My student's wedding

A former student of mine got married today. The wedding was in Sapporo at the elegant Keio Plaza Hotel. Like most Japanese weddings today, it was almost entirely Western in style. Yet to the trained eye, a few vestiges of tradition stand out. For example, the bride changes dresses--white for the wedding, and then half-way through the reception she appears in a red dress. This preserves an old tradition where brides wore a white kimono on the first day of wedding celebrations, then red the next day, and another color on the third (now condensed into a single day). I was told this represents how the bride is initially pure (white), and then is colored by the groom with the colors that make her happy. I can't help but suspect this is a vestige of a still earlier custom, where white would have represented physical virginity and red the blood spilled on the bed sheets through consummation.

ONE GOOD DEED: Support my student by attending her wedding reception and giving the traditional monetary gift.