Japanese Wedding Gift
Japanese Wedding Gift - When you settle down in Japan, you may receive a wedding invitation and think about all the customs and formalities involved. Weddings, known as kekkonshiki (結婚式) in Japan, are a time of celebration, eating and drinking with friends and family, and celebrating a couple beginning their married life.
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Japanese Wedding Gift
However, if the couple is legally married, the actual marriage signing takes place on a different day at the municipal office and may be months before the actual wedding day. So when the ceremony takes place, it's finally an opportunity to celebrate. If you are invited to a wedding in Japan, there may be some words and terms that you should know before attending.
On the other hand, there are a number of words that are considered portents of bad luck. How do you congratulate the bride and groom on a wedding in Japan? How to properly attend a Japanese wedding? Read more to find out! Japanese weddings are not very different from Western ones: the bride wears white for the ceremony, but there are also some traditions and formalities that preclude Japanese weddings.
For example, there are two categories, Youshiki (洋式), which refer to a Western-style wedding, usually held in a chapel or hotel, where the bride wears a white dress. The second type is Wasiki (和式), meaning a traditional Shinto wedding in a temple where the bride wears a white kimono.
What Is A Wedding Like In Japan?
Both weddings follow the same etiquette when it comes to gift giving and the ceremony is usually followed by a reception. If the bride chooses a dress customary in Japanese weddings, particularly wasiki, she transforms her white kimono into an extravagant, colorful kimono, often adorned with the most sumptuous, intricate embroidery.
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The transition from white to color signifies the change she is now married to. Some brides choose to wear a wedding dress or prom dress instead, and some even change dresses three times a day. While Japanese weddings last for minutes, the best tip is to go to the bathroom during one of the dress changes if you need to!
If you are traveling to a far away place, you may have already decided what to take with you. On the main day of the wedding, you don't want to take too many things with you because you want to get a thank you from the bride and groom and you don't want your arms full on the way home.
You will find that many guests go to weddings with almost no luggage or with very small bags. But if it's winter and the wedding is indoors, the best way to dress indoors is with a thick coat that you can hide in the cloakroom at reception.
What To Wear For A Wedding In Japan?
If you come with a suitcase, you should be able to store it in the cloakroom. Many women wear dresses to weddings, but a suit is also acceptable. The most important rule is to find a dress that covers your knees and shoulders and avoid a plunging neckline.
As shoes, try to stay away from your toes and high heels, thin-heeled shoes are more suitable. Apart from that, avoid white and try to keep the outfit elegant but simple, not too flashy. The Japanese do their best to make the bride stand out on her big day and many people will come to the wedding in all black.
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So if you have a black dress, this could be the perfect occasion! For hair, pinning is best if you have long hair as it can look very casual when worn. If the wedding takes place in a hotel, you can make an appointment with the hairdresser.
Be sure to let them know the start time of the wedding so they won't be late. Men in Japan tend to wear suits with a tie or bow tie at weddings, but make sure black ties are reserved for funerals. As a suit color, many people prefer black suits as a contrast to the bride's white dress.
What To Give The Bride And Groom In A Japanese Wedding?
When it comes to giving gifts to the newly married couple, it is customary to give money called goshuugi (御祝儀). The amount can vary depending on your relationship with the couple and whether you are a student, but can be very expensive. Below are some examples.
Shuugibururo (祝儀袋) is the name of the envelope used to give away money. These can be purchased at stationery stores and even grocery stores, but for a wedding you may want to look for something extra pretty to celebrate the occasion. Many will already have kanji on the front since at weddings kotobuki (寿) usually means greeting, but oiwai (御祝い), congratulations, and gokekkon oiwai (ご結婚御祝い), or congratulations on the wedding, are also commonly used.
If you are purchasing a plain envelope, you may want to add your own calligraphy to the front, such as: B. the kanji for kotobuki 寿. There are many different types of shuugibukuro, and each type is unique to a different situation, so choosing the right one is important.
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Knots on the envelope, called mizuhiki (水引), is an ancient Japanese art of knot tying. Avoid gray, black, or white and yellow knots as they are used for weddings and funerals. You might want to specifically look for two types of knots, musubikiri and awajimusubi, these two knots cannot be untied and hence are often used for marriage.
What To Say To The Bride And Groom: Saying Congratulations At A Japanese Wedding
Cho-Musubi is a knot similar to a bow or shoelace knot, this type can be made and untied and remade and therefore used for celebrations where you want it to happen more than once but not for weddings. When you buy shuugibukuro you should get an inside envelope to put the money in, the vertical side of the bill faces forward, the back is for funerals.
Write your name and address on the back of the inner envelope so they know who it's from, leaving space to write how much you gave: 金○○円. You can write the amount in common Japanese numerals or use kanji to make it more formal: one (壱), two (弐), three (参), etc. For example, the kanji that is 金参萬円 is 30,000 yen
because the kanji 萬 represents four zeros. To make it even more formal, you can write everything vertically so it reads top-to-bottom and right-to-left (for reference, this is a useful source of formal kanji for Japanese numbers). Some people wrap their shuugibukuro in another layer, usually silk.
You can do this if you wish, but it's becoming increasingly rare that many people give Shuugibukuro as is. When you arrive at the venue, there is a greeting table where you hand over your shuugibukuro with both hands and greet the person leading the table.
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