The tea ceremony is regarded as the traditional Chinese marriage ceremony where the bride and groom show their respect to their elders, especially acknowledging the importance of their parents and thanking them.

After the wedding ceremony, the newlyweds would serve tea, inviting the groom’s and the bride’s elders to drink tea by addressing them by formal title. Some dialect groups don’t have tea ceremony but most have it.

Also there are different orders for different dialect groups. Some dialect groups will have the tea ceremony at the bride’s house before going over to the groom’s house for tea ceremony at the groom’s side; some dialect groups will have the ceremony at groom’s house first and after that go back to the bride’s house for the tea ceremony at the bride’s side.

Lotus seeds and red dates tea symbolizes that the couple will bear children quickly and continuously.

Longans and red dates tea symbolaizes the wish for having male children. The longan represents a “dragon”, “dragon” represents male in the Chinese community.

The ancient Chinese believed that putting these items in the tea would help the newly weds produce children early in the marriage and every year, which would ensure many grandchildren for their parents.

Also, the sweetness of the special tea is a wish for sweet relations between the bride and the new family. In return, the newlyweds receive lucky red envelopes (”li shi”, which means lucky), stuffed with money or jewellery.