Double Happiness and the Chinese Bridal Sedan Chair
1 min readDouble Happiness
Each half of the symbol is the standard character for happiness，writen
“hsi”or“xi，”and pronounced something like“she”in Mandarin（high level tone，the third tone）.Therefore，two“hsi”graphs together represent the wish for the two young newlyweds to have happiness together.The double happiness graph（pronounced“shuang-hsi”in Mandarin）is a special Chinese character used for marital happiness.I’s not used in regular Chinese writing or printing.
Chinese Bridal Sedan Chair
The chair-like sedan enclosed with color silk was one of the main vehicles in the ancient time of China.Of course，it was mainly used by the rich.
The poor had to rely on donkeys or their own feet to travel.So it was an outstanding identity to have a sedan rather than a noisy donkey.On special occasions，such as a wedding ceremony，a sedan chair was used to take the pride to the groom’s house，even for the poor.Well，here is a story about how people started the tradition.
The story is said to have something to do with the great powerful emperor，Qianlong of Qing Dynasty，who was a very diligent emperor.It is said he had made seven inspection tours to the far south of China.And the story about how the sedan got used in people’s wedding just happened on his third tour.
