Joe and I went to Toronto in the beginning of April, and we went to mall after mall to find the "traditional" teaset with the wording "double happiness".... we had no luck and settled for a regular set of teapot and cups. E-mailed my MOH (my lovely sister who lives in HK) and she got me the appropriate teaset and also the kneeling pillows! :-)
Joe asked me the other night about the details on tea ceremony... Though I am a Chinese, I am not quite familiar with this ritual... so I turned to the World Wide Web for help, and here is what I found!
On the wedding day, the bride serves tea to her parents, as a token of appreciate for the love and care that her parents have given her. The tea (regular Chinese tea) is served in a tea cup with a tea saucer. The bride serves it using both hands. This tea ceremony is done before the bride leaves the house and is usually not too elaborate.
On the other hand, the tea ceremony to the groom's family takes place after the wedding ceremony and is much more elaborate. The tea to the goom's family include lotus seeds and two red dates. The lotus seeds together with the red dates symbolize early arrival of children from the newly weds.
The newly weds knee in front of the parents when they serve this tea. A "lucky woman" will help the newly weds to make the tea, hand the tea to the newly weds, who will then serve it to the groom's parents. The groom's parents will return "Red Envelopes" to the newly weds, usually consist of either money or jewellery. A red envelope (with money) will also be given to the lucky woman when each cup of tea is served.
This is repeated for each of the older family members as respect to them. Tea is usually not served to the younger brothers and sisters of the family, instead a hug or hand-shake will usually be done.
When these teas are served, the woman stands on the left side and the man stands on the right side. For example, the groom will be kneeing in front of his mom and the bride will be kneeing in front of the groom's dad.
Nowadays, many times, both the bride and groom will serve tea to the bride's parents and family members in the bride's house before they leave for the wedding ceremony. After the ceremony, they will go to the groom's house and serve tea to the groom's parents and family members. The red envelopes usually consist of CDN$10-20 each. Jewellery can be watches or necklaces. Some "traditional" parents have their son and daughter knee before them to serve tea, other more "modern" parents have their children stand before them to serve tea.
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