Spanish Weddings

Weddings are big and important things in Spain. You’re likely to find the whole family and the whole village turn out to celebrate. 【小题1】 Some of the traditional customs are similar to the modern customs, such as throwing rice, but others are less similar.

【小题2】 The main part of a traditional wedding is that the groom presents the bride with 13 coins, which represent his promise to support her. However, times have changed and today’s brides and grooms exchange the coins as a symbol of the wealth they will equally share.

Traditional Spanish weddings do not include bridesmaids (伴娘) or groomsmen. 【小题3】 At the reception, the head table is traditionally set for 6 people: the bride, the groom and their parents. 【小题4】 Bridesmaids are a part of Spanish weddings.

During the wedding reception, the bride and groom go from table to table carrying a basket with small wedding presents. The men will be offered a cigar or a mini-bottle of wine. And the women will be offered a little present. This may be the time in which guests also “hand back” the preferred wedding gift: money in envelopes. 【小题5】

For you, the “Clear and Bright” day that falls in every April might be no more than just another holiday- the fact that it comes with three days off school matters to most students much more than the fact that it is part of the 24 solar terms.

But the UNESCO has recognized the importance of the 24 solar terms. This ancient system that Chinese people have used to keep track of the time of year was added to the UNESCO list of Intangible (非物质的) Cultural Heritage of Humanity on Nov. 30, 2016.

To be fair, the terms do sound old; they were invented thousands of years ago to offer weather information for agricultural activities. But the truth is that they still have an influence on our lives today, even if we don’t realize it most of the time.

For starters, you may have heard your mon say, “The sanfu days are almost over. The heat won’t be here for long.” The snafu days are a period of time that talls in summer, somewhere between Minor Heat (in July) and Autumn Equinox (in September). The coldest days, or the sanjiu days, are similar. They cover the 27 days following Winter Solstice

In some places, solar terms guide people’s lives through special foods, cultural events and healthy living tips. For example, people from northern China are in the habit of eating dumpling on the day of Winter Solstice. And on Start of Autumn, some treat themselves to a big feast, especially of meat, something they call “putting on autumn weight”, or tieqiubiao.

But no matter how differently people celebrate the 24 solar terms, they have been here for a long time and could last forever.

According to Chinese writer and academic Yu Shicun, unlike many other examples of intangible cultural heritage - Peking Opera and Chinese Zhusuan (knowledge and practices of mathematical calculation through the abacus), for example – the solar terms are neither regional nor a hype of art or skill. Instead, the system is a philosophy of time, which applies to everything. And this means they are unlikely to die out.