國慶長假結婚潮:"紅色炸彈"你收到了嗎?

The 25-year-old Shanghai native Liu Yiwei has had an exhausting holiday during the past seven days. Rather than traveling or working overtime, she was busy hopping from nuptial to nuptial arming "red bombs" with piles of cash.

上海-25歲的上海人劉儀薇度過了一個疲倦的七天長假。她並沒有出門旅行或者加班，而是帶着塞滿現金的“紅色炸彈”奔波於婚禮現場間。

"Red bomb" is the popular name for the red envelopes with money that are given as wedding gifts.

“紅色炸彈”是個流行詞彙，指的是裝現金的紅色信封(紅包)，做爲給新人的結婚禮物。

"Weddings are supposed to be joyful occasions filled with blessings. But when too many pile up, you feel rushed to complete a series of tasks," said Liu, who attended two weddings in the past week, one of which she was also "working" as the bridesmaid.

“婚禮本來應該是充滿祝福的歡樂場景，但是當許多婚禮集中在一起，你會覺得自己是趕着去完成任務。”劉小姐表示，她在過去的一週裏參加了兩次婚禮，其中一次她還是伴娘。

The weddings can also be a "burden" because, according to Chinese tradition, guests should give couples red envelopes containing money as blessings.

婚禮也是種負擔。因爲根據中國的傳統，參加婚禮的客人需要給新人夫婦一個裝錢的紅包以示祝福。

"There are no rules specifying how much money you should give at a wedding. It's generally determined by how close you are to the couple," Liu said.

劉小姐說：“沒有具體的規定說參加婚禮要給多少錢紅包，基本上取決於你跟新人的關係有多親密。”

"But the common practice is to give no less than 300 to 500 yuan ($47 to $78). Sometimes, it can be a huge proportion of your salary."

“不過，一般的慣例是不能少於300到500元(47-78美元)，有時候紅包會是工資的很大一部分。”

A netizen nicknamed "xiaoxie", in Guangdong province, has had a similar experience. The office clerk in her twenties attended five weddings in three days during the holiday. She wrote in her blog that she had become "more familiar with the routines of wedding ceremonies than the brides and grooms were".

一位暱稱“小謝”的網友稱，在廣東省也有這樣的習俗。20多歲的辦公室文員小謝在長假期間三天內參加了5次婚禮。她在博客中寫到，自己已經比新娘新郎更熟悉婚禮儀式的流程了。

As most of the eighties generation in China has reached prime marriage age, Liu, like millions of her peers, is seeing a new boom of weddings. The weeklong National Day Holiday, one of the two longest holidays in China, has become the most popular time for weddings.

在中國，由於大部分的80後已經到了黃金結婚年齡，和無數的同齡人一樣，劉小姐在見證中國新的結婚潮的來臨。爲期一週的國慶節假期作爲中國兩個最長的假期之一，已經成爲最流行的結婚時間。

"It's marriage season," said Liu. "Almost all of my friends are either getting married during these seven days or going to weddings."

劉小姐說，“現在是結婚季。國慶長假，基本我所有的朋友不是在結婚就是去參加婚禮。”

Although statistics on the number of marriages during the long holiday are not yet available, the Shanghai Wedding Trade Association estimates there has been at least a 20 percent increase in the number of weddings compared with the same period of last year.

雖然國慶長假期間的婚姻數量尚未有統計數據，但上海婚慶貿易協會估計，與去年同期相比，今年的婚禮數量至少上漲了20%。

"The peak season for weddings has arrived," said Zhang Jie, the office director of the Shanghai Wedding Trade Association. "And the boom is unlikely to fade for the next five years, if not longer, because the nineties generation may soon join."

“婚禮旺季已經來了。”上海婚慶貿易協會的辦公室主任張潔表示，“在今後五年內，就算不能重現今年的旺季場面，這股熱潮也不太可能消退，因爲90後很快也會加入進來。”

With the huge demand, it's springtime for the wedding planning industry.

由於面臨着巨大需求，婚禮策劃行業也將迎來新的春天。

According to the association, there are more than 1,000 people trained and registered as wedding announcers on its website this year, which brings the total to more than 4,000.

據該協會統計，今年其網站有超過1千多人接受訓練並登記成爲婚禮主持人。目前該網站上的婚禮主持人總數已超過4千人。

But during the National Day Holiday, there was still a shortage, which was "unprecedented", according to the association.

不過根據該協會的數據，國慶長假期間也暴露了一個前所未有的人員短缺現象。

Yin Li, a 27-year-old bridal makeup artist, said she had to work throughout the holiday, without the help of her assistant, who was also fully booked during the week.

27歲的新娘化妝師尹麗說，國慶長期期間她一直在工作，而且是在沒有助理幫助的情況下，因爲她的助理在長期期間也是日程排滿。

"All 20 artists and dozens of assistants and students in our studios were totally booked this holiday," said Yin, who had been a film makeup artist until two years ago, but left to enter the more "promising" bridal industry.

尹小姐以前是一位電影化妝師，兩年前才轉行進入更有前景的婚禮行業。她表示，國慶長假期間工作室裏所有20位化妝師以及所有助理和學生全被訂滿。