Hong Kong- Twenty four young Hong Kong couples were beginning married life Sunday after tying the knot simultaneously at of the territory’s most ubiquitous locations – a shopping mall. The couples took advantage of the relaxing last year of laws regulating where marriages can take place, to exchange vows in Hong Kong’s East Point City shopping mall.
The mall had offered customers the chance to join in the first mass wedding since the law change, and was swamped with 200 applications to join in Saturday’s civil ceremony.
A spokeswoman for the mall told the Sunday Morning Post newspaper that the ceremony was the first of its kind in a shopping mall: "We could only pick 24 pairs to take this special love journey.
Saturday was chosen because September 9 in the Chinese calendar is an auspicious date, believed to give couples who marry on that day the chance of a long-lasting union.
The shopping mall is now planning more mass weddings, saying malls were convenient for ceremonies because of their size and availability of restaurants for parties and banquets.
Hong Kong people are famous for their love of shopping malls, with many people spending entire weekends shopping, eating and going to the cinema in the city’s air-conditioned malls. One of the 24 grooms told the newspaper that he enjoyed marrying in a mass ceremony.
I didn’t feel the attention on us was diverted," he said. "On the contrary, I love crowds.
Until last year, couples in the city of 6.8 million people could only marry in churches or register offices, leading to huge scrambles to book auspicious dates in a limited number of venues.
Since the change, couples have been able to tie the knot at at any venue in Hong Kong that applies for a licence to conduct a marriage ceremony.
Source: DPA – Deutsche Presse-Agenteur
