Tears of joy shed as Ho Chi Minh City university students hold wedding ceremony for disabled couples
Friday, December 08, 2023, 13:18 GMT+7
A group of students from a university in Ho Chi Minh City on Thursday night organized a wedding ceremony for handicapped couples who had got married many years ago but had been unable to have an official wedding ceremony.
The mass wedding ceremony was held by students from the University of Social Sciences and Humanities under the Vietnam National University-Ho Chi Minh City.
After being married for 20 years, Vo Nguyen Thi Thao, 48, residing in Phu Nhuan District, Ho Chi Minh City, finally had a chance to wear a wedding dress and hold the hand of her husband, Lam Tan Canh, as they walked down the aisle.
The couple makes ends meet by selling lottery tickets.
“I am extremely happy and content because I am able to wear a suit for the first time and see my wife in a wedding gown," Canh emotionally said.
"My feeling is the same as it was 20 years ago."
Nguyen Vu Son, 36, and his 33-year-old wife Nguyen Thi My Dung were also among the couples at the collective wedding ceremony.
They live in a boarding house in District 12.
Son uses a wheelchair while his wife walks with crutches.
The couple’s unstable incomes from lottery ticket sales and odd jobs have caused them to put off having a wedding reception for the past 12 years.
Holding his wife’s hand to enter the hall, Son smiled happily in tears, while the bride also cried happily.
“Finally, I can give the ring to my wife. The moment was sacred,” Son said.
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| Nguyen Thi Linh Phuong (C, first row) and her husband Huynh Minh Phung (R, first row), a couple at the special wedding ceremony, pose for a photo with their family members. Photo: Courtesy of the organizer |
During the mass wedding ceremony, couples watered tree pots instead of pouring wine as per convention.
Each guest attending the ceremony was given a pack of seeds with a message of contributing to nurturing the happiness of the couples.
Ho Le Anh Nguyet, head of the organizing board of the wedding ceremony, shared that the packs of seeds symbolized the community’s wishes to the couples and were expected to grow and bloom.
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| A couple waters a tree pot at the wedding ceremony. Photo: Courtesy of organizer |
They chose to hold the wedding ceremony for the disabled couples because, no matter what a person looks like, love is always beautiful and worth honoring.
They wanted to realize the dream of the disadvantaged.
Vo Van Anh, chairman of an association of handicapped people in Ho Chi Minh City, said the mass wedding coincided with the 31st anniversary of the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, so it was more humane.
He hoped that similar ceremonies would be held in the future.
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