This photo is one of the very few photos of how bridal gifts were tied to two bamboo poles to be publicly displayed and carried from the bride's house to the groom's. In those days, a generous set of parents would bless their daughters with 10 bridal gifts or 10 Gong.
Each gong or gift carried by two bamboo poles would be carried by two strong men. The bridal group would be headed by a brass band followed by the bridal gifts and finally by the bridal car or cars. The noisy bridal parade sometimes would pass through the major streets of Sibu town. But mostly it would be just from the bride's house to the destination if the couple were from the same area.
If there were 10 bridal gifts, the scenario would be remembered by the onlookers for life!!
The gifts were mainly the basic needs of the bride : wardrobe, sewing machine, bicycle, mattress and pillows and bolster, dressing table, writing desk, etc.
The wedding lunch would usually end late and many close relatives would adjourn to the groom's home for more merrimaking.
the highlight of the evening would be "Teasing the New Couple" when young people would try their best to help the groom break the ice with the bride (if they had never met each other before).
It must have been a terrible moment for the new couple to meet each other for the first time in their life, and to start a life long partnership.
It was just a few years after the war and my maternal grandmother had her fingers burnt in China. She brought quite a large sum of money to build a huge mansion for the family and the Japanese bombed it. So she came back to Sibu to find my maternal grandfather had passed away and the rubber price plummeting. Mum had a suitor and was already 23.
When my father proposed she was overjoyed. But she could only give my mother 3 gongs. that was a very sad part of my mother's life. She worked so hard for the family and even grew rice to feed the whole extended family throughout the Japanese Occupation.
An aunt even said that mum did not even get a small piece of gold from the family on her wedding day because it was the post war recovery period.
A few months later, my understanding father bought her a Singer Sewing Machine. And my mother never learned to ride a bicycle! She enjoyed walking and my father could take her most places with his company car.
Today all her daughters can drive. She never learned to drive either.
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