Dear Cecil,

I am doing "An Chuan" soon but dont know the procodures.. some said get a good fortune lady to do so (someone with many kids), some said a good fortune man.. and then I read somewhere can get parents to do... I am clueless! Help!

Much appreciated... thanks!

Best regards,

Cally

You can check out this write-up by Robert Lee, Geomancy.net:-

Traditional & Modern Wedding Procedure:-http://www.geomancy.net/info/wedding-procedures.pdf

As we Chinese have so many provinces and dialect groups; there are also many variants of Traditional Chinese practises. However, Robert Lee, has written this article many years back to give one an insight into the most common and typical Chinese practises.

For example, selecting say a woman who is "barren" (no child) to a woman who has given birth to lots of child; the natural choice is to select a woman who has given to lots of (healthy) child as a helper is the obvious choice.

Thus all these has to do with symbolism and feel good factor.

In some practises, some dialect group asks for a healthy boy child to roll over the bed as the preference is for a healthy boy than a girl! To carry on the name of the family etc...

Again, there is no "bible" or truly what is right or wrong, here. So long as the advice makes sense (not stupid) then go ahead with it.

Certain cultural as additional practises. For example, traditional Teochews requests for Four (yes 4 types of gold) ... for the wedding.

What is more important is to check with both parents. And usually if the grand mother is around; the family would seek further advice from them. Overall, the idea is that both immediate family are happy over the arrangements.