A Chinese Tradition 2

A Chinese tradition

The Chinese people, I found out, hold onto many traditions that are both interesting and puzzling. For instance, women customarily walk behind their husbands, and often three or four generations live together in the same house. None of these customs troubled me, however, until the day I found out that my wedding dress was to be red.

This is America, I thought, not China, and I am not going to make myself look silly by wearing that dress. What would my friends and family think?

My future mother-in-law soon caught wind of my reluctance to wear the dress and came to visit me.

"I know it is difficult for you to accept wearing a red wedding dress," she said. "I would like to help you understand our marriage customs. All Chinese women marry in a red dress because this color symbolizes great happiness, good luck, and a bright future. To marry in a white dress would bring very bad luck, for white represents mourning and deep sorrow."

Hearing this, I felt there was no way that I could refuse to wear that dress on my wedding day. Then she smiled and said, "You must promise to pass on this particular tradition to your own daughter one day. Old ways should never be forgotten."

Now so many years have passed since that day, but some things never change. And one of them is the attitude of people growing up in a new generation. When I told my own daughter the history of the red dress, she replied, "I'm not wearing that dress!"