Traditional Wedding Gifts Around the Globe

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Traditional Wedding Gifts Around the Globe

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Home Page > Relationships > Weddings > Traditional Wedding Gifts Around the Globe

Traditional Wedding Gifts Around the Globe

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Posted: Nov 10, 2010 |Comments: 0

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Across the globe, from the sunny western coasts of California to the snowy wilderness of the Russian Federation and everywhere in between, people are generally the same and tend to have similar ways of celebrating life-changing events such as weddings.

No matter in what country the ceremony is taking place, no matter the length of it or the particulars involved, a few basic things remain the same: two people are committing to one another to spend the rest of their lives together. This is an important step that is usually celebrated by the exchanging of gifts, and this is where the world’s cultures come into their own and shine indivudally.

Every culture has specific gift-giving traditions and customs that accentuate it and set it apart from neighbouring countries. Some of these customs have been adapted around the world and some have remained integral, cultural conventions.

In African tribes, wedding gifts of livestock including goatskins and sheep are often presented to the newlyweds along with wedding brooms and potjie, heavy, iron cookery pots. Wedding brooms are used for the traditional African custom of the jumping of the broom, a practice that symbolises commitment.

Northeast of Africa, in Asia, wedding gifts tend to be monetary. As a result, Chinese, Indian and Japanese cultures all adhere to the tradition of presenting envelopes filled with crisp currency to brides and grooms. In China, customary gifts called li shi are offered as wedding gifts. The li shi is a monetary gift usually presented in a red envelope containing 99 Chinese yuan or 999 Chinese yuan. In Chinese culture, the word for ‘nine,’ ‘long’ and ‘forever’ are all the same.

Over 2,000 kilometres south, Vietnamese wedding gift traditions include the presentation of pink chalk, which symbolises happiness, and a betel plant, which represents respect. Back on the Asian mainland, Tibetans celebrate weddings by tying traditional wedding scarves called khata around the newlyweds’ necks. These scarves symbolise purity, goodwill and compassion.

Customary wedding gifts in Europe are as varied as the countries comprising this region. In Greece, the bride and groom are presented with homemade cakes made of honey, quince and sesame seeds. To the north, Italian brides follow a tradition called buste in which money is placed in a satin bag she carries during the reception.

In Holland, it is customary to present the bride and groom with the bulbs of lilies of the valley to be planted around their new home in an effort to promote happiness in their new life. Recently, with British culture on the cusp of sustainable living, tree and plant gifts are becoming more prevalent. Giving someone a tree as a wedding gift is an ingenious idea since you can purchase a tree or a plant that carries with it a traditional, significant meaning.

You can find a number of trees that would make perfect wedding gifts for newlyweds in the UK including opportunities for the bride and groom to plant their own tree at their ceremony location. Sites like Tree2mydoor offer wedding packages and can help you in making an informed decision about the best type of tree to purchase for a specific location or type of house.

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