Grieving Taiwanese man marries late girlfriend's ASHES in emotional 'ghost wedding'
A man from Taiwan was so distraught over the death of his late girlfriend that he recently married her ashes after she had been cremated.
As well as having a wedding in Hsinchu village, he also had a farewell ceremony in front of dozens of the couples friends and family, reports The People's Daily Online.
The man from Taichung, known by the name Mr Lai, is understood to have wanted to show his commitment to his late girlfriend – whose name is not known – by marrying her even after she died.
It is not unheard of in Asia to have a 'ghost marriage,' where a dying or dead man will be arranged to marry a female corpse to keep him happy in afterlife.
However, marrying an urn with a wedding dress attached might be taking it to the next level.
A video documenting the ceremony has appeared online and is widely reported.
In the 60-second video, Mr Lai is wearing a white suit and dark sunglasses under the white silk altar.
He is tightly holding onto the black-and-gold urn which is filled with incense and has a white wedding dress attached to the lower half of it.
He wears white gloves as a wedding band is placed on his finger whilst relatives look on.
It is hard to understand what is being said during the ceremony as music was placed over the video when it was put online.
The person marrying Mr Lai and his girlfriends ashes places a light piece of red cloth over the urn. Then the camera cuts to the grieving friends and family outside, everyone is wearing white.
All the people surrounding Mr Lai are visibly upset as they wipe away the tears from their eyes.
After the ceremony they walk through the streets with the incense burning away and get into a wedding car before driving off.
The death of Mr Lai's girlfriend has not been reported, and it remains a mystery as to how she passed away.
Some people online in Taiwan have been speculating that she committed suicide after his infidelity, but this is just a rumour.
Her death has sparked controversy in Taiwan as Mr Lai has reportedly refused to talk about how she died. But he did say he had the ghost marriage with her ashes to relieve his pain.
In a letter he sincerely thanked all the friends and hoped to let the bride to go without care with the angels.
'Ghost marriages' are an ancient custom in China - but they are now illegal and carry jail sentences of up to three years for anyone who steals a dead female body.
The families who buy the dead female bodies do so in order to satisfy tradition by carrying out a marriage service with a living or dead man.
Ghost marriages are sometimes carried out to fulfil the requirement that a dead man should not pass into the afterlife without a wife.
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