Chinese Wedding Ceremony in Pematangsiantar

Abstract

The major goal of this article is to present the Chinese wedding ceremony in Pematangsiantar, Indonesia. Every wedding ceremony has its own process and characteristics. In Indonesia, there are a lot of wedding ceremonies since Indonesia has lots of ethnic, such as Bataknese, Javanese, Sundanese, Chinese, etc. In Pematangsiantar, one city of North Sumatera of Indonesia, Chinese had become one of the largest communities since the independence day of Indonesia in 1945. The wedding ceremony of Chinese people in Pematangsiantar has a very unique tradition. This wedding ceremony can represent the Chinese culture, custom and shows the ways of thinking and belief. It consists of khua jit ci (selection of days), sang jit-thau or sang le/sang pheng (betrothal/pre-wedding custom), pai tu (stacking wardrobe), phang te (tea ceremony), etc. This article is hoped to be useful for readers (especially younger generations of Chinese people in Pematangsiantar, Indonesia) to know more about wedding ceremony and also for other researcher as references in conducting other research related to the other wedding ceremony tradition