Weddings

A couple of weeks ago, on an ordinary Thursday afternoon, I glanced out the living room window and was perplexed by the sight of hundreds of pink balloons floating down the street. I watched their procession towards the house across from ours. A half dozen groundskeepers were cleaning and pruning. Some more were busy lining the walk way leading to the house with beautiful flowers. The windows were covered with red Chinese characters. The pink balloons were quickly strung into a billowy arch at the beginning of the walk way by two older women. "How lovely, new neighbors!" I thought.

An hour later, The sound of fireworks brought me outside. Our neighborhood doesn't allow the lighting of fireworks in the compound. At the center of the street, four guards and four photographers were gathered around the ignited strand of firecrackers. Rules were being broken. The loud cracking went on for a good fifteen minutes. While the huge box of enormous 'bottle rockets' shot into the air, a line of cars appeared. Seven Mercedes and one BMW SUV filled the street. The cars were decorated with flowers and ribbons and filled with wedding party members. More people came walking in, their cars were probably at the entrance to the compound. The photographers were frantically snapping thousands of shots, while the mother of the bride, I assume, was barking orders to everyone. A gigantic boxed cake was gingerly carted from the back of one of the Merecedes into the house by three sharp dressed men. Three taffeta ensconced females helped the blushing bride from the BMW. The newlyweds were then directed to the pink archway, where they stood for five minutes. I'm not sure what took place, but words were said and more photos were taken. The happy couple and their entourage then went into their house, a wedding present. Less than an hour later, the party ended and everyone left, including the couple. All traces of the party were quickly cleaned, the flowers were removed, the archway was dismantled, and the firework remnants swept away. The only thing that remained was the BMW, another wedding present.

Just another ordinary day here in China.