Wedding Countdown Ticker
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sunday, July 5, 2009

Getting the auspicious date

Our plan is to have the wedding next year. So Bob's mum and grandma were supposed to help us get a list of the auspicious dates. But because the "tong shu" will only be issued in August, we were afraid that most of the banquet venues would be snapped up by then.

Instead of waiting for the "tong shu", we went to the geomancer recommended by CLK. The auspicious dates were available in 2 days time. Our preferred dates are 10 Oct 2010, 23 Oct 2010, 12 Sept 2010 and 18 Sept 2010. We would love to have it on 10 Oct 2010 but we also understand that this is a hot date and there will probably be extra charges for having the banquet on that day too. With the list of auspicious dates, we are ready to start hunting for the right wedding banquet venue.

Sonia

After getting the name of the geomancer from Sonia (who had displayed a very welcome dose of initiative to source for the contacts), we secured his services and were supposed to make a trip down to Beauty World Complex for a face-to-face meeting.

I had expected an incense-ridden dingy shopfront with a white-haired mystic poring over voluminous tracts of ancient scriptures to determine the dates that did not clash with the Chinese zodiac signs of our immediate relatives (and us).

In the end, it was a fairly modern cosy corner with a desk (and airconditioning, thank goodness) and a full size advert of the man himself. Apart from the Chinese compass / 轮盘 that he held in the ad, it was a fairly modern geomancer that we were speaking with.

As the saying goes, judge a man by the company mobile phone he keeps. And he kept a N95 8GB. Not too bad.

He showed us the dates and gave us a set of ancient coins (古钱) that we were tasked to keep under the matrimonial bed. A senior member of our family was to place the coins at the four corners of our bed during the 安床 ceremony, all whilst verbalizing auspicious phrases such as 百年好和,白头偕老,早生贵子 and 子孙满堂 or something... This would happen on the day before the actual wedding at an auspicious hour.

Also, the part I found the funniest was the act of getting a non-member of my family (undoubtedly a guy unless Sonia gives the green light) to sleep beside me on the night before the wedding. I was wondering which of my bros would sleep with me... HAHA

Ryan Bob

No comments: