“Will you marry me ?”
“Yes, I do.”
Everyone knows the wedding ceremony in Thai tradition has so many steps. If you are the one who have never known about Thai wedding processes before, today we will tell you about that details. Let’s see right now !
1st Make Merit to Start the Ceremony (Religious Ceremony)
Don’t skip this step if you want to have prosperity in marriage life. In the wedding day morning, groom and bride have to invite 9 monks (9 is the lucky number in Thai belief) to their place and serve food to the monks. The monks will bless the couple to have happy and wealthy.
2nd Khan Maak Procession
After religious ceremony step, groom will lead Khan-Maak parade to bride’s house. Generally, Khan-Maak parade in Thai tradition has 2 types consists of “Khan – Maak – Ek” and “Khan – Maak – Tho”.
- Khan – Maak – Ek comprises dowry, betel nuts, betel leaves, 2 gold – silver bags, green peas, black sesame, popped rice and paddies.
- Khan – Maak – Tho comprises 9 auspicious Thai desserts such as flower egg yolk tart, round egg yolk tart, shredded egg yolk tart.
3rd Barring the Groom
When the groom has arrived the bride’s house he has to walk pass the symbolic ‘doors’ (pink gold door, silver door and gold door) that bridesmaid and bride family were built. They don’t let the groom pass easily until the groom give money to them or do something that they want. For example, shouts ‘I love you’ to the bride.
4th Proposal and Marriage
After the groom picked up the bride from her bedroom, the bride’s parents will count all of dowry then both parents will spread green peas, sesame, popped rice and paddies on the dowry. Afterwards, the bride’s mother will hold the dowry on her shoulder and pretend to be like it’s so heavy because it has a lot of money inside.
5th The Engagement
When the best time comes, groom and bride will exchange the engagement rings.
6th Water Pouring Ceremony
This step is the most important of the wedding ceremony in Thai tradition. Bride will always sit on the left of groom and both of them have ceremonial hairdressing on their heads. After that, the guest will take the conch shell which filled water (from religious ceremony) inside to pour over the couple’s hands and bless them.
7th Pay Respect to Elders
Because in Thai society attaches great importance to respect to elders so in the wedding ceremony couldn’t overlook this step. Groom and bride will sit in front of their parents or the elders in family to ask them for forgiveness then their parents will tie the holy thread on their wrists and give some valuable things to the couple such as money and gold necklace.
8th The Nuptial bed
This is the last step of wedding ceremony, groom will be waiting for bride in the room till bride’s parents bring bride to the room and teach them about marriage life lesson. But before these steps their parents will invite the lover who succeed and have happy marriage life to arrange the bed for groom and bride with 2 pillows and auspicious things including mortar & pestle, winter melon, old male cat, beans, paddies and a bowl of rain water.
