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42 Days to Countdown to Returning to China

I never expected that I would be able to attend a wedding in Nepal, and it was the most solemn religious ceremony of welcoming the bride. I have to thank my Nepali friend Zhu for this. Mountain invitation.

Zhushan is my graduate classmate. We didn’t know each other during school. But he is a friend of my roommate CC, and he speaks very standard Mandarin and has participated in many competitions, so I have a bit of an impression on him. After I came to Nepal, CC introduced us and I hope he can help me in Nepal.

The first time I saw Zhushan, he took me to visit the Newari Museum. The museum happened to be open to the public that day, and there were ethnic cultural performances. He took me to experience their Newari culture. During this period, he asked me if I had ever attended a Nepali wedding, and I said no. He said he was getting married soon and would definitely invite me then. Not long after, I received a wedding invitation from Zhushan.

Zhushan and his wife are from different nationalities. They were middle school classmates and fell in love freely. In the past, people of different ethnic groups could not intermarry, but times are progressing, and Nepal, no matter how backward, is also moving forward. But what to do with the wedding ceremony is a problem. Different ethnic groups have different wedding ceremonies. After discussion, they decided to follow the rituals of the woman’s nation on the woman’s side. When we arrive at the groom's house, we will follow the rituals of the Newar tribe in the south.

Nepalese weddings take many days to hold. It takes three or four days for the girl’s family to marry a daughter, and it also takes several days for the groom’s family to marry a daughter-in-law. And the man does not have to pay a bride price, but the woman has to give the man a bride price. The more betrothal gifts the woman gives, the richer the dowry, the more face the man will have, and the woman will be respected by the man's family after entering the house.

On the day of the wedding ceremony, we did not go to the bride’s house to pick up the bride, but at the daughter’s wedding party held by the woman in the hotel. Next to the bonfire, a master of ceremonies held a photocopied book and read the following while asking the two newlyweds to perform some rituals. They would light lamps, scatter flowers, bring garlands, and light tikkas... In the middle of the ceremony, there was a gift-giving session by relatives and friends. Some give money, some give gifts. To my surprise, the gift money from Nepal can be packed in a white envelope. And the quantity is not much. When converted into RMB, it is less than ten or twenty, and the more is only fifty or sixty. The gifts from those relatives were also very strange, including large copper jars of various shapes. When the book in the master's hand is finished reading, the ceremony is over. I also didn’t expect that Zhushan would pick up my wife in the morning and only pick her up after dark.

Two days after the religious ceremony, there is a formal wedding banquet, which is held for all relatives and friends of both parties. The newlyweds sit on the stage and receive blessings from relatives and friends, who send blessings, eat snacks, drink wine, dance, and have dinner, and then go back to their homes. Everyone had a great time, and the two newcomers were so tired that they could only giggle.

Nepali friends previously complained that Chinese beer is like water and not as delicious as Nepalese beer, but I have never drunk Nepali beer. That day, I was "forced" by my Nepalese friend Sushi to drink three large glasses of Nepalese craft beer, and then he was dragged onto the stage to dance with a group of aunties. Although I am drunk and timid, my limbs are uncoordinated, and no matter how I jump, I can't compare to the random twists of Nepalese people.

Witnessing the Nepali wedding ceremony with my own eyes is a great experience.