Picking-up-bride tradition involves complex ‘door games’ and handing out of ‘lucky money’ red packets. Groom typically faces various playful challenges to demonstrate commitment to marriage. — SCMP
A creative groom in China has circumvented traditional wedding games by recruiting a locksmith friend to unlock his future wife’s bedroom door, causing much amusement on mainland social media.
In Han Chinese wedding traditions, the groom often engages in a lively procedure known as “picking up the bride” before the official wedding ceremony.
The groom typically faces various playful challenges and tests called “door games” to demonstrate his commitment to the marriage. The eventual reward is access to the bride’s room.
An important feature of the door game is that the groom’s party hands out a flurry of red envelopes filled with money to earn clues, beat challenges and generally gain faster access to the bride.
However, on Nov 9, at his wedding in Baoding, in northern China’s Hebei province, a groom, called Jiao, enlisted his friend to help him skip the door games and unlock the door.
“My wife and I have been in a relationship for over six years, so I know my wife’s home like the back of my hand. I specifically called my locksmith friend to come, and when we arrived I didn’t even knock on the door, I just had him unlock it,” Jiao told Shandian News.
The trending online video also featured the locksmith, dressed in a formal suit with his company’s name and contact details, swiftly unlocking the doors, surprising friends and family of the bride inside the room.
Jiao was satisfied with his plan and shared it on Bailu Video platform.
“It took me only five seconds to enter the main door and three to unlock the bride’s room door. I spent less than a minute going from the courtyard gate to the bride.
“I only had to give a three-yuan (40 US cents) red envelope to enter the main door, and I entered the smaller door without giving any red envelopes,” he added.
Jiao’s humorous approach sparked a wave of stories from other couples who shared their creative methods of circumventing the tradition of picking up the bride.
“I got married in a hotel. My husband met a cleaning lady on his way up and directly asked her for a room card,” said one person.
“I went to my mother-in-law’s house in advance and ‘stole’ a set of all the keys. It took a long time before she realised the keys were missing,” said another.
In February, a Chinese husband in Anhui province, eastern China, broke through a window to gain entry to his bride, which was described as “special forces rescue” by amused online observers. – South China Morning Post
