On July 22, Dongjing News reported from the Guiyang Confucius Academy Culture Communication Center that recruitment for the 2026 (bingwu) year Chinese Wedding at the Confucius Academy had fully launched, with eligible couples from across the country able to register free of charge for this collective wedding ceremony rooted in millennia-old rites. The wedding is scheduled for August 19, 2026 — the seventh day of the seventh lunar month, the Qixi Festival, the night when the weaver maid and the cowherd are said to meet across the Milky Way — at the Guiyang Confucius Academy (贵阳孔学堂), and participation is completely free of charge. The academy, a cultural landmark on the southern bank of Huaxi in Guiyang, has long served as a public venue for the study and transmission of traditional Chinese learning.
13 Years, 500 Couples: A Ceremony Modeled on Classic Rites
The Chinese Wedding is one of the academy’s four signature “rites” programmes, an annual series built around traditional ceremonies of passage. It has now been held for thirteen consecutive years, witnessing 500 couples complete their vows in the academy’s halls. The ceremony follows the “Marriage Rites of a Gentleman” chapter of the Book of Etiquette and Ceremonial (仪礼·士昏礼) and the “Meaning of the Wedding” chapter of the Book of Rites (礼记·昏义) — the two classical texts that codified the marriage procedures of the Zhou dynasty and shaped wedding practice in China for over two thousand years.
More than ten traditional procedures are laid out in full. The ceremony opens with the exchange of betrothal gifts and return gifts (下聘回聘), the old ritual negotiation between the two families; the couple then wash their hands and take seats facing each other (沃盥对席), a gesture of reverence and equality before the ceremony proper; the heart of the rite is bowing to heaven and earth and drinking from the union cup (拜堂合卺), in which a single gourd is split in two and each spouse drinks from one half, symbolizing a shared life; this is followed by untying the tassel and binding their hair together (解缨结发), the ancient act from which the phrase “jie fa” (tying the knot) for marriage is drawn; and finally the couple jointly write the marriage certificate (共书婚帖), signing themselves into married life. Dressed in traditional wedding attire, the newlyweds take their solemn oath before the Hall of Great Perfection (大成殿), the academy’s main hall named after the Sage Confucius, while guests look on.
The organizers explicitly uphold the principle of holding weddings in a new, simple and frugal way — no lavish banquets, no elaborate dowries, only the rituals themselves — so that the newlyweds can feel the ritual weight of “bound as husband and wife, loving each other without doubt” (结发为夫妻，恩爱两不疑). For young couples drawn to traditional Chinese aesthetics, the ceremony offers an alternative to banquet-centric modern weddings, placing the emphasis on the vows and the rites rather than on expense.
How to Register
Any couple in China that completed marriage registration within the past year may apply; places are limited and registration closes when the quota is full. Enquiries can be made by phone at 0851-83612919 or 0851-83610798. The registration channel is now open — couples hoping to join this Qixi appointment with ancient rites at the Confucius Academy are encouraged to enquire and register early. With the event falling exactly on the Qixi Festival, the 2026 edition offers newlyweds a chance to mark the most romantic date of the Chinese calendar with a ceremony performed in the language of classical ritual.
