Double Happiness

So I started working on this one a week ago, and thought I should put it up now to send some extra care and concern for all the people in Chengdu and Szechuan province. You can always go to UNICEF and make a donation.

Weddings are always such wonderful things, especially when it's two friends who you've seen go through ups and downs together and come out happier and kinder to each other for it. I'm a bit late on my post, but enjoyed my college friends' wedding back in March. I did just now go order prints from the wedding, hence my return to the message.

There's something hopeful and reminiscent about weddings. It's partly a reflection of what love and relationships ought to be and partly a remembrance of how you have been a part of the relationship with two people. It's very transcending, I think and beautifully represented by the Chinese double happiness character. Because it really is two loves joined to each other, not some two becoming one. Each person is always that individual, but it's the joining of their love together that makes it so special.

I had a very interesting time with the groom (although he wasn't engaged at the time) wandering around Chengdu, China trying in very limited and probably badly accented Chinese asking for a calligraphy of the double happiness character. We got tons of looks as if we were complete idiots, and never actually got the calligraphy. But in proper form, the Double Happiness was on their wedding guestbook-- the perfect place for it.

It's just a beautiful symbol for a great moment and brings together the essence of romance--Double Happiness.