Cash-giving in a Japanese wedding

-

 If you're asked to attend a Japanese wedding be ready to part with some cash. It may seemed a bit weird for us, Filipinos, but cash-giving is very common in weddings in Japan. The amount you give  varies depending on your relationship with the couple. The closer you are to them, the higher the amount that you must give them. And you don't just put this in any other envelope but in a Goshugi-bukuro (see picture below) with your name on it. When you get to the ceremony, you should give this to the wedding receptionist.

 
Source: Goshugi-bukuro [Online image]. (4 November 2010). Retrieved from http://jollygoo.blogspot.jp/2010/11/goshugi-bukuro.html
 
They say that the groom's family should give a generous amount to the bride's family and on the average, the amount is  equivalent to the groom's salary for three months. I'm not sure if this is still strictly practiced. All I know is the boss, co-workers, friends, and family members of the couple are expected to give cash gifts. Usually, friends give at least 30,000 yen or approximately 275 dollars at today's rate. The couple's boss or family members give more. The most important thing that you have to think of when giving money is the number of bills that you are putting in the envelope. It must not be divisible by two, as two relates to rikon (divorce).
 
When I was invited to a Japanese wedding for the first time, I was very nervous because of the stories that I heard about cash-giving. Since it was an interracial wedding, with the groom coming from North America, the Japanese practice of cash giving was not strictly observed. My friend, who happened to be the groom, instructed me and his other foreign friends in Japan to just give any amount to them. So we, his close friends in Japan, gave 20,000 yen or 183 dollars. Instead of using a ten-thousand paper bill for the whole amount, we used one ten-thousand and two five-thousand bills. That way we still observed the tradition of not giving something that relates to two.  :)  Though it was very expensive for us, it was really a great experience!
 
 
 
 
 
 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How I learned to eat that cute little thing called---tako!

-
Image
  When I first came to Japan years ago, I had almost zero knowledge about Japanese food. All I knew was sushi came from this country. So when my  sempai  gave me a plate of takoyaki and told me they were squid balls, I immediately believed him. I already ate more than four tako balls when he laughed and said, “Marge, I thought you don’t eat octopus?” I stopped eating and almost threw up. Almost.  J  Then, I realized, much of our abhorrence about certain foods are not really because our taste buds don’t like them but more because of what our mind is telling us. Since then, I started eating  tako  (octopus) and I found out that it’s not really different from squid except that it’s a bit harder. But, of course, I still can’t eat the whole  tako  just like any Japanese person does. However, I don’t mind eating slices of taco mixed with rice, vegetables, or ramen from time to time. Source:  MK. (8 October 2016).  Japanese traditional food "takoyaki"  [Online image]. Retrieved from
Read more

The beauty that is Sapporo

-
Image
Though I've lived in Japan for more than a decade, I've only been to Sapporo once and that is because it was the setting of the Filipino movie Kita Kita starring Alessandra de Rossi and Empoy Marquez. Sapporo, as shown in the movie, was very picturesque - it looked like a paradise. Indeed, when I got there last week my first word about it was "Wow!". It was indeed breathtakingly beautiful! Let's talk about the places you must see in Sapporo. Odori Park I've been to a lot of parks in Japan, but none has made me feel as excited as Odori Park. Perhaps, it's the Kita Kita movie and the fact that there's just so much to do in this park. I saw a lot of people feeding pigeons, play in the fountain, huddle with friends and family in one corner, or just relax and watch people pass by.  Sapporo TV Tower I'm not good with direction and so I got lost in Sapporo many times! But thanks to the Sapporo TV Tower. It served as my guiding star because my
Read more