An chuang, setting the bed
A lucky day is chosen to bring the new bed into the bridal room; a woman of good fortune spreads it and scatters five-coloured seeds, and a pair of red lanterns sits in the middle.
Pronunciation ān chuáng｜Rites of life｜One entry in the Chaoshan glossary
What it means
Before the wedding another lucky day is chosen for an chuang: the new bed is carried into the room, its feet shimmed level with bricks, a few copper coins pressed underneath. The bed must be spread by a hao ming ren, a woman of good fortune; when it is spread she scatters five-coloured seeds — red-shelled peanuts, wine cake, mung beans, early millet, sesame — and sets a pair of red lanterns in the middle, the lantern standing for a son.
The bed is never left empty. The groom’s old clothes are laid on it first, and it waits for the bride. From the setting of the bed to the fetching of the bride a lamp is kept burning at night and is not let go out.
When you see it
It belongs with shang tou and wan mian in one run of lucky days, usually a few days before the bride is fetched, the dates picked by the almanac office.
Words easily confused
An chuang is the placing of the bed and pu chuang the spreading of it — two halves of one affair, placing and laying out, and in the villages the two are said together. It is not the he fang yuan of the wedding night, which is about eating the sweet balls; this is about setting things in place.
Read next: Chaoshan marriage: from the first approach to the return visit.
See also: Rites of life: the five thresholds side by side.
Same group: the dressing of the hair, weeping at the wedding, the woman of good fortune.
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Last revised: 3 November 2026