the engagement ceremony –, and the wedding ceremony. The engagement ceremony in the simplest terms means that the groom’s family brings traditional offerings to the bride’s family and asks the girl to come and be the daughter-in-law in their house.
The questioning ceremony is performed after the gateway ceremony and before the wedding, so the questioning ceremony is considered an official ceremony to announce the big kiss between the two of you. Therefore, this ritual is an important milestone and a turning point in your marital relationship. Because, after the engagement ceremony, the couple will officially become husband and wife.
In the past, the engagement ceremony was often held a few months, even a year, from the wedding day, but now, this ceremony is often held at the bride’s house and held just one day before the wedding some families even do it a few hours before the wedding for convenience and to save time and money!
2.1. Prepare for time and location
If the time for conducting the alley ceremony is often chosen by families on the most convenient days for both parties, choosing a good day and a day of great joy will be carefully considered and discussed during the ceremony. Usually, choosing a good date and time is done by the groom’s family and is agreed upon by the groom’s family.
Northerners believe that if the wedding ceremony is for the groom’s family, then the ceremony procedures in the engagement ceremony are reserved for the groom’s family. Therefore, to prepare the venue for the engagement ceremony, the bride’s house will be carefully cleaned and arranged neatly and neatly. Northerners quite value spiritual life, so you should pay special attention to the ancestral altar area. With the altar, you need to clean it thoroughly, prepare fresh flowers and a thoughtful five-fruit tray. This not only shows your respect for your ancestors, this is also where the rituals of the day of questioning take place between the two families.
Besides, due to the many procedures during the questioning ceremony, the number of people attending the ceremony is also large, so you also need to prepare decorative tarpaulins for the questioning day, you can hire services to get the banquet tables as you like. want. The little tip for you is to rent a theater table at the same place you rented to organize your wedding to save costs, moreover because it is a good day with many weddings taking place, so to avoid difficulties in this work, you should have a reservation.
2.2. Prepare for the offering tray
The offerings will be prepared by the groom’s family before being brought to the bride’s family. According to Northern custom, the offerings would be contained in red wedding caskets. Depending on the customs of each region, there are many different questions in Vietnam. If according to Southern customs, the number of ceremonial trays is always even, the most common is 6 ceremonies or 8 ceremonies, then Northerners are important
2.2.1. 5 questioning ceremony
The 5 basic traditional questioning ceremonies include: betel and areca nuts, medicinal wine, tea, nuggets, fruit. Depending on local customs, people can replace nuggets with pies and malleable cakes. According to Northern customs, the bride’s family will receive 30 betel leaves from the groom’s family, symbolizing 3 rituals: Eating, asking for a wedding, and recharging. The set of 5 engagement ceremonies is chosen by the most families because these 5 ceremonial trays will suit the economic conditions of many families but are relatively full of traditional offerings.
2.2.1. 7 engagement ceremony
Depending on the needs and desires of both parties, you can also choose 7 offering trays for your meeting. 7 offering trays are enough to bring the necessary offerings during the meeting ceremony, moreover, according to Eastern beliefs, 7 is also a number that symbolizes prosperity and completeness. So what do the 7 engagement ceremonies include? According to tradition, the 7 meal ceremonies include: betel and areca nuts, medicinal wine, tea, nuggets, fruit, husband and wife cake and lotus jam.
2.2.3. 9 question tray
The 9 traditional question tray ceremonies are considered quite high-end ceremonies. With the hope that the bride and groom will have a full and eternal married life, therefore, in the formalities of the groom’s family, many families have invested heavily in giving their children 9 feast trays.
So what do the 9 prayer trays include? according to Northern customs, these are: betel and areca nuts, medicinal wine, tea, nuggets, fruits, spousal cakes, lotus jam, roasted pig and gac sticky rice.
In our opinion, during the engagement ceremony you do not necessarily have to choose an offering of great value because this is just a ritual and shows the heart of the groom’s family. But one thing is for sure: you need to pay attention to arranging the items properly, politely, neatly, and carefully to show sincere feelings for the bride’s family and the bride-to-be.
2.3. Preparation of participants
The indispensable components of the groom’s delegation in the engagement ceremony are the groom, the group leader, the groom’s parents, grandparents, siblings, relatives, and close friends of the groom.
In addition, the groom’s family will prepare a team of single men with good looks to carry wedding caskets. The casket crew is more or less dependent on the number of weddings the groom’s family prepares. They will wear a traditional tunic or trousers, a white shirt with a cavat or a synchronized bow tie.
For the bride’s family participating in the engagement ceremony, it will include the bride, parents, grandparents, family, friends,… and the female casket team, the request for the female casket recipient is unmarried, lovely team evenly. Girls will be prepared with the same traditional ao dai, light makeup, and note that they should not stand out more than the bride.
2.4. Recharge ceremony in the Northern region
A ritual in questioning that is also mentioned by many people is the recharge ceremony. So what is the recharge ceremony in the food ceremony? The recharge ceremony or some places also called the black ceremony, the wedding challenge money is a small amount of money that the groom’s family brings to the bride’s family. Normally, people often conduct the engagement ceremony and recharge ceremony together because the money in the recharge ceremony means a gift and thank you to the groom’s family. At the same time, it is also shown that the groom’s family always accompanies the bride’s family, they want to share part of the wedding costs with the bride’s family.
Currently, some places have abandoned the recharge ceremony, however, in some Northern localities, the recharge ceremony is still maintained. Therefore, depending on local customs, you can prepare the deposit amount accordingly. The deposit amount can be divided into 3 or 5 red envelopes printed with the word joy depending on the number of incense bowls on the bride’s ancestral altar.
A small note is that the deposit amount is a traditional custom of Vietnamese people, so based on actual conditions, giving the appropriate amount, the amount of deposit is large or small depending on the discussion in advance of the two families. Because the amount of money deposited is more or less, it cannot determine the happiness of the bride and groom. But the happiness you have is sincerity, sharing from both sides.
