"It's the last time I feed you"

Traditional Chinese people usually consider that the main objective of a marriage is not only the joining and enhancing the two families, but also the assurance of succession with good numerous descendants. They take the importance of the series of Chinese traditional wedding customs and rituals as more important than that of the reception itself.

Nowadays more Chinese people seem to have taken the wedding receptions more important than that of complicated and broad Chinese traditional ones.

I think I was lucky for having been born in Indonesia where wedding customs and rituals that my ancestors had brought from mainland China were made much simpler, but that my traditional parents still did several things to still preserve them. They thought that both the traditional things and the modern things should be "balanced". And they said that all traditional things our ancestors had passed on must have had something good for us to adopt. Maybe not all of them, but some are still applicable and still good for us to live by.

Actually traditional Chinese consider , the main objective of a marriage is not only the joining and enhancing the two families, but also the assurance of succession with good numerous descendants. Hence symbols play an important role in wedding ceremonies, a few important things my husband and I did on our wedding.

Chinese cannot be far from symbols, and I understand that all symbols during the wedding ceremony are obviously for the bride and the bridegroom to focus on and take as something to keep in mind during their marriage life.

One of those symbols is "parents feeding the daughter or son", which tells that from this day on the son who has been fed by his parents since he grew in the mother's womb till the day he gets married, will have to "feed" himself and his new family. As for a daughter, the parents "feed" her on the ceremony to symbolize that it is the last time they feed her, and will trust their son-in-law to feed their daughter, protect her, and maintain her wellness in the future.

my parents "feeding" me
on my Chinese traditional
wedding ceremony

I don't know how to repay my dear parents
for having brought me up and fed me
and helped me to be what I am now.

I can't thank my parents enough