Window on Taiwan ─ Linnei Township, Yunlin County

Description：When a man is old enough, he needs to marry. When a woman is old enough, she needs to marry. Marriage is a lifelong business. Therefore, the marriage in Linnei is very ceremonious, and spends a lot of money to treat guests. There are still many kinds of ceremonies. If you participate wedding in Linnei once, you will find that “Marriage is to waste money and have troubles”. But don’t because this and don’t want to get married.

Ceremony：Wedding Ceremony Steps for Linnei people:【praying for Mr./ Miss Right】In order to pray for Mr./ Miss Right, the youths and their parents all need to come to temples to pray for protection of gods. Moreover, they pray for marriage maker god to grant good marriage.【Asking names】A matchmaker will send eight-word into the both side. Put the eight-word the table for three days to see whether the marriage is good or not. This is decide by the ancestors and gods.【Agree to engage】When engagement, they need to wear with rings, gold and bronze for each and this ceremony holds in front of gods and ancestors. At first, take rings from the red line and wear on the bride’s left middle finger. The red line means to be together. The bronze ring means the same minds of the couple or a heart in two bodies. After wearing rings, the family of bride takes everything sent by the groom and put in on the table. At the same time, burn papers for gods and ancestors to report that the bride is engaged.【Complete the proposal】Complete the proposal means big proposal. There are sixteen auspicious presents included. The bride’s family receive these and burn joss sticks to report gods and ancestors. Then the daughter burn joss sticks.【Escorting】The morning of escorting, the groom needs to take a bath and change his clothes. Following the father’s guide, he worships his ancestors for four times and reads the paper to express good wishes. After arriving at the bride’s house, he needs to kneel down in the central of the living room and worships the gods and ancestors. The bride also needs to do this and say goodbye to them.【Going out the living room】After three days of marriage, they need to worship gods and ancestors which calls worship gods. This is the first time to the living room and also calls as going out the living room. This day, the bride needs to dress up. The bride and groom go to in front of the living room to worship gods, then ancestors and the parents-in-law. After worshiping the gods, they are really a couple.