Exhibition on traditional Hue weddings opens
An exhibition on the traditional weddings of Hue people in the 1960s and 1970s has opened at the Hue Culture Museum.
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The exhibition aims to introduce the traditional values of Hue weddings and preserve the city’s culture, while helping domestic and foreign tourists understand more about the beauty of the wedding customs in the ancient city.
As the capital of the last feudal dynasty in Vietnam, weddings in Hue feature a unique ceremony that differs from those in other regions.
Valuable documents, images, and items relating to traditional Hue weddings in the 1960s and 1970s will be on display, such as wedding invitations, marriage certificates, costumes of brides and grooms, old regulations for the ceremony, and a tray of betel and areca nuts, which were an offering from the groom to the bride’s family.
The order of events at the ceremony in the old days is also introduced to visitors.
There were six different ceremonies for a couple before they tied the knot, in which the two families meet, the groom’s family asks for a profile of the bride, a ceremony for a good future for the marriage is held by a fortune-teller, a date chosen for the wedding, and the groom’s family’s presents offerings to the bride’s family at the engagement ceremony and the wedding.
These six ceremonies have today been simplified but their significance remains.
A traditional wedding also included a procession of the groom’s family to receive the bride at her house, before she was then brought to the groom’s house to worship their ancestors.
On the wedding night, the couple made a toast to each other, before chewing 12 pieces of betel and areca in hope that the upcoming 12 months would be blessed with love, harmony, understanding, and happiness.
The exhibition is open until February 2 at the Hue Culture Museum, 23-25 Le Loi Street.
