Shanghai's Marriage Registry Office of the Bureau of Civil Affairs revealed Monday that up to August, more than 68,000 couples have registered to marry, in spite of Chinese traditional saying that "one should not wed in the Year of the Rooster" and that means the solar term "spring begins" came before the Spring Festival of Chinese New Year, it is "unlucky" to marry.

But the chief of the Shanghai civil marriage registry office, Zhou Jixiang, said that based on current conditions, the number of people registering for marriage is about the same as last year, showing no signs of decline.

Showing no signs of decline, besides marriage registration, are wedding banquets, the autumn being high season for such celebrations. Shanghai's Wedding Banquet Association Secretary, Helen, said that this year's October 1st golden week remains the peak season for newlyweds to have their banquets and estimated that each day during the golden week 2,000 couples will celebrate their marriages, about the same number as last year's golden week. And banquet halls at all major hotels are fully booked months ago.

For this, Shanghai Villad'roman Marriage Center business director Cai Jiejie was moved to say that during the October 1 golden week holiday, his company will be busy with clients because the wedding banquet business has not been affected at all by the "year of the rooster". Quite the opposite, business has doubled.

According to the Wedding Banquet Association, during this year's May 1st golden week holiday, from May 1 to May 8, the city tied the knot for 20,000 couples. On May 6th, in particular, 4,000 couples married on that day.

(Chinanews.cn September 7, 2005)