Wedding weighted with gold and cash is but a shallow show

A RECENT wedding ceremony held in Zhongshan, South China's Guangdong province, has attracted much attention because of its extravagance. It is a personal choice to hold a luxurious wedding, but society should not follow suit, says an opinion article on cnhubei.com:

Such extravagant weddings distort the real values that a wedding ceremony should celebrate. A wedding means getting friends and relatives together to celebrate a new couple joining hands. If a wedding is too extravagant it will shift public attention from the couple to the display of wealth. In some sense, that's no longer a wedding but a shallow show of money.

Moreover, when an over-luxurious wedding becomes popular in society, and starts being imitated by other couples, who then try to out-do each other in displaying their good fortune, there is a problem with society and the values it holds dear. It would imply a blind worship of money, which is incompatible with a healthy society, where people pursue happiness and know it is more than about material well-being.