Last weekend we traveled to Boston for our Grandson’s Wedding Celebration. He’s actually been with his girlfriend, Lisa, for many years, but they decided to make it official.

Because her family is from China and still very much embedded in Chinese culture, we weren’t sure what to expect. Our grandson warned us that the celebration was mostly about food—and lots of it.  He was right.

But it was also a beautiful showcase for some of the most elegant features of Chinese culture, as the bride and groom wore spectacular traditional costumes, brought from China for the event. The bride wore an elaborate, bejewelled hairdo, and perfect makeup. She’s beautiful anyway, but she looked particularly amazing and radiant.

Because we were there for several days, we also did some other interesting, touristy things in Boston, which I’ll talk more about in future posts. For now, it’s the celebration itself I want to talk about.

I gather from talking to bride and groom that the Chinese wedding consists of a number of parts, many of which take place in private or with just immediate family attending. The actual legal marriage took place in a government office. As far are they’re concerned, that’s just taking care of the paperwork.

The culmination of the series of events is the banquet, attended by family and friends. And what a banquet it was! It was held at a local Chinese restaurant and served at least a dozen courses of delicious food covering just about everything and anything you can imagine.  Shrimp, lobster, vegetables, chicken, pork, steak, noodles, rice… They just kept bringing plates of food that were placed on a rotating platform in the center of the table, so each person could help themselves. I tried to keep myself to a bite of each, but even so, I finished the night stuffed!

During the banquet, the bride and groom, along with their respective parents circle the room, going to each table, where the couple is toasted and feted.

It was a lovely party where we had a chance to connect with family, old and new, eat great food (so much of it!), and welcome a new grand-daughter-in-law to the family.

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