Tuesday, June 13, 2006

Wedding of the Dead

Rumors from my friend's site has it that this is a traditional Chinese ghost marriage. Meaning one is a human while the other is a corpse. Does this picture and story really gives people the creeps? Not really for me, just a bit uneasy maybe.
Here is how the story goes...it was originally written in chinese and translated into English. Mr History teacher did a research, and indeed, the photo was real. It belonged to the 1920s, a village in China. The girl was only 17. She came from a well off family, and with the power of money, she managed to get the boy of her dreams. He was 19, and was quite popular among the girls given his good looks.
They were engaged, but the marriage was not consummated, or rather, the official wedding rituals were not performed yet, and the girl died from a high fever in 1922. The boy had no wish to go through the traditional wedding rites for the dead, and he decided to run away and join the army.
But as mentioned, the girl came from a rich and powerful family, and her family members managed to get him back, and the boy was forced to attend the wedding rites with the dead girl.
The photo was taken in the early evening, when she was already dead for 6 days. They had to prop her body up with a wooden plank, so as to hold her up. Notice that her feet werent touching the ground fully? And also, the 2 rows of Chinese characters, one row was carved outwards, which was said to be meant for the dead. They said that if you were to stare at the photo longer, and if the girl were to smile back at you, bad things are said to befall on you. This was because the boy wasnt willing to go through the rites, however, he was poor, and he couldnt do much that time. The girl loved him deeply, and kind of forced him into engagement.

Creepy? u decide it yourself....i didn't feel or see her smiling back at me anyway....

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