Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Another one bites the dust.....

My wife's brother Robert, who is a high school math teacher, got married last weekend to a Hualien girl of the same Christian faith. It is customary to set off firecrackers at the groom's home before the ceremony.......



and the ceremony took place at a nice but small local church where the bride attends regularly. There is a large population of christians in Hualien, and in fact, Taiwan.




It was a beautiful service, conducted in mandarin by a very humorous and talkative priest.




Although almost two hours long, it didn't seem that way as members from both sides of the family churches took part in blessing and singing.




The reception of about 600 people was at a five star hotel with a traditional Chinese banquet. I was surprised to learn that each table of 12 only costs $8k nt, which is under $300 cdn. A similar feast would cost at least twice of that in Canada.




And, get this, most gifts came as "red envelopes", and in my estimation, the total "red envelopes" collected would be twice of what the banquet would cost.....yes, weddings are profitable because Chinese people do not bring toasters and tea sets as gifts, they believe in cash.


A nice wedding and we look forward to their first born's "month old" banquet!

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Year of the dragon

Gung hay fat choy!



We had a quiet year end dinner at home, just three of us having hot pot....




Frankie made a lantern with dragon painted on, looks pretty good....