Diamonds & precious stones

As a little girl, I encountered many weird yet funny moments. But one of the weirdest and funniest experiences was during the tea ceremony at a Chinese wedding. Make that *certain* tea ceremonies at *certain* weddings. Following Chinese tradition, the newlyweds will pour and serve tea to their elders, including their parents, parents-in-law and other relatives and next of kin. In order to qualify to be served tea, one has to be older than the newlyweds. It does not matter if you are married, single, widowed or divorced. However, if you are younger than the newlyweds and you are married, you get to claim a red packet or angpow from the newlyweds. So anyway, after partaking of the sweet, sweet tea (usually boiled with longans and red dates), a token of reciprocity will be given to the newlyweds. Some choose to give a simple angpow containing cash, but the traditional folks will present the newlyweds with a piece of jewelery.

So coming back to my weird experience…some newlyweds choose to employ a lady called a “sang-keh-mm” (in Hokkien) to assist during the tea ceremony. And assist she does. She doesn’t just pour the tea, mind you! I have witnessed these ladies offering their assistance of sorts during the entire ceremony. Her face will light up when she sees a token of appreciation in the form of a piece of jewelery. She would then open up the box and hold up the bracelet, earrings or pendant for all to see. At the same time, the “sang-keh-mm” is someone who is never short for words. She has plenty of sayings and poems up her sleeve, and she will be chanting all these whilst displaying the jewelery. Well, some even go as far as displaying how much cash the angpow carries! Then, the bride would be *forced* to wear the jewelery. To the “sang-keh-mm”, it is certainly not sufficient that the bride is already adorned with her Wedding and Engagement Rings, all other rings received must adorn her every finger too, better yet if they are all Diamond rings! If at all possible, every piece of jewelery received will have to be worn on the spot! I have seen brides with so many chains and Diamond Pendants around their neck, so much so that it looked as if they were weighing her head down! Normally, the groom will receive chains or rings, and believe me, he is not spared from being a jewelery model either!

Those who give expensive diamond jewelery will beam with pride. To them, it is a sign that they have *made it*. Yes, shallow but true. Unfortunately for those who give meager gifts, woe betide them for this exercise could be quite a mockery.

I have seen gifts made with so many different types of precious stones: Emeralds, Rubies, Topaz and of course Sapphire Rings. But come to think of it, I’ve never seen people giving Black Diamond rings before though. Could it be that it is because the traditional Chinese view black as a no-no color for weddings?

Well, I didn’t have a “sang-keh-mm” during my wedding. I wasn’t going to be modeling jewelry on my special day, that’s for sure! All the gifts I received were promptly taken by my maid of honor for safekeeping. However, that didn’t stop one of my guests from helping herself to the *tradition* by putting on a gold bracelet on my wrist! Hahaha!