The Opposition Of Red & White (喜喪沖)

In Chinese culture, pregnancy and marriage are known as “red affairs” (紅事) while a funeral is called “white affair” (白事).

 

According to traditional Chinese belief, when a woman gets pregnant; she is called “you xi” (有喜) or “having something happy”, and when a couple gets married, then it is also called “xi shi” (喜事) or “happy affairs”. So, when a pregnant lady meets a bride; one of the party with weaker luck will fall sick. Another possibility is that when a mother brings her child to attend a wedding ceremony and upon returning home; the child’s feces is awfully smelly or the child suffers from diarrhea. Then people say that this child is suffered from the opposition of good affairs (喜沖喜). Apparently that too many good things can become not good.

 

Old folks believe that when a bride wears her wedding gown with head dress, the “goddess of bride” has possessed the bride. This goddess of bride has great power in spiritual world, so her aura may harm a small child. Some people also call this situation as “sha of a bride” (新娘煞). A good astrologer can normally calculate who will be in trouble by looking at the person’s Chinese zodiac sign. For example: a rat will be in opposition with a horse.

 

A funeral ceremony is called as a “white affair” (白事) and it is a bad affair. A pregnant lady and a small child are advised to stay away from attending funeral ceremony in the fear of the opposition of good and bad. This situation is also commonly known as (喜沖喪) or the conflict of the good and bad. As with the above case, the child may either suffers from diarrhea, headache, vomiting, stomach ache, fever, or strange behavior: quiet in the day, active at night.

 

Some modern explanations concerning on “white” and “red” affairs are that during these affairs, all of the decease family members and ancestors also attended ceremonies such as wedding and funeral service. So not only the pregnant and small child must shy away from these occasions; persons who are experiencing bad luck are at best avoiding them as far as possible.

 

Taoist’s remedy for the opposition of red to red, or red to white is pretty simple; just draw the below talisman , burn it on a bowl of water and drink the water.