COUPLES rushed to tie the knot before the Year of the Tiger arrived because it is traditionally believed to be an inauspicious period for marriages.
The Registry of Marriages saw a 16 per cent spike in the number of couples getting solemnised, from 1,554 in January last year, to 1,806 last month. Restaurants and hotels saw more wedding-dinner bookings last month as well.
The number of such dinner bookings at Raffles City Convention Centre and Equinox Complex Private Dining Rooms grew by 50 per cent last month, compared to January last year.
Pan Pacific hotels at Marina and Orchard, and Parkroyal hotels in Beach Road and Kitchener Road saw bookings for last month jump by two to three times from January last year.
The competitive wedding dinner packages, and couples who desire to tie the knot based on perceived auspicious dates in the Chinese calendar account for the increase in wedding-dinner bookings, said Ms Cheryl Ng, public-relations manager of Pan Pacific Hotels Group’s Singapore arm.
The Year of the Tiger arrived on Feb 4 – and not on the first day of the Chinese New Year on Feb 14 – because it starts in accordance with the first day of spring, not the first day of the lunar new year, said geomancer Hui Jie.
He added that the tiger is associated with a hot temper and ferocity. Some believe these characteristics may be brought into to their marriage, which is why they are reluctant to get married during the Tiger Year, he said.
The outlook for the year is also not bright for those born in the Year of the Monkey or Tiger, but if they are thinking of getting married, it is perfectly all right as long as they consult an expert and choose an auspicious date, he said.
Banking executives James Teo, 32, and Vera Teo, 31, decided to get married l a s t month, before the Year of the Tiger, because of pressure from their parents. Mr Teo said: “We originally planned to wed in April, as we met in April 2006, so it’s a very significant month for us.
But when we brought it up to my parents last year, they baulked.” Despite feeling that their parents were being old-fashioned, they decided to go along because they knew that their parents were just concerned for them, he said.
Mrs Teo added that it was “not an easy feat” to bring forward the wedding, so it was a good thing that her in-laws raised the objection early. “If they told us a few months later, it might have been impossible to bring the wedding forward without paying a lot more money.
I’m glad they cautioned us outright,” she said. She also thought it was “better to be safe than sorry when it comes to something as lifechanging as a wedding”. Legal executive Tan Yimei, 26, and her husband did not believe that tying the knot in the Year of the Tiger would jinx their marriage.
But they decided to marry before that, out of respect for her mother, who advised them to avoid the period. “A wedding is an affair that brings people together, so we decided to go along with her wishes,” she said. But accountant Marvin Leong, 34, and fitness instructor Amelia Chong, 28, are planning a June wedding, and have already booked tickets and accommodation for their honeymoon in Paris that month.
Miss Chong said: “I don’t like the idea of rushing wedding preparations, which are stressful enough, or going for a honeymoon five months after the vows are said.
I’ve never heard of this Tiger Year thing before my friends brought it up.” She was lucky that her family did not disapprove of her wedding plans, as that would “put us between a stone and a hard place, and I don’t know what I would have done”, she said.
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