Getting Hitched: Exploring Wedding Customs in Other Cultures

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Overview | Introduction | Quest/Task | Roles | Process | Evaluation | Conclusion | Credits
Quest/Task
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You are going to play the role of an interested party in this wedding.  In this case, the interested parties are the mothers of both the bride and groom, and a representative from Double Happiness International Wedding Planners. 

As you can imagine, wedding customs are quite different from one culture to the next.  For instance, in American weddings, the brides family traditionally pays for the ceremony, whereas in Chinese weddings, the grooms family not only pays for the wedding, but also pays a dowry to the bride.  As you can imagine, a wedding between an American man and Chinese woman could create conflict when it came time to pay the bill.

Throughout the duration of this WebQuest, you will do the following:

 

Ø      Pick your role

Ø      Pick the respective cultures of the bride and groom

Ø      Research each cultures wedding customs, looking specifically for the following ...

 

 

Points of Comparison

  1. Steps:

What are the different steps of the wedding ceremonies? How long is the wedding normally? Does it span on more than one day? If yes, what do they do at those different days?

 

  1. Costume:

What type of costume do the bride and groom put on? Does anybody else have to wear a special type of clothing? Is there any particular meaning attached to the wedding outfits?

 

  1. Location:

Do they go to church or to the town house, or to both locations? Do they celebrate their wedding at home only?

 

  1. Ceremony:

Do they have music? What type of music do they have? Do they dance? What type of dance?

 

  1. Dowry and other money questions:

Who pays the dowry? Who takes it? Who pays the wedding expenses?

Do they have a reception? What kind of food and drinks do they have?

Is there any particular decoration that you notice?

 

  1. Rituals:

Discuss any particular rituals that you find in each of the cultures (e.g. jumping the broom in certain African cultures) and the meaning attached to them.

 

 

Ø      Create a presentation in PowerPoint that details the differences between the two cultures wedding customs.

Ø      Propose a recommendation for how to best undertake a wedding that will please both families, taking the values and customs of both cultures into consideration.

 

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