In Chinese almanac and geomancy, what’s considered auspicious to one person is bad luck to another.
And having two weddings at the same time in the same neighbourhood doesn’t necessary mean double happiness.
A four-hour-long clash involving knives and ignited fireworks between two wedding groups in China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region on Sunday (April 10) can testify to that.
When the two grooms leading their respective entourage of celebrants in Bohai county stopped just before crossing paths, they weren’t reaching out their hands to congratulate one another.
Instead, the two groups hissed at each another, questioning why the other deliberately chose that route and timing. Superstitious beliefs, or rather, stubbornness won the day when both parties refused to budge to let the other pass.
The ensuing battle that followed wasn’t over a lack of decorum: it’s about the probability of bringing bad luck to one’s marriage when such a ‘collision’ takes place, online news portal Youth.cn reported.
The news portal said tensions ran high after members of the Lin family’s wedding procession tried to stop the Qi family’s party from walking through a decorated archway they had built for the wedding, which they claimed would bring them misfortune if they did.
Instead of making peace, the rival groups inflicted greater misfortune on each other when they took out knives, sticks and fireworks for a never-before-seen marathon street fight.
Starting at 2pm, the fiery confrontation saw dozens dressed in wedding red clashing with knives and hurling flaming firecrackers and fireworks at one another.
When it ended at 6pm after the police quelled the situation, 10 persons were found injured and the aftermath resembled a war zone.
Chinese netizens were stumped when they saw footages of the incident on social media and in People’s Daily reports.
Many Weibo users slammed the wedding groups for harbouring superstitious beliefs that not only ruined their special day but also turned them into violent people.
“Now this is really bad luck!’ commented one user.
Others sarcastically remarked that an opportunity for creating romantic videos was turned into an “action film”.
One Weibo user wondered: “So did the couples get married in the end?”
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Internet screengrabs
