Myanmar has three happiest days in their life days in their lifetime. Wedding day, the last day of the monk hood and releasing from jail”. Of these occasions, today I would like to present you about the Myanmar wedding ceremony. First of all, my presentation will not cover the complete sample of all of our ethnic groups due to the time limitation. Anyway, I will try to express the common and prominent type of Myanmar wedding ceremony as much as I can.
A Myanmar girl has three occasions of Mingalar , Auspiciousness, in her life as a baby when she is given a name, then in her puberty, having her ears bored so that she may adorn herself with family jewels. The last and most important is her wedding day and aptly enough a wedding is called “Bringing Auspiciousness”.
In Myanmar, wedding ceremony is not connected with the religious elements. In Myanmar, culture ,there are twelve auspicious occasions. Marriage is the important one of them. Depending on financial status of the families concerned, the wedding ceremony may be simple or elaborated or modified.
For a Myanmar Buddhist couple, the union is legal if they live together and this
fact recognized by their neighbours and society. If they declare themselves wed, it is so. Usually, the modern way is for the pair to sign the marital deeds in the present of judge or elders.
Myanmar brides do not give dowry. It is more normal for the man to ask the hand of his girl with a gift of diamonds or gold, or if in remote villages, may be with several heads of cattle. However this is not a strict rule and applies to individual wish.
After the signing of the deeds, a reception for friends and relatives is held. In villages, instead of printed invitation cards, friends of the bride and groom go around with the gift packets pickled tea to invite the guests.
Some families prefer to give their daughter in marriage according to traditional ways. Then, it is a ceremony full of strict rituals overseen by the Beik-theik saya, a master of ceremonies.
First of all he will choose an auspicious day and time according to the birthdays of the couple. Probably he will also advise on what colour to wear. White, cream, yellow, and pink are the accepted bridal colours. The bridal
couple will be in formal wear, which is based on the costumes worn at the royal court, with the bride wearing lots of jewels, and flowers in her hair.
Each guest entering the hall will leave his gift on along table set our front, and in turn be presented with a flower tucked into a thank-you card. In rural weddings, the guests get cheroots or a paper fan. There, without a hotel ballroom to hold the wedding ceremony, a gaily-decorated bamboo and gold-paper penal would be built in front of the bride’s house.
Tiny flowers girls lead the way, bearing traditional gilded cups. Then the groom enters, preceded by his parents. One best man or two walk behind the groom. When the groom is sated on around cushion set out on the left side of the dais, with his family around him, the parents of the bride will enter. The bride follow them, with her bridesmaids following her, the ceremony is ready to begin.
In the countryside, household goods such as a bag of rice, a pot of oil and salt will be place before them. Usually there will be just a big bowl of flowers and a homage offering of a green coconut with stem intact, surrounded by three bunches of bananas.
The master of ceremonies will recite a specially written stanza on the bridal families, with poetic of the bride and groom. A long-married couple who has children, (proof of fertility) will do the honor of wrapping the upturned right hand of the groom clasping the left hand of the bride’s with along silk scarf. Over the hands tied up palm-to palm, perfumed water will be poured from a silver cup.
After the master of ceremonies had recited his blessings, the hands will be unwrapped. The bridal pair holding bunches of Thabye leaves and flowers in both hands will bow down in obeisance first to the Buddha. Other bunches of flowers are held in turn to make a bow each for the Buddhist teaching, the monastic order, parents and teachers. Garlands of jasmine, the pure white flower with the heavenly scent, will then be placed around the necks of the brief and groom.
Sometimes the bridal pair must be fed a spoonful of rice by the officiating couple . Then after an elder had given speech on the responsibilities of Marriage, the master of ceremony will blow a conch shell to announce the successful end to he rituals while joyful music begins. He will throw on the bridal group and towards the guests handfuls of puffed rice mixed with flowers, petals, coins sometimes even small gems. The guests as god luck tokens keep the gems ad coins.
As the orchestra plays lively, loud music, food is brought in and the bridal group rises to site on more comfortable sofas. The parents go around greeting the guests while the newly wed wits with best man and maids in attendance.
When most of the guests are gone, it is time to enter the bridal chamber.” The bride and groom are barred at the door by arrow of friends standing two by two, holding gold necklaces at either end. The groom must pay the money demanded so that they may remove the chains and let the couple pass.
Sometimes they allow the bride to enter the chamber and then keep the groom out. A cheerful bargaining takes place, but the blackmailers are never too demanding, and the new couple is finally allowed to enter the bridal chamber. Auspiciousness has been brought, a fortunate beginning for a new life.
In Korea, the marriage between a man and woman represents the joining of two families, rather than the joining of two individuals. As such, the event was often called Taerye (Great Ritual), and people from all over participated. Steeped in traditional Confucian values, the ceremonies and events surrounding the actual marriage were long and elaborate, from the pairing of the couple to the rituals performed after the ceremony.
