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Chinese Wedding Yue Lao

16 April 2014 by Eileen

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.

Yue Lao Singapore

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!

Yue Lao in Taiwan

Related

Filed Under: Chinese Wedding Tagged With: chinese culture

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Comments

  1. Teresa Sheldon says

    30 April 2014 at 8:25 pm

    thanks for sharing this, wow it looks like it was an amazing day,

  2. Tina Mansfield says

    23 April 2014 at 8:25 am

    what a nice story, and its lovely to find out more about your traditions. Thanks

  3. secondtimemummy says

    19 April 2014 at 12:59 pm

    So interesting reading about wedding traditions. We had a Thai ceremony last – you’ve inspired me to write about it x

  4. Orli, Just Breathe says

    18 April 2014 at 10:30 pm

    What an interesting post. Thank you so much for sharing it 🙂

  5. debbie godbolt says

    18 April 2014 at 4:05 pm

    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

  6. Carolynne @ Mummy Endeavours says

    18 April 2014 at 1:58 pm

    I haven’t come across your blog before so hello! An interesting post, I’ll definitely be back again x

  7. Lola says

    18 April 2014 at 1:26 pm

    I think I’m a failed Chinese person as I have never heard of this!! Thanks for posting 🙂

  8. abigail says

    18 April 2014 at 8:07 am

    wow so interesting to learn about different traditions! Thanks for sharing!

  9. Wild & Grizzly says

    17 April 2014 at 9:20 pm

    It’s so great learning about other cultural traditions, I love the idea of the red string. x

  10. AnnieMammasaurus says

    17 April 2014 at 7:51 pm

    Thank you for writing about this – I’ve learnt something – which is always good 🙂

  11. Healthier Mummy says

    17 April 2014 at 4:34 pm

    Really interesting. It’s wonderful to hear more about Chinese culture. Thank you for explaining it so beautifully too.

  12. Bek B says

    17 April 2014 at 6:35 am

    I have learnt something today, thank you. It’s wonderful to know more things like this, you have explained the ceremony well.

  13. Helen Actually Mummy says

    16 April 2014 at 10:29 pm

    How lovely to know a little of the tradition behind the ceremony!

  14. Helen says

    16 April 2014 at 7:55 pm

    Love learning about different cultures. Always interesting to learn new things about the world. Thank you for sharing.

  15. Cass@TheDiaryofaFrugalFamily says

    16 April 2014 at 6:32 pm

    I love reading your posts – thanks for taking the time to share these things with you x

  16. Twinsplustwo says

    16 April 2014 at 3:19 pm

    I’ve really enjoyed these posts, learning about cCinese traditions.

  17. Jen Walshaw says

    16 April 2014 at 2:59 pm

    I really love these posts. So much I do not know in this world

  18. Charly Dove says

    16 April 2014 at 2:18 pm

    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 🙂

  19. Michelle Ashmore says

    16 April 2014 at 12:51 pm

    I’d never heard of this. Thanks for sharing, it’s great to learn new things about other cultures 🙂

  20. Sarah Ebner says

    16 April 2014 at 12:16 pm

    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!)

  21. TheBrickCastle says

    16 April 2014 at 9:46 am

    He looks so familiar, I’m sure I’ve seen him in a ton of films and things, but never realised the significance 🙂

Trackbacks

  1. Chinese Wedding Combing Hair Ceremony - ET Speaks From Home says:
    11 December 2021 at 1:22 pm

    […] week, I will write about Yue Lao who is a god of marriage and love in Chinese […]

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I'm Eileen, a proud mum of two teenagers (aged 17 and 16), my daughter is living with visual impairment. Since launching this blog in May 2012, we’ve continued to grow and evolve, sharing our family’s journey and passions.

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