A centuries-old Chinese practice called mínghūn consists of a ghost wedding. For this tradition, at least one of the members involved in the marriage must be dead for the wedding ceremony to be coherent with the country's culture.
Learn more about this distinctive marriage derived from Chinese culture.
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The practice of ghost marriage today
The practice of mínghūn, even after its banishment from China for several years, continues to be practiced in some parts of the country.
In addition to this illegal practice, these places also have criminal matchmakers who sell corpses so that the practice of ghost marriage continues to thrive in these regions of the country.
This practice exists, because in China, in the past, it was considered a source of shame for the family for parents to have a female daughter who had not yet married.
These ghost marriages also took place to continue the family lineage. Therefore, the woman who married a man who was already dead could adopt a child, so that she could continue the lineage.
The Origin of Minghun
The origin of this Chinese tradition is not very exact. There are sources that date the beginning of this practice 3,000 years ago. Others say it was in the 17th century BC.
One of the reasons these phantom marriages could occur was for the family to make sure that the youngest brother in the lineage would not marry before the eldest brother.
The normalization of this practice by the Chinese is based on a superstition that people, after death, would continue their journeys and that's why they could get married. Since they were not married in life, they can have the ceremony after death.
the ceremony
In the ghost marriage ceremony, the dead person is represented by bamboo, paper or cloth effigies. The figures wear clothes typical of a Chinese wedding, treating them like people.
If at the wedding both people are dead, they are symbolized by plaques, called spiritual tablets. The bodies of the two are sacramented (buried) together.
It is important to point out again that the practice of these marriages is illegal, which was first banned in imperial China and then banned again in 1949.