Following my recent theme on Chinese traditions, I decided to write about Yue Lao who is the god of marriage. Without him, there wouldn’t be any wedding. According to legend, Yue Lao appeared as an old man under the moon. He is like cupid but instead of holding a bow and arrow, he is holding a red string. If he ties the red string onto the couple, they will fall in love and get married.
In the traditional Chinese wedding custom, the bride and bridegroom walks together holding a length of red cloth with a big red ribbon in the middle. This is symbolism of their match by Yue Lao. I don’t think this has been commonly practised in Singapore.
There are many temples and shrines for the worship of Yue Lao praying for a happy marriage. Singles will pray for love or elderly parents will pray for their single children to be married.
In some of the shrines, he is holding the book of marriage 姻缘簿, in his left hand and red threads in his right hand along with a couple. In some, he is holding a red thread/ribbon. Thanks to my uncle for sharing these photos with me again!
People believe that the relationship breaks down when the red string is broken or Yue Lao had cut them off. For those who have no luck getting marry, they only have a tiny red string across their ankle that it is impossible to connect to any other person’s red string.
If you happen to travel around Asian countries, look out for Yue Lao in the temples!
thanks for sharing this, wow it looks like it was an amazing day,
what a nice story, and its lovely to find out more about your traditions. Thanks
So interesting reading about wedding traditions. We had a Thai ceremony last – you’ve inspired me to write about it x
What an interesting post. Thank you so much for sharing it 🙂
hi what a lovely post i really enjoyed reading it thank you. i love the idea of a red thread and i had never heard of a god of marriage before i love your belief and tradition x
I haven’t come across your blog before so hello! An interesting post, I’ll definitely be back again x
I think I’m a failed Chinese person as I have never heard of this!! Thanks for posting 🙂
wow so interesting to learn about different traditions! Thanks for sharing!
It’s so great learning about other cultural traditions, I love the idea of the red string. x
Thank you for writing about this – I’ve learnt something – which is always good 🙂
Really interesting. It’s wonderful to hear more about Chinese culture. Thank you for explaining it so beautifully too.
I have learnt something today, thank you. It’s wonderful to know more things like this, you have explained the ceremony well.
How lovely to know a little of the tradition behind the ceremony!
Love learning about different cultures. Always interesting to learn new things about the world. Thank you for sharing.
I love reading your posts – thanks for taking the time to share these things with you x
I’ve really enjoyed these posts, learning about cCinese traditions.
I really love these posts. So much I do not know in this world
I do love these posts of yours, always interesting and it’s great to learn about other cultures. Wish we had some of these traditions! Great post 🙂
I’d never heard of this. Thanks for sharing, it’s great to learn new things about other cultures 🙂
So interesting, thank you. I love learning about different cultures and customs. Also love the idea of parents praying to him for their single children (religions are all pretty similar in many ways!)
He looks so familiar, I’m sure I’ve seen him in a ton of films and things, but never realised the significance 🙂