【正文】 rriage Culture between China and Western Countries Every country has her nationality, but they have some similarities. No matter in China or Western Countries, marriage is a great turning point in life. Both of people all pay great attention on it, and they always choose a nice day, which is sunny and propitious time, so wedding date is very important in every country. In ancient China, people would like to choose an auspicious day based on lunar calendar, which meant the couple would love each other and live a good life in the future. Similarly, the foreigners also choose a perfect day to hold wedding. For example, in England men hate to hold wedding in May. Because May has been considered an unlucky month to marry in. In addition, Fridays were considered unlucky particularly Friday the 13th. There has a famous old rhyme advises a wedding of the week. “Monday for wealth, Tuesday for health, Wednesday the best day of all, Thursday for losses, Friday for crosses, Saturday for no luck at At present, western cultures have made great influences on Chinese wedding, so they also have some similarities. We can see that many young people would like to hold their weddings in church. Moreover, in wedding, the bride wears wedding veil, the groom dresses suit and necktie, their relatives and friends are all sit there to make bless for them. After the wedding, the bride will stand back the other people and then throw a red ball to the unmarried female. As the story says, no matter who got the ball, she would be married soon or later. So all the unmarried females stand together and try their best to gain it. Besides, many newlyweds would like to take their honeymoon, a onetotwo week vacation trip, to celebrate their new marriage. III. Differences of Marriage Culture between China and Western Countries A. Marriage Culture of China 1. Traditional Marriage Culture In ancient China, the model of traditional marriage culture including six etiquettes. The first step was proposing, which was very important in ancient China. Because it was the first time to meet with each other for the two families. If a male’s parents liked someone’s daughter and thought she had some qualities to bee their daughterinlaw, they would appoint a matchmaker carried with some presents to the identified girl’s family . If the girl’s parents would like to agree this proposal, they would send someone who carried with some presents to the boy’s family in return. The second step was asking name. In ancient times, the girl’s name did not tell others until she chosen husband. In fact, it was not only to know the girl’s name, but also to write down the girl’s birthday and birth hour on paper, which used to make a divination. In this step, matchmaker played an important role in munication. We knew in Chinese traditional marriage, people qualified a validity marriage for parents and matchmaker. In ancient, a boy wanted to make a proposal with a girl, and the girl also enjoyed him, but she refused his requirement. She said that she could not accept his mind because he not had Today we will be confused for her words. While in ancient times, without a matchmaker, their marriage would be immorality. The next step was birthday matching. After asking the name, male’s parents would appoint the matchmaker to ask for the girl’s birthday and birth hour to assure the patibility of the potential bride and groom. The divination included two aspects: the first was asking women’s quality. In ancients’ view, a man always had several wives. In order to let them get well with each other, he always considered his wife’s quality as an important factor. The second was to see whether the girl could match up with her husband. If her birthday and birth hour did not conflict with her husband according to astrology, the marriage would step into the next stage. The fourth step was presenting betrothal gifts. After birthdays matching, the groom’s family arranged the matchmaker to present betrothal gifts, enclosing the betrothal letter to the bride’s family. This stage including two meanings: one side was to show their thanks for the girl’s parents, the other side was to purchase dowries for Bride. If the girl’s parents accepted the betrothal gifts, their marriage could be a deal, and could not be changed on their own opinion. The fifth step was picking a wedding date. When they chosen a good day, they would tell the girl’s family and give them time to prepare dowries. The ancients would like to choose the marriage time on spring or autumn. Because people thought spring was the beginning of a year and good for everything, and autumn was a harvest season, so they had enough money to hold a wedding. The last step was wedding ceremony, which was the most liveliness and best time of the traditional marriage culture. At that day, groom who wore hat and safflower departured with a troop of escorts and musicians, playing happy music all the way to meet his bride. However, before he met his bride, the bride’s relatives and go