Here comes the (ghost) bride...

Artists dressed as chinese ghost bride and groom at Halloween event in Hong Kong.

My newest fascination?  Ghost weddings.  I can't even remember how I stumbled upon this topic, but now I can't get enough.  It seems this is a tradition that has been practiced worldwide in various forms (even in France, unexpectedly), but it occurs most notably in Chinese culture and within  an ethnic group called the Nuer, who are indigenous to Sudan.  A ghost marriage can bind two deceased spirits, or a living person with a deceased person.  In China, the belief is that the journey of the afterlife must be a shared one.  Therefore, if a son of marrying age dies alone, his family may feel they need to secure a partner for him.  Other reasons include integrating a daughter into a patrilineage (historically in Chinese culture the belief is that a woman has no ties in the afterlife to her birth family- she must integrate into her husbands family line), or to make sure a younger brother isn't married before a (dead) elder brother.  Some living women choose a ghost marriage over marriage to a living man to have ties with in-laws but maintain a measure of independence... though she is then required to then move in with her in-laws to care for her new mother in-law and live a life of celibacy.  whont whont.

In the Nuer culture, the deceased grooms brother will act as a stand-in for the groom during the marriage ceremony.  An interesting twist in the Nuer tradition is that sometimes a woman (most often one who cannot have children) will marry another woman.  The first woman will be called the "husband" and may marry 2 or 3 more wives.  She will then appoint men to impregnate her wives, though she as the female husband will be regarded as the father of any offspring.  American conservatives would shit a brick with this one.  A priceless combination of polygamy and gay marriage.  I love it.  Sign me up.

It should be noted that in modern China the tradition of ghost marriage is regarded as simply a relic of the country's extensive history, and is now practiced only in a few rural provinces.  The part where it gets really creepy is that in recent years, there have been several instances of grave robbing as well as the murder of innocent, living women to fill the shortage of young female corpses to be used as ghost brides.  Supplying grieving families with ghost brides can be quite the money maker, apparently, and fresh corpses in good condition solicit more money than a dessicated husk.  I suppose it should come as no surprise that the preoccupation with feminine beauty and youth extends beyond the grave.

Being a crafty girl, my favorite part of this custom are the ceremonies.  In China, traditional marriage rites are observed using stand-ins constructed of paper bodies over a bamboo frame with a paper mache head (sometimes bearing a smiling face cut from a poster or calender).  They also get paper servants!  And home products such as a refrigerator, paper clothes, a dressing table ect...  These paper belongings are burnt after the ceremony so the happy couple can use them in the spirit world.

Ghost wedding ceremony.

Paper ghost bride.

xoxo,

La