The age of the breakneck brides

Weddings certainly aren't what they used to be, said Yan Yuejin. Back in 1980 when Yan got married, his wedding lasted four days. It was tiring but fun and took place in the yard of a home with relatives and neighbors helping out, the 54-year-old recalled.

Yan is head of the cultural center in Luojin, a town in Baoshan district, and he said traditional weddings have become a dying art and have lost favor with the younger generation. "We rent out drums, dragon and lion dancing props and all kinds of traditional wedding equipment at our cultural center, but nobody asks for them these days," he said.

While it used to be common for weddings to last three or four days, especially in suburban towns and villages, in recent years most young couples in Shanghai have been opting for weddings that have been simplified and Westernized.

"We may have lost some of our traditions, but this is inevitable as our society morphs into a more open and urban culture," Xu Anqi, a researcher with the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences and deputy director at the Shanghai Institute of Marriage and Family Studies, told the Global Times.

The four-day reception

According to Yan, Luojin custom had it that weddings took place over four consecutive days. On the first day, pigs and sheep were slaughtered and the families of the couple to be wed asked relatives and neighbors to help buy food and wine. On the second day, the groom's family went to collect the bride's dowry which usually included cupboards and bed sets. On the third day there was a lunchtime banquet at the bride's parents' home. Then the groom carried the bride to their new home in a sedan chair and there was a banquet at the groom's parents' house in the evening. On the final day there was a thank-you banquet for all the relatives and friends who helped with the wedding.

But even within Shanghai, wedding rites varied from district to district and town to town. In some places in Jiading district, it was believed to be good luck for the groom to go to pick up his bride twice - he had to return home alone on the first occasion. In Chongming newlyweds had to step over a basin of burning straw and, as the bride's feet could not touch the ground when she left her home, she was piggybacked out of the house to the car by the groom or her brother, if she had one.

While some traditions are still practised in places, more couples are choosing to give them a miss, according to a manager surnamed Wang from Lantern Wedding Planning in Baoshan district. "Traditional customs are too complicated and take way more time to plan and prepare. Most young couples in the suburbs nowadays have one-day weddings just like couples living downtown," Wang said.

He said a typical modern-day Shanghai wedding involves simple tea ceremonies at the bride's and groom's homes and a formal evening banquet at a restaurant or hotel for all the guests.

"A one-day ceremony already took me months to prepare. I can't imagine how chaotic it would be if I had to prepare a four-day wedding," said Xu Liping, a Songjiang bride who got married last week.

Social changes

While young couples might think the old-fashioned wedding extravaganzas were too complicated and time-consuming, urbanization and social changes have also contributed to the gradual disappearance of traditional weddings, Yan said.

He said that traditionally the families of the couple depended on the help of semi-professional cooks in the villages, but nowadays there were few catering teams like this left who could provide their services for weddings and funerals. "Few people now know how to slaughter pigs and sheep," Yan said.

Another factor is that fewer couples come from the same village and it becomes impossible to conform to the old customs when the bride and groom live thousands of miles apart. "My son's wife comes from Zhejiang Province. They had a simple one-day ceremony. It would be impossible for them to wed the way my wife and I did," Yan said.

He said that the modern roads that now connect villages and cities have also meant cars are being used as the ceremonial vehicles to transport the brides. As the living standards in the countryside improved, more people could afford to rent cars. "Nowadays you would feel you were losing face if you didn't have a fancy car to pick up your bride. Audis are the common choice for grooms," Yan said.

Xu Anqi, of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences said: "As social mobility improved, the values of young people in suburban areas became closer to those of city people. It is only natural that wedding rituals have changed in a way that goes in line with modern life."