NEW YORK—While most people eat turkey on Thanksgiving, a popular custom in Chinatown is to get married. Taking advantage of closed restaurants, Chinese couples rent them out to hold simple wedding proceedings followed by a lavish multicourse meal.
This year is different.
In Manhattan’s Chinatown, where the business of weddings is particularly competitive, wedding salons have had one of the slowest years on record.
The most popular months for weddings, through spring and summer, were particularly scant, with salons pulling only half the customers they had in previous years.
According to the Chinese lunar calendar, this is the “Year of the Snake,” which some consider inauspicious.
“People will think that is not a good animal—evil or something like that,” said Sail Zou, manager of Manhattan’s Golden Unicorn Chinese restaurant, which is considered the best venue for wedding banquets in Chinatown.
On the Gregorian calendar, 2013 is also considered by some an unlucky year to get married, but superstition with regard to the number 13 does not carry over into Chinese culture.
Nevertheless this lunar year, which runs Feb. 10, 2013, to Jan. 30, 2014, is missing “Lichun,” the day that signals the arrival of spring.
Older people, and particularly farmers in mainland China, who still follow the lunar calendar, believe that because this lunar year has no Lichun, and spring is related to the “yang” or male energy, grooms who marry this year could suffer a bad fate.
For those Fujian Chinese, who immigrated illegally and work long hours in restaurants, Thanksgiving is one of the very few days they have time to get married.
“A lot of restaurant people pick the day because their restaurant is going to close and their whole restaurant staff can attend,” Zou said. “Most people have the same day off. That is why they will prefer Thanksgiving Day. It will definitely get more guests attending.”
True Love Weddings in Flushing has just two couples tying the knot this Thanksgiving.
Wedding photographer Yuan Chao said business has been slow this year for a number of reasons.
“The economy has been slow. Second, right now the young generation doesn’t want to get married. They just stay together [without being married]. Or they go to City Hall, because they don’t want to spend a lot of money. Or they choose a destination wedding.”
Chinese-American customs are changing but Chao said, “The young generation still needs to listen to their parents. If the father or mother says it’s a lucky day, you have to go [get married].”
Only five weddings are scheduled on Thanksgiving at Golden Unicorn, the most popular restaurant for Chinatown weddings with the most acclaimed cuisine.
According to Zou, in years past they would start the earliest wedding at 11 a.m., but this year they only have weddings in the afternoon and evening on its two separate floors dedicated to wedding parties.
A smaller wedding party would comprise 60 to 100 guests, and a larger one at Golden Unicorn restaurant would host 100 to 200 guests.
Zou estimates 60 percent of weddings at Golden Unicorn are for Fujian couples, 30 percent are Cantonese, and 10 percent are Westerners.
The Golden Unicorn restaurant serves a nine-course meal for wedding parties. The banquet starts with cold appetizers and soup, followed by several meat, tofu, and vegetable dishes. The headliners? Traditional Chinese steamed fish and a chicken, fried whole, marinated, and served with the head still on platter.
“If we serve Western people we don’t serve them the (chicken’s) head. They aren’t used to it,” Zou said.
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