Super wedding host and New years

For new years headed down to one of the local squares in between the bell and drum towers, with some other foreign students and locals. We arrived at about 1150pm, but luckily it was only a small crowd. Wouldn't really say it was a properly organised or sponsored event, just a gathering of people setting off their own fireworks and -crackers. These fireworks were nowhere near as big as the ones you get in proper shows, but since people were only setting them off a few meters from the crowd you could feel the debris coming off them when they exploded. We soon had to relocate a few meters away from the centre for fear of being scorched!


The lanterns were pretty cool though. I'd seen them before in malaysia, but it's something that wouldn't be permitted back in aus. Took awhile for us to get one up in the air though, since we ripped a hole and then wetted the first one! Eventually we managed to etch well-wishes and messages on one and set it off. I always wonder if these things are a fire hazard once they stop ascending? maybe somebody reading this could answer that question for me.

Didn't stay out that late since i had to attend a wedding of one of the staff from the school the next morning. Must admit i was a bit surprised to get an invitation after knowing her only a week, but maybe its a normal thing in china. That or she has no friends *LOL* I'm sure it's the former. Since she's the foreign student liason officer though we've had a lot of contact, and she's become a good friend, so didn't feel too weird attending.

I don't know if this wedding was representative of all chinese weddings, but if it is i gotta say chinese weddings are much more light hearted events than western weddings! I thought it might've been similar or even more formal than westernized chinese weddings back in aus, but it was the complete opposite! first though i gotta mention the tonne of fireworks and firecrackers they set off before the wedding. It was like a mini 4th of july parade going off on the walkway, completely diverting paedestrians and distracting passing drivers. heh, you gotta love the chinese for the lack of regulations!

The wedding took place in a chinese restaurant in chang-an district of xi'an. So being a restaurant once again there were complimentary cigarettes awaiting us at the table :)
The first thing that happens when the bride and groom enter (still in bridal dress and suit) is they get sprayed with that foam/cream in a can stuff! This was followed by some lively announcements from the host, and then speaches and well wishes from family and co-workers. Apparantly alot of the weddings in china are hosted by professional wedding hosts you can hire out.These hosts conduct the wedding like its some sort of game show, pumping up the crowd and getting them involved. I gotta admit, this guy was fantastic!! Although i couldn't understand a word he was saying it was clear he was keeping the crowd excited. My favourite part though was when we started eating dinner and he started singing and gyrating to some techno mandarin beat. *LOL* see pics. he then followed this up by a slower number.

A couple of other guests got up there and sang a song to the newlyweds, and then the couple came around to each table to toast us. Luckily there wasn't an army of overexcited uncles coming around to the table every few minutes to toast everyone! Though i did have an embarassing lost in translation incident.

The groom's elderly mother came around to our table, grabbed our bottle of red wine and said something in chinese. Not understanding, i simply used my 'alan logic translator' and assumed they'd ran out of red wine at their own table and wanted to nick ours. I had no problem with this (the red wine tasted pretty awful anyway) and gestured to continue and said 'ke yi', but then my teacher next to me overheard this and stopped her. Apparently she wanted to serve us!! So here was this elderly woman standing over our table asking if she could serve us, and me kicking back in my seat telling her 'yeah go for it'!
So i quickly had to change my tune and tell her not to worry at all. This must be some sort of chinese custom. I felt so bad after this and quickly reprimanded myself for using the 'alan logic translator' again.